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State Rep. Earline Parmon, a Winston-Salem Democrat and former school administrator, said teachers across the state have told her that letting 4-year-olds into kindergarten has long concerned them.

"In many cases, children who enter kindergarten at 4 years old are less mature than the 5-year-olds," she said. "We think this will help students be able to compete better with their peers."

Out of necessity, such generalities often form the basis of public policy. But often they don't hold true for individual children and their families.

Families' choices

Parents such as Laura and Mark Gunter of Raleigh, whose daughter Sloane turns 5 on Oct. 1, wrestle every year with whether to send their fall babies to school.

The Gunters have decided to let Sloane start kindergarten this fall at Lacy Elementary School off Raleigh's Lake Boone Trail, where her older brother Graham, 6, already is a student.

"It came down to us feeling like she's ready," said Mrs. Gunter, a part-time real-estate agent. "She has always held her own with older kids."

Making the start of school the cutoff for turning 5 probably makes the most sense overall, Gunter said, but it's not obviously the right solution for everyone.

"Someday my daughter will be 14, in school with kids turning 16," she said. "She'll be the last one to drive. But people I know who have held their kids back have told me, 'You know, they're not progressing.' "

The cutoff proposal might not progress much, either.

For the idea to advance this year, lawmakers have to bend their rules against taking up new issues unrelated to the state's budget in their even-year "short sessions." The House did that Tuesday, passing a resolution allowing the introduction soon of a bill to make the change.

The state Senate, which hasn't yet considered that resolution, would have to go along with it before the bill's merits could be debated, first in committees.

"There's no telling whether or not they'll bring it up this session," said Tony Caravano, spokesman for Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat. "There are probably a million bills that people would like to have brought up."

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