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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Kindergarten? Transitional class? More preschool? Shifting state law and budget has parents confused - Inside Bay Area

Kindergarten? Transitional class? More preschool? Shifting state law and budget has parents confused - Inside Bay Area:

Kindergarten? Transitional class? More preschool? Shifting state law and budget has parents confused

By Sharon Noguchi snoguchi@mercurynews.com
Updated: 01/26/2012 10:17:30 PM PST

For decades, California parents with kids nearing their fifth birthday knew that right about now, they needed to start thinking about registering for kindergarten.

But a new law, a funding crisis and California's Byzantine budgeting ways have turned that certainty on its head. Not only parents, but also schools and even state officials are confused about who can start school in August.

It used to be that children turning 5 years old by Dec. 2 could enroll in kindergarten that year. A new state law rolls back that cutoff date to Nov. 1 this year and orders districts to offer a year of "transitional kindergarten" for children left out.


Math festival for children will be Sunday at UC Berkeley

By Pamela Gocobachi
Correspondent

Students in grades 6-12 who enjoy solving puzzling math problems are invited to attend the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival hosted by UC Berkeley on Sunday.¿

Participants will work with teachers, professors and graduate students to use math skills to solve fun problems for a chance to win prizes such as books and games.

The festival, named for former UC Berkeley math professor Julia Robinson, aims to share the joys and wonders of math with Bay Area children. Robinson made significant contributions to the solution of Hilbert's Tenth Problem from Hilbert's famous list of the most important mathematical problems for the 20th century.