Some Charters Impose Earlier Kindergarten Cutoff Dates - SchoolBook The New York Post reports this Tuesday morning that some charter schools have moved up their cutoff entry date for kindergarten to as early as Aug. 31, meaning children who have birthdays after that date must wait out a year before applying or attend kindergarten elsewhere. The Post cites the examples of Amber Charter School of East Harlem and VOICE Charter School of New York in Long Island City, Queens. Both set their cutoff date as Sept. The Post writes: The move leaves the youngest batch of 5-year-olds - who education experts say often struggle the most academically - to either sit out a year or attend traditional district schools, even though charter schools are fully taxpayer-funded. The practice at Voice Charter was tabled after parents complained, The Post writes. One parent, Valerie Lamour, a member of the District 30 Community Education Council in Queens, whose son's birthday is in December, told The Post: "If the DOE is going to offer kindergarten to all 5-year-olds who are residents, then charter schools that operate within our district also need to adhere to the same rule." DOE officials said they believe charter schools are allowed to determine their own admissions deadlines because they're technically considered to be independent districts. The Post also reports that the state on Monday approved its application for a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law. And calling it a "new phase in closure protests," Gotham Schools reports that hundreds of students at William E. Grady Vocational and Technical Education High School walked out on Monday to protest the city's "turnaround" plan for the school - meaning the mayor wants it to shut down at the end of this school year and reopen with as much as half of its staff replaced and a new name. The protest plan was devised by members of the student government, and Gotham writes: Even one of the dozens of police officers who had been summoned to make sure the rally did not get out of hand showed compassion, telling a group of students, "I sympathize for you guys, I really do. I had two sons who graduated from here. A more complete roundup of what's in the news this Tuesday morning can be found in Gotham's Rise & Shine morning post.