Is it true that children in Pennsylvania don't have to receive an education until 8 years old?

Question

Does that mean Pennsylvania view children under 8 years old as preschoolers? When I was young, I didn't want to go to school. I think it's better for children to start school later. Older children are emotionally mature for school. In New York, children MUST go to first grade. But in Pennsylvania, children don't have to go to first grade or second grade. They just start from the third grade. I think I would have been better if I started school in 3rd grade. Children in Pennsylvania can go to day care center longer since they don't have to attend school until 3rd grade. Day care center is so much fun. It's better than being in a school.

http://www.papartnerships.org/pdfs/b-8_first-third_grades.pdf

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0112617.html
That's the website that told me this. The second link is the state compulsory law which states that in Pennsylvania is 8 years old.

Answer 1

Hi Jessica. I believe that allot of states offer this "exception" to the normal school laws...however, Pennsylvania does read that the child(ren) must be "registered" by the age of 8.
In Florida, they must be registered by the age of 5 and begin Kindergarten at age 5. A parent may hold their child back in Kindergarten or lst Grade in Florida. After the lst grade, our laws and the psychologists feel that it is detrimental for the child to hold them back past the 1st grade.
Now you do here all the time on the news about kids "being held back because of FCAT scores" here in Florida in the 3rd and 8th grade....HOWEVER few are truly held back. There are so many ways that parents can have their child promoted besides the normal "academically promoted" qualification. If the child shows "one years worth of improvement as stated on their IEP" then they can be promoted by the district. (Ah so many rules....)
Our oldest son was actually only 4 years old when he started Kindergarden and we were not sure if he would succeed. He loved going to school however and graduated with a full academic scholarship this past June and was only 17 years old. He is now in college on that scholarship. I actually let him do the Summer B semester before his Fall classes started because he was so bored after his High School Graduation and missed school. LOL LOL I don't believe the child is well. LOL Now he is complaining because he has his college classes on Monday, Wednesday & Fridays and studies on Tuesdays, Thursday etc....but I do believe he will sign up for classes on Tuesday & Thrusdays before to long & he is already taking 5 Honors classes. I'm sure the kid is ill. LOL
However, with his dedication to school, it has helped our younger son with his academics in High School and if you recall, he does has learning disabilities from brain lesions. So when our younger son, see his brother, so excited about school, it makes him more excited.

Daycare is fun, but you learn so much in school IF THE TEACHERS are caring and the child is placed in the proper setting. Our youngest son was actually helped the most by the same teacher that had him in both 2nd and 3rd grade. She realized that he was trying his best & still struggling and that began all the testing for our son. So I guess if he would have started in the 3rd grade...we may not have know how to help him as much as we do today. Does that make sense?

It turly depends on the teachers teaching the classrooms in the elementary school. I remember when our boys both graduated from Elementary School...they read a poem about "Everything You Need to Know in Life...You Learn in Kindergarden." How true. See if you can google this and get the words. If I get time later, I will try to find this for you and add this in. :-)
Have a terrific evening. Many blessings, Patti
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All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kingergarten
By: Robert Fulghum

All I really need to know I learnd in kindergarten.
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do
and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Kindergarten. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say your sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint an sign and dance and play
and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Godlfish and Hamsters and White mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.

And then remember the Dic-and Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

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Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
By Robert Fulghum 1990.
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Answer 2

My children all go to Philadelphia public schools.

You can start kindergarden when your are 5 (which most kids do).

The law is that you must be registered in school before you are 8 yrs old. That means if your child is 5 and he/she is not ready for school academically than you can wait.

Answer 3

I go to school in pennsylvania, and uhh i've never heard that.

But geez, why wouldn't you want to go to school when you were little? I looooved school! learning is so much fun when you're that age. I actually only had one sick day per year from the time i was in preschool until 5th grade.

now i seriously have like 10 a year haha.

Answer 4

not true they start school at age 4 or 5 like everywhere else. 4 is pre k 5 is kindergarten whoever told you that was seriously misinformed

my dad lives there and raised my sister and brother there

Answer 5

here in ny you dont have to send your kids to school until; first grade but if you did that it would be nearly impossible for the kid to finish the first grade and move on. They learn how to read books in K