[gblake]

Originally Posted by Mr V

No FIRST's official ages/suggested grades do have overlap to allow people to participate in the program that best suits them.
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For all of the programs the lower age is a suggested minimum or "soft bottom" meaning that it is fine for a younger student to participate if the leader(s) of the team think that person is mature enough, has the skills, or will just benefit in general from that particular program. Try to register a student in STIMs that is older than a program cut off and it will be rejected but you can register a student that is younger than the suggested minimum age.

Thanks! Mr V. That is exactly how I thought/recalled FIRST HQ runs things.

Originally Posted by Mr V

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In the case of my former FRC team we were at a 10-12 HS and the official policy was that since FRC was intended for 9-12 9th grade students that attended our 8-9 Jr HS were welcome to participate even after that school started a FTC team. At that school the 8th grade students were allowed to participate before FIRST officially changed the recommended min age/grade for FTC. Since that time we have had an 8th grade student that participated on both the Jr HS FTC team and the HS FRC team. ...

Thanks again Mr V. This is exactly the sort of control that schools exercise all the time over student participation on/in any school team or other activity, whether it's the drama club, a senior field trip, or a robotics team.

And, this is why I and others readers are wondering what situation FiM's proposed age/grade changes are supposed to fix or improve. We can't imagine the schools needed their help, and I can't imagine a large groundswell of requests from non-school teams (maybe I need a better imagination? ).