Default Class Jan 1

Hi I noticed a new member born Jan 1 2004 was automatically assigned the Course 12 Sunday School class as the default class. All other children born in 2004 are assigned the Valiant 11 Primary class. I can manually change her to be with her primary class but then this would have to be done manually for the rest of her Sunday School years. Is there a way to change the default for one person?

bush2595 wrote:Hi I noticed a new member born Jan 1 2004 was automatically assigned the Course 12 Sunday School class as the default class. All other children born in 2004 are assigned the Valiant 11 Primary class.

According to Handbook 2: 11.4.3, a child's age on Jan 1 determines what class they should be in. Since she was 12 on Jan 1, she should be in Course 12.

This puts her in a class older than the kids she goes to school with.
Another problem we've run into is concerning a Nursery child whose birthday is Jan 1. Because we have such a large nursery, we've divided it by birth year. So as it goes all children born in 2013 will go to Sunbeams next year, including the child born on Jan, 1, 2013. But his default shows he should already be a Sunbeam. Do we just have to change the default each year?

bush2595 wrote:Do we just have to change the default each year?

In this case, and with the Sunday School example you gave, yes, you will have to change the class assignment each year. LCR/MLS is programmed based on the calendar year.

As you mentioned, many school years do not coincide, and some bishops make provision for that difference. But when they do, the manual assignment process is the only way to maintain the difference.

School years are shifted several months from the calendar year, so in a ward with a good number of youth, about half of the youth in Course 12 should be in one grade, and the other half should be in another grade. Unless I'm missing something mathematically, there will be a mismatch no matter where the cutoff date is, unless it's between school years.

sbradshaw wrote:Unless I'm missing something mathematically, there will be a mismatch no matter where the cutoff date is, unless it's between school years.

And the date would have to be synchronized with the local school board. Some have admission standards based on current age, others by age at the end of the calendar year. And then you've got those that have transferred in from another school system.

School systems that are based on age at the end of the calendar year should sync up pretty well with the church program.

Good evening! I just discovered that we are having this same issue in our ward as of January 2026 so I manually moved a child born on Jan. 1st down a class to get them into the correct class. Is this an issue being worked on to fix the problem, or should we plan to continue doing that manually for any January 1st birthdays?

We have a fix for this that should be released fairly soon. Then it will work correctly for move-ins and for next year.