"Ber babies" -- children born in September, October, November and December -- will still be able to enter kindergarten before they mark their 5th birthday.
The legislature's education committee this week struck a proposal that would have raised the age at which children can start kindergarten in public schools.
Under current law, children may enroll in kindergarten as long as they turn 5 by Jan. 1. But the proposed bill would have moved the cutoff date for eligibility to October 1.
"There are thousands of Connecticut children who would be disallowed from kindergarten,'' said state Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, a Democrat from West Hartford who co-chairs the education committee. "They would be losing a full year of a structured educational environment.''