Kindergarten Procedure

In the Province of Ontario, district school boards shall offer Kindergarten.

A child has the right to attend Junior Kindergarten on September 1 in the calendar year in which the child turns 4 years old. This means that a child can attend at the minimum age of 3 years and 8 months.

A child has the right to attend Kindergarten on September 1 in the calendar year in which the child turns 5 years old. This means that a child can attend at the minimum age of 4 years and 8 months old. 

A child may begin attending Junior Kindergarten or Kindergarten at any time during the school year with registration and proper documentation. 

If at any point during the school year a parent chooses to transition his or her child from part-time to full-time attendance in Kindergarten, the child has the right to attend full-time. 

Children are not required to attend school until the age of 6. Therefore, it is optional for parents to enrol their children before they reach that age. In addition, parents may be eligible to have their child attend Kindergarten on a part-time basis. School boards will work with the family at the school level to determine the best schedule for that child. If a child turns 6 after the first day of the school year, the child is not required to attend until the following school year. 

Where a student under compulsory school age (age 6) has been enrolled as a pupil in an elementary school, school attendance applies during the period for which the student is enrolled as if he or she were of compulsory age.

“The Ontario Early Years Policy Framework", released in 2013 and also based on ELECT, set the stage for the creation of the new early years system, providing a vision to ensure that children, from birth to age six, would have the best possible start in life. The policy framework guides Ontario’s approach to the development and delivery of early years programs and services for children and families.

How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years, released in 2014, built on this policy 
framework. It sets out a fundamental understanding of children, families, and educators that is shared by educators across child care and education settings, and a pedagogical framework that supports children’s transition from child care to Kindergarten and the elementary grades.

The present document – The Kindergarten Program (2016) – sets out principles, expectations for learning, and pedagogical approaches that are developmentally appropriate for four- and five-year-old children and that align with and extend the approaches outlined in How Does Learning Happen?”

The Kindergarten Program (2016)

Pre-registration for students new to Kindergarten begins on the second Monday in January. Students who are already enrolled in a Durham District School Board Kindergarten Year 1 class will automatically be placed in a Kindergarten Year 2 class for the next school year. Parents must submit a New Student Registration Form in the DDSB Online Registration system. Once submitted, parents will receive an email confirming that their request for registration has been received. The confirmation email will include the Director’s Welcome Letter. 

The information submitted through the online form will be reviewed by the school. The school will contact the parents to request proof of child’s age, address and child’s immunization record to complete the registration.

Kindergarten pre-registrations will be dated and timed and separate lists will be kept for in-area students, and out-of-area students. All out-of-area requests will be initiated by parents/guardians and will adhere to DDSB ‘Permission to Enroll a Resident Internal Student Procedure’. Maximum class size is as per the current elementary collective agreement. If the number of students pre-registered for a class exceeds the class size limit, some students may be required to attend another school. The Board’s transportation policy includes Kindergarten students.

Registration will take place in February and March at the local school on dates and times determined by the school. Parents will provide the required documentation to the school as requested by the school after the submission of the New Student Registration Form. Once the documentation is reviewed and verified, the registration will be electronically approved by the school and delivered to the Student Information System. 

Registration packages will be sent to the schools during the first week of January and supplementary documents will be uploaded to the DDSB portal.

Parents/guardians will complete the Durham District School Board:

• Kindergarten Parent Questionnaire
• Immunization Information Form

Parents/guardians will provide to the school:

• Proof of the child's age
• Proof of the child'simmunization
• Proof of address

Parents/guardians will receive:

• Welcome to Kindergarten Parent Registration and Information PackageFolder
• Welcoming Letter - Director of Education
• Durham Region Health Department Brochure - How Well Does Your Child - Hear? See? Speak?
• DDSB Speech and Language Kindergarten Information Package 
• School Community Councils Information Brochure 
• Kindergarten Overall expectations handout 
• FNMI Student Self-Identification Form 
• DDSB – Role of Parents 
• My Toilet Learning Resource 
• English Language Learners (ELL) in Kindergarten

School Information
Schools may include in the folders:

• Welcoming Letter - Principal/Kindergarten Educator Team 
• School Profile
• School Community Council Information
• Durham District School Board - Let’s Work TogetherBrochure
• Durham District School Board - Let’s Talk About ... Your Child’s Success
• Federation Brochures
• Public Health Information
• Parent/Child Activities for Home

All Kindergarten students will be in attendance on the first day of school in September.

“The Kindergarten program is a child-centred, developmentally appropriate, integrated program of learning for 
four- and five-year-old children. The purpose of the program is to establish a strong foundation for learning in theearly years, and to do so in a safe and caring, play-based environment that promotes the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of all children.” (The Kindergarten Program (2016)) All schools will offer a full day Kindergarten program, every day. Kindergarten is a blended program of four and five-year-old students.

Noon hour supervision for all schools is provided as outlined in Durham District School Board Procedure #3020 and the allocation is as follows: