When to Start

Under Connecticut State Law, children must be age 5 on or before January 1st to attend public school that year, and thus could start Kindergarten as early as 4 years and 9 months old.  As a result, most nursery school programs require that the child must turn 3 by January 1st to ensure a fall start of that same year and thus could start a Pre-K 3 program at a school year program as early as 2 years and 9 months old.

Note that year-round childcare centers and family childcare providers offer a preschool curriculum for 3 and 4 year olds and can take children as young as 6 weeks if they have an infant/toddler program. So if you need care to work your child does not need to sign up for both childcare and a school year nursery/preschool program.

So, when can your child start school? This chart shows when they are eligible based on their birth year. Note if the child is born on January 1st then subtract 1 from their birth year to use this chart.

Birth Year	Pre-K 3	Pre-K 4	Kindergarten
2017	Fall 2020	Fall 2021	Fall 2022
2018	Fall 2021	Fall 2022	Fall 2023
2019	Fall 2022	Fall 2023	Fall 2024
2020	Fall 2023	Fall 2024	Fall 2025
2021	Fall 2024	Fall 2025	Fall 2026
2022	Fall 2025	Fall 2026	Fall 2027
2023	Fall 2026	Fall 2027	Fall 2028
2024	Fall 2027	Fall 2028	Fall 2029

Preschool enrollment begins during the winter-early spring of the start year, depending on the program. See the Preschool Options or Kindergarten Registration pages for specific registration dates. Most year-round childcare providers accept children at any time, based on availability, but will have more openings at the end of the summer as the 4 year olds in their care leave for kindergarten and the other classes move up.