Minnesota supports the educational success of all young children. Enrolling a child in kindergarten is a milestone in a child’s education. 5 year-old children are experiencing rapid changes in their development. Kindergarten provides a free, high-quality learning opportunity that supports them and lays a foundation for school success.

Eligibility for Kindergarten in Minnesota

According to Minnesota law, children are eligible for kindergarten when they:

• Are at least 5 years of age by September 1 of the year of entrance into kindergarten (Minnesota Statutes, section 120A.20);
• Have received early childhood screening through their school district. Children may also meet this requirement by participating in a comparable health and developmental screening program provided by Head Start, Child and Teen Checkups or through a health care provider. If a parent is a conscientious objector to the screening program for their child, the child does not need to participate in the state screening program. (Minnesota Statutes, section 121A.17).
• Have received medically acceptable immunizations (Minnesota Statutes, section 121A.15)

Kindergarten entrance tests or birthdays should not determine enrollment into kindergarten. For example if a child turns five in the summer before kindergarten, they are still eligible.

Kindergarten is not mandatory in Minnesota and families can choose to enroll their child. However, kindergarten offers an important school experience and enrollment is strongly encouraged.

Every Child is Ready to Learn in Kindergarten

Children are always learning and all children are ready to begin kindergarten by age 5. Districts, schools and teachers support the kindergarten entry of all children and families who come from different cultures, linguistic backgrounds and a wide-variety of early childhood education or child care.

As 5 year olds, children are experiencing significant changes in their development. Children arrive to kindergarten at different points in their learning progression. It is important not to decide a child’s potential for school success as children’s brains are rapidly developing during this age. Schools and kindergarten teachers build on each child's strengths in a developmentally appropriate way.

Kindergarten teachers have a critical role in supporting how children learn best. Watch our latest kindergarten video to hear three educators discuss the shift in children’s development and ways to create effective and engaging classrooms to support changes in children’s development.

Kindergarten Plays an Important Role in Educational Equity

Kindergarten provides children with a safe, culturally responsive, and developmentally appropriate environment and the opportunity to receive a world-class education. Kindergarten offers access to opportunities for all children and families including developmentally appropriate, evidence-based instruction and programming; interaction with similar-aged peers; and meal services, transportation, and out-of-school programs.

Kindergarten offers foundational school experience that supports the success of each student. The Successful Student Equation (below) highlights how important it is for adults to work together to support all students. All students are ready to learn and it is the responsibility and obligation of schools to support them and their families.

Ready Families + Ready Schools and Programs + Ready Communities + Ready System + Ready State = Successful Students

The Kindergarten Academic Standards

The Kindergarten Academic Standards provide the foundation of what children should know at the end of the kindergarten year, not the how kindergarten students receive instruction. Kindergarten eligible children are not expected to meet these standards when they begin kindergarten. Schools must support and guide the learning of each child to meet each standard in a developmentally appropriate way during kindergarten and throughout their school experience. Standards are designed to support the learning and development of all children.

The Kindergarten Academic Standards are aligned with Early Childhood Indicators of Progress: Minnesota’s Early Learning Standards to help ensure a seamless transition between early learning and child care programs and kindergarten. Standards are designed for supporting the learning and development of all children.

Full-Day Kindergarten is Available to All School Districts and Charter Schools

Full-day kindergarten provides a crucial opportunity for Minnesota’s younger learners to build upon their prekindergarten or other early learning experiences. Minnesota is committed to continuing in-depth, age-appropriate learning for all kindergarten students. Full-day kindergarten sustains the earlier gains made in students’ development of their cognitive, social, emotional and physical skills. Funding is available to every school district and charter school to provide full-day kindergarten. Approximately 99 percent of Minnesota’s kindergarten students attend full-day kindergarten. View Minnesota Statutes, section 126C.05, Subdivision 1(d), on funding full-day kindergarten.

Requirements for Early Entrance into Kindergarten

• Children who are not yet 5 years old on or before September 1 may be considered for early entrance into kindergarten. Minnesota Statutes, section 124D.02, allows for school boards to permit selected children early admission into kindergarten if there is an early admission policy established by the school board. View the Minnesota Statute on early kindergarten entrance.
• Requires a school board that has adopted a policy to allow a child under the age of 5 to enroll in kindergarten to establish a comprehensive evaluation procedure to be used to help determine the child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development and the child's ability to meet kindergarten grade expectations and progress to first grade the following year.
• The comprehensive evaluation for early entrance into kindergarten must:
  • Use valid and reliable instrumentation
  • Be aligned with state kindergarten expectations
  • Include a parent report and teacher observations of the child's knowledge, skills and abilities
• Minnesota Statutes requires parents and the commissioner to have access to the school board’s early kindergarten admission policy. Charter schools must post the early entrance policy on their website. The early entrance policy is subject to a Minnesota Department of Education audit.

Kindergarten Students and Gifted Education Programs

• Children who enter kindergarten through early entrance may also be considered gifted and talented through an assessment process.
• Minnesota Statutes requires districts to adopt procedures for early admission to kindergarten or first grade for gifted and talented learning. View the Minnesota Statute for early admission for select students who are identified as gifted and talented.
• Minnesota Statutes also requires board-adopted policies for early admission to kindergarten to be based on a comprehensive evaluation to determine the child’s ability to meet kindergarten expectations and progress to first grade the following year.

Watch a two-minute video guide to effective kindergarten assessment: "What is an administrator’s role in kindergarten assessment?"
 

• Kindergarten Eligibility and Enrollment Brief - 6/29/21
  This brief clarifies the statutory definition of kindergarten eligibility in Minnesota and provides answers to frequently asked questions about eligibility and enrollment in kindergarten.
• Assessment of Young Gifted Learners for Early Entrance to Kindergarten or First Grade - 4/23/20
  
•  - 2/26/14
  Responses to Frequently Asked Questions about full-day kindergarten in Minnesota districts (January 2014)