National aggregator · 2026–27
Kindergarten cutoff dates by state — 2026–27 school year.
The single sortable table you can cite or embed. Children must turn 5 by their state's cutoff to start kindergarten that fall — 21 states use September 1, but several use earlier or later dates, and 6 leave it to local districts. Cutoffs range from West Virginia's July 1 to Maine's October 15, so the same birthday can put a child a full grade apart across a state line.
All 50 states + DC, sortable
| State | Abbr. | Cutoff date | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | AL | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Alabama State Dept. of Education |
| Alaska | AK | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Alaska Dept. of Education and Early Development |
| Arizona | AZ | August 31 | Children must turn 5 before September 1 — in practice, on or before August 31. | Arizona Dept. of Education |
| Arkansas | AR | August 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before August 1. | Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education |
| California | CA | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | California Department of Education |
| Colorado | CO | varies | Colorado sets no statewide kindergarten cutoff — each district adopts its own. Most use a date in August or September. | Colorado Dept. of Education |
| Connecticut | CT | September 1 | Connecticut moved its cutoff from January 1 to September 1 starting in 2024–25 — one of the largest cutoff changes any state has made. | Connecticut State Dept. of Education |
| Delaware | DE | August 31 | Children must turn 5 on or before August 31. | Delaware Dept. of Education |
| District of Columbia | DC | September 30 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 30. | DC Public Schools |
| Florida | FL | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Florida DOE |
| Georgia | GA | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Georgia Dept. of Education |
| Hawaii | HI | July 31 | Children must turn 5 on or before July 31 — one of the earliest cutoffs in the country. | Hawaii Dept. of Education |
| Idaho | ID | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Idaho State Dept. of Education |
| Illinois | IL | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Illinois State Board of Education |
| Indiana | IN | August 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before August 1. | Indiana Dept. of Education |
| Iowa | IA | September 15 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 15. | Iowa Dept. of Education |
| Kansas | KS | August 31 | Children must turn 5 on or before August 31. | Kansas State Dept. of Education |
| Kentucky | KY | August 1 | Children must turn 5 before August 1. | Kentucky Dept. of Education |
| Louisiana | LA | September 30 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 30. | Louisiana Dept. of Education |
| Maine | ME | October 15 | Children must turn 5 on or before October 15 — the latest fixed cutoff of any state. | Maine Dept. of Education |
| Maryland | MD | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Maryland State Dept. of Education |
| Massachusetts | MA | varies | Massachusetts sets no statewide cutoff — each district establishes its own minimum age for school attendance. | Massachusetts DESE |
| Michigan | MI | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1 — but Michigan gives parents an unusually strong early-entry right for later birthdays. | Michigan Dept. of Education |
| Minnesota | MN | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Minnesota Dept. of Education |
| Mississippi | MS | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Mississippi Dept. of Education |
| Missouri | MO | August 1 | Children must turn 5 before August 1. | Missouri DESE |
| Montana | MT | September 10 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 10. | Montana Office of Public Instruction |
| Nebraska | NE | July 31 | Children must turn 5 on or before July 31 — one of the earliest cutoffs in the country. | Nebraska Dept. of Education |
| Nevada | NV | August 1 | Nevada moved its cutoff from September 30 to August 1 under A.B. 65 (2023), creating a single uniform statewide enrollment date. | Nevada Dept. of Education |
| New Hampshire | NH | varies | New Hampshire is the one state with no kindergarten entrance age in statute or regulation at all — the date is entirely a local district decision. | NH Dept. of Education |
| New Jersey | NJ | October 1 | A child who is 5 by October 1 has a statutory right to enroll where kindergarten is offered. Districts may adopt policies admitting younger children, so the practical date can be earlier. | NJ Dept. of Education |
| New Mexico | NM | September 1 | Children must turn 5 before September 1. | New Mexico Public Education Dept. |
| New York | NY | December 1 | New York districts set their own kindergarten entrance age. December 1 is the statewide reference date in Education Law; New York City uses December 31. | NYSED |
| North Carolina | NC | August 31 | Children must turn 5 on or before August 31. | NC Dept. of Public Instruction |
| North Dakota | ND | July 31 | Children must turn 5 before August 1 — in practice, on or before July 31. | ND Dept. of Public Instruction |
| Ohio | OH | the first day of school | Ohio changed its rule for 2026–27: a child must turn 5 on or before their district’s first day of instruction. Districts no longer pick between August 1 and September 30. | Ohio Department of Education and Workforce |
| Oklahoma | OK | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Oklahoma State Dept. of Education |
| Oregon | OR | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Oregon Dept. of Education |
| Pennsylvania | PA | varies | Pennsylvania sets only a floor: a child must be more than 4 years old before the first day. Each district picks its own entrance date above that, and most use September 1. | PA Dept. of Education |
| Rhode Island | RI | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | RI Dept. of Education |
| South Carolina | SC | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | SC Dept. of Education |
| South Dakota | SD | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | SD Dept. of Education |
| Tennessee | TN | August 15 | Children must turn 5 on or before August 15. | TN Dept. of Education |
| Texas | TX | September 1 | Children must be 5 on or before September 1. | Texas Education Agency |
| Utah | UT | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | Utah State Board of Education |
| Vermont | VT | varies | Vermont law sets the outer limit at January 1, but each district may require a child to turn 5 by any date between August 31 and January 1 — the widest legal spread of any state. | Vermont Agency of Education |
| Virginia | VA | September 30 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 30. | Virginia Dept. of Education |
| Washington | WA | August 31 | Children must turn 5 on or before August 31. | OSPI (Washington) |
| West Virginia | WV | July 1 | Children must turn 5 before July 1 — the earliest kindergarten cutoff in the United States. West Virginia moved to this date in 2019–20. | WV Dept. of Education |
| Wisconsin | WI | September 1 | Children must turn 5 on or before September 1. | WI Dept. of Public Instruction |
| Wyoming | WY | August 1 | Wyoming moved its cutoff from September 15 to August 1 under H.B. 0174. September 15 now matters only as the outer limit for an early-admission request. | Wyoming Dept. of Education |
Methodology + sources
Every cutoff is checked against the state's own entrance-age statute or regulation, which is cited on that state's page. We cross-check against the Education Commission of the States 50-state comparisons and each state's Department of Education.
Consumer "kindergarten cutoff by state" lists are frequently wrong and disagree with each other. A re-verification in August 2026 found six states whose widely-republished cutoff no longer matched the law — Connecticut, Nevada, Wyoming, Nebraska, West Virginia and Ohio. If a date here differs from another chart, check the statute we cite before assuming we're the ones who are out of date.
Per-state Departments of Education (linked from each row).