Our Kindergarten program is the best in the area! Columbia Elementary School offers all-day kindergarten which is a dynamic energetic caring program that prepares your child for school success and lifelong learning. Please call CES at (517) 592-6632 to register your child for kindergarten. (Your child must be 5 by September 1st to begin Kindergarten or the Young 5’s Program may be considered.)

In 2012, Michigan law amended the Revised School Code, changing the minimum age requirement for a child enrolling in Kindergarten. For the 2023-2024 school year, this legislation dictates that a student must be five years old by September 1st to be eligible for enrollment in Kindergarten. If the child is not eligible for enrollment and will be five years old by December 1st, parents or legal guardians can apply for a waiver to enroll their student under the following criteria:

• If the child resides in the school district, the waiver request form must be submitted to the school no later than June 1st before the beginning of the school year.

• If the child becomes a school district resident after June 1st, the waiver request form must be submitted no later than August 1st before the beginning of the school year.

Please click here to obtain the Kindergarten Notification Request form.

Kindergarten is such an exciting year! We are so thankful to join you in making your child love school and continue to develop their skills!

Is your child ready for Kindergarten?
Below is a SKILL checklist that may help decide whether or not your child is ready for Kindergarten.

• Kindergarten Readiness Checklist

The Columbia Elementary Young 5’s program is a program designed to meet the educational and developmental needs of children who turn five years old after September 1st of a given calendar year, but who are not yet ready for a traditional Kindergarten Program.

The program is being developed in response to a perceived need in the community for a program that bridges the gap between preschool and an ever more demanding Kindergarten curriculum, especially for those children on the younger end of the five-year-old spectrum. The introduction of the all-day, every day Kindergarten program may also contribute to the need for such a program.

The program is child-centered and provides additional time for emotional, social, intellectual, and physical growth through activities that foster development in these areas:

• Creative Expression: art, music, literature, and the natural world

• Social Development: interacting with others, helping, sharing, taking turns, playing cooperatively, culture, and citizenship

• Intellectual Development: thinking, planning, problem-solving, comparing, reasoning, drawing conclusions, numbers, symbols, and science

• Physical Development: small and large muscle development, nutrition, and safety

The curriculum and learning environment support the developmental needs of each student and prepares each child for success in Kindergarten the following school year.