Aspen, CO: Districts move up kindergarten age cutoff; decrease in school readiness

Nov 20, 2025, Aspen Daily News: School districts move up kindergarten enrollment age cutoff 

https://www.aspendailynews.com/news/school-districts-move-up-kindergarten-enrollment-age-cutoff/article_a1fc3422-1580-4b81-b65d-f03c729188dc.amp.html

The Aspen, Roaring Fork and Garfield 16 school districts are moving up enrollment cutoff dates for kindergarten in the 2026-27 academic year.

Students now must be 5 years old by Aug. 1 to enroll in kindergarten at the Aspen School District. To enroll in kindergarten at Roaring Fork or Garfield 16 school districts, students must be 5 years old by Aug. 15. Before the districts’ superintendents convened to discuss moving up the enrollment cutoff date, children enrolling in either Aspen, Roaring Fork or Garfield 16 had to be 5 years old by Oct. 1 to enroll in kindergarten.

“We’re seeing a need to be kindergarten-ready, and thought that this was a good way to ensure that,” ASD Superintendent Tharyn Mulberry said. 

According to the Roaring Fork School District’s website, district leaders believe children who are 5 years old by the time they start kindergarten are “better prepared for success in both the academic and social aspects of formal schooling.”

Preschool students who turn 5 after the cutoff date in 2026 may still be allowed to enroll in kindergarten. Mulberry said ASD is allowing families who may not meet the cutoff but were gearing up to enroll their children into kindergarten to do so while the district rolls out the new deadline next year. 

Before the decision was made, Mulberry said only four students who had enrolled in kindergarten for the 2026-27 academic year would have been affected. Those four students were still accepted for the upcoming academic year, he said. . . .

According to Early Milestones Colorado, a nonprofit organization that supports local and state efforts to enhance learning opportunities for young children, the share of kindergartners in the state who met or exceeded school readiness expectations in physical and motor development, mathematics, literacy and more decreased in the 2024-25 academic year from the previous year. 

The data also show that more kindergarten girls met school readiness expectations than boys. The greatest difference was in social-emotional development, where 8% more girls than boys met readiness expectations. 

The state defines school readiness as “both the preparedness of a child to engage in and benefit from learning experiences, and the ability of a school to meet the needs of all students enrolled in publicly funded kindergarten.” Every kindergarten student in a Colorado public school is assessed at the beginning of the school year to determine their school readiness plan.