Is Kindergarten Mandatory in Washington State? The Shocking Answer

I was today years old when I found out the age limit Washington state has when it comes to kids heading off to kindergarten. The last time I thought about any kid being in kindergarten was in 2016, when my darling daughter was 5.

As a kid, I had a hated my kindergarten experience. I have some mostly scarring memories:

• Getting irate when they would make me play "The Baby" during a game of playing House (because I wanted to be The Mommy)
• Getting paddlings for telling mean boys, "Shut up, you Buster!", and
• Auditioning for the lead role of Goldilocks in our kindergarten play, Goldilocks & The Three Bears.

They gave me the role of a tree. A brown tree who had no lines. In a play about Goldilocks & The Three Bears. Now do you see why I hated Kindergarten?

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My kiddo was fortunate enough to have been enrolled at Jane's House, over by the college. She had been going there since she was in the Infant Room, so when it was time for her to go to preschool, I decided to keep her there.

The Easter Seal's Jane's House preschool program was awesome, and the foundational early childhood development my child had there helped her adapt to kindergarten well, I would say.

I was today years old when I found out that Washington is the only state that doesn't require children to go to kindergarten. Did you know about this already?

I knew there was an age limit here (kids have to be 5 years old by the end of August to be admitted to kindergarten).

Washington state kids in Kindergarten will learn the following early learning curriculum, as mandated by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI):

• Art

• Block

• Literacy

• Dramatic Play

• Science

• Privacy

• Meeting/Large Group (or as I like to affectionately call it, Circle Time)

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In Washington, all children must be enrolled in school no later than age 8.

Idaho has a mandatory school enrollment age of 7, and in California and Oregon it's 6 years old.

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