Yeah where I'm from elementary school is up to 5th grade, and you get a promotion from 5th to 6th grade. Then middle school is 6-8th with promotion from 8th to 9th. Our formal was right before promotion, so it was like prom but styled like a HS HC.
This talk about crazy moms and school districts is so funny to me. County has A LOT of $$, being in one of the top ten richest counties in the country. Like every freshman gets a Macbook air. Not to mention grant money and booster money is used for a lot of the freebies. We have a school alumni foundation that gives over a million dollars worth of scholarship money, donated from former students, staff and community members. Grad is at Constitution Hall for every school in the county and students have to ride the bus there. The only thing that is fundraised are HC and prom. The SGA raises money for prom from freshman year to senior year, so the quality of your prom is based on your student gov. The more money you raise the more lavish senior year can be. We had so much $$ that our prom was in a 4-star hotel, and basically free. So while parents are super crazy, its not so much in the realm of school activities but in life in general.