I have posted this everywhere else- myspace, FrederickMommies so might as well post it here :)
Montgomery County public schools cut off date is September 1st- meaning a child has to be 5 by that date to start Kindergarten. Ofcourse Miranda's bday falls on Sept 17th!! So we are in the process of appealing to get her into Kindy next year! Here is my letter that I send in on Tuesday- keep your fingers crossed for us :)
Mr. and Mrs. Rick Rankin
Larry Bowers Chief Operating Officer
RE: Miranda Jaquelyn Rankin June 21, 2007
Dear Mr. Bowers, We would like to appeal the decision for our daughter to begin Kindergarten in the fall of 2007. We are writing to appeal the decision because Miranda is ready for Kindergarten and we feel that holding her off another year will hurt her development, as we will demonstrate in this letter. On April 26th, 2007, Miranda and I attended Kindergarten Orientation at Stedwick Elementary School. Miranda was evaluated at that time for early entrance to Kindergarten. We received a letter in the mail on May 2nd stating that it would be in Miranda's best interest to wait until the 2008/2009 academic year to begin Kindergarten. We hope that the evidence in this letter, her curriculum, and the reference letters enclosed will encourage you to reconsider her admittance into Kindergarten in the 2007/2008 academic year. We would request that you give minimal weight to Miranda’s age in your decision.
We understand that the Board of Education, which you chair, has regulations and limits to the minimal age of acceptance for Kindergarten. Miranda's birthday is September 17th, 2002, 16 days after the required date. However, we would like to give you a bit of background on Miranda. When Miranda was an infant, I ran a licensed in-home daycare center. When she was two years of age she attended a "Mom’s Morning Out" program two days a week and also started taking dance classes. Miranda attended the Moms Morning Out program until she started Preschool in the fall of 2006. Miranda has enjoyed her dance classes at Cloppers Mill Dance Center for the past three years and is continuing on into the Five and Six year old Ballet and Tap 2 class in September of 2007. The other children in her class will all be attending Kindergarten in the fall. Our family has also attended church at Seneca Creek Community Church for the past three years, where Miranda is currently attending preschool services exposing her to a similar structured learning situation, and is set to move up to Kindergarten services with the rest of her class in September 2007. We have also taken the time to collect and enclose letters of reference from the director of the Mom's Morning Out program, the children's ministry pastor at our church, and her dance instructor from the 2006-2007 school year.
Miranda has also been a student of the Montgomery County Public School System during the 2006-2007 school year by participating in the Child Development Program at Watkins Mill High School where she easily adjusted to the routine and enjoyed the structure of the program. During the school year, there were no issues raised from teachers or instructors against her performance as a student. My husband and I have spoken to her teacher, Ms. Benya, previously and she agreed that Miranda was academically, emotionally, and socially ready to begin Kindergarten with the rest of her peers in August 2007. Unfortunately, Ms. Benya is off for her summer vacation and was not able to provide us with a letter of reference, but I am sure that you would be able to contact her if needed.
As Miranda's mother and father, we wanted to take this opportunity to present you with the facts about our case. We have enclosed a copy of the Watkins Mill High School Child Development Program curriculum as well as copies of the Voluntary State Curriculum for pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten and have taken the time to highlight all of the tasks that Miranda has mastered. We strongly believe that our daughter is ready for a Kindergarten program since she has met all of the prerequisite skills needed for success in Kindergarten. We believe that both of these curriculums show that she is mentally and academically mature enough to move on. She would otherwise be forced to repeat the same program for another school year, setting her back in the opportunity to learn new and exciting things and setting her back in that maturity already obtained this year.
Miranda has a very strong love of learning and we feel that she is prepared for the public school program socially, emotionally and academically. Her desire to learn will not be encouraged by another year in the preschool program. From a different perspective our daughter spends her time with us, her two siblings and many friends, who keep her engaged in activities which enhance those skills she has acquired at school and also helps her to acquire new skills in a positive environment. Our daughter is a very sociable person who enjoys being around other people outside of her home environment. She is currently very excited to learn how to read, she also enjoys going to the library on a regular basis. She is encouraged daily by her older sister who is an avid reader (one of their favorite games to play together is school). She has learned her alphabet this past school year and can recognize a majority of the upper case and lower case letters as well as match them. She enjoys spending time coming up with rhyming words and trying to spell words out on her own. She is able to write her name and has recently started to sound out and write other words on her own, such as Mom, Dad, and Avery (her sisters name). She is able to follow tasks and multi-step directions. In order to support my beliefs about Miranda’s abilities, I have enclosed referral letters from two family friends that work as Preschool, Kindergarten and First grade teachers that have spent quite a bit of time with Miranda and know from their years of teaching when a child is ready to move on from Preschool.
Based on the above facts, we are requesting that you as the Chief Operating Officer of the Board of Education give minimal weight to Miranda’s age and consider all the documentation we have provided regarding this request. We believe that Miranda is socially, emotionally, academically and physically ready for Kindergarten. Please consider all of this information in evaluating our daughter's eligibility for early entrance to Kindergarten.
If you would like to contact us, please do so at the following:
Sincerely,
_______________________ _______________________
Amber Coffey-Rankin Rick Rankin Jr. Mother Father
