Early Entrance to Kindergarten

The application requires an upload of a verification of birth (birth certificate or passport). To apply for kindergarten early entrance please click the button below once the application is live until June 5th, 2026.

Kindergarten Early Entrance Application

Only children who will turn five years old between September 1-30, 2025 are eligible, per School Board Policy 3110. 

Washington State has a uniform entry age for kindergarten (WAC 392-335-010) which states a child must be five years of age as of midnight August 31 of the year of entry to be entitled to enter kindergarten. The only exception  is our School Board Policy 3110 which allows for a special exemption and consideration to be made for students “who appear to be sufficiently advanced to succeed in the educational program.” In the Renton School District, this is determined by our Early Entrance assessment.

The 2023 kindergarten early entrance testing will be in-person and in alignment with Public Health's COVID-19 safety protocols.

Because of School Board Policy 3110, it is our job to determine if students are “sufficiently advanced to succeed in the educational program.”  This is important because we want to ensure students start their school career successfully.  Additionally, recent research suggests that students who start school early often have difficulty with self-regulation, inattention, and hyperactivity (Dee & Sievertsen, 2015, Stocking, 2015)

Every child is different, so it takes different lengths of time to complete the assessment.  Students who complete the assessment quickly qualify as often as students who take more time to complete it.  Every child is asked the same questions during the assessment.

Please do not let your child know that the results of the assessment will determine if they go to kindergarten.  You do not want to put undue stress on them.  Additionally, a relatively low percentage of students qualify for Early Entrance to Kindergarten, and it is difficult for kids to get their hopes up only to find out they didn’t qualify.

There is NO appeal to the Early Entrance assessment.  All decisions are final, and are made in the best interest of student success.  If your child does not qualify, they will need to wait until the next school year to begin kindergarten.

The district does have a pre-school program Meadow Crest Early Learning Center.

We do not accept outside evaluations to determine if a child qualifies for Early Entrance.  The only consideration is the Early Entrance assessment given by Renton School District. 

There is no retesting process. Children who do not qualify for early entrance will need to wait until the next school year to begin Kindergarten.

The district does have a pre-school program Meadow Crest Early Learning Center.