@olivemcr Yeah, I imagine this upcoming generation having an experience of "you're 18 and an adult, but you're also still a junior in high school." I have a summer birthday, so it's very surprising to hear parents talking about holding back May kids. The school year isn't even over at that point. That's a super early cutoff.
I also wonder how this will play out in states with a cutoff in December, where people aren't redshirting kids.
@edwinoel I think the cutoffs have always varied by state? The increased rate of redshirting may be a newer phenomenon. But there have always been states where some kids would be pushing 19 by the end of senior year even without redshirting.
It does feel like something that should be standardized federally, but I guess it doesn’t seem like a big enough deal or affect enough people for that to happen. But it would suck for a New York family with a December birthday kid (not redshirted) moving to one of the states with an August or September cutoff, where redshirting is common on top of that.
I have heard kindergarten becoming more academic and generally rigorous is a big reason for the higher rates in redshirting, FWIW. It’s possible until that changes the class as a whole on average would be better off with a higher average age, just because right now the curriculum is not really designed for a just-turned-5 kid to succeed.
@olivemcr Eh, I was 19 and it was fine. I also have a late May birthday, so I only turned 19 a few weeks before graduating. I never had any problem getting along with my classmates.
@alanstranger1 I was 19 in April prior to graduation. No problems here either but it did feel strange at times being treated like a child yet feeling like an adult. I was older than half the class a year ahead of me.
@olivemcr Late May birthday. I was red shirted for a private school and then switched to public school and was a full year ahead of my peers because of it. I skipped a year of high school and graduated on my 18th birthday.
My older sister is early June birthday with the same situation but didn't graduate early. She was totally bored but kept on track with sports but graduated at 19. Kids were asking her to buy them cigarettes her senior year which didn't seem appealing to me.
I was really glad I started college at 18 and didn't wait a year.
@tincup Totally! By 19 I was already doing well in university, sharing a household with friends, working, in a loving relationship… I’m glad my graduation age didn’t hold me back from the experiences and independence that’s appropriate for that age.
@tgia413 April redshirting does not seem to be common where I am. I’ve mostly only seen it and heard it discusses for kids who are within 4-6 weeks of the cut off date. The research I’ve seen as well also focuses on comparing these very young for grade kids against kids who are almost a full year older. And personally I wouldn’t redshirt an April kid unless there was a significant developmental reason.
@tgia413 My son has an April birthday and his preschool teacher suggested red shifting him next year. However this is less to do with his age and more to do with his struggles in preK the past two years. He’s had a really rough go of it and was actually asked to leave a program last year. His teachers really think he could benefit from an extra year of maturity before starting kindergarten and I agree.
The other part that weighed on my decision is that I truly believe he’s struggling with early ADHD, but his pediatrician won’t consider diagnosis until he’s 6. I’d rather wait a year so (if he still qualifies for a diagnosis) he goes into school armed with an IEP. So in that regard, I do want him older.
If my kid was having a great time this year and I didn’t think we were potentially dealing with neurodivergence I would not even remotely consider holding him back for an April birthday.
@called2 All of that definitely makes sense, and is based on reasoning related to your child's experiences in school up until this point. It sounds like it will be really beneficial for him to have that extra year! If the teachers we've established relationships with over the past several years suggested similar to us, we would definitely be on board.
@tgia413 Personally I wouldn’t do it. I have a spring birthday child who will start kinder this fall. I have a summer bday and graduated at 17, turned 18 two months later. I really liked this and felt like I got a bonus year almost lol. My brother has a fall birthday after the cut off and had to wait a year for kinder. He was 18 when he graduated, which I think is fine since he didn’t turn 19 until the fall. I can’t imagine redshirting an April or May child and having them graduate at 19. By my 19th birthday I’d already been graduated for a year and out in the “real world”. It is much different if the child actually needs that extra year.
@tgia413 I’ll just chime in as a person with a spring birthday (who apparently would have been held back by this school): there’s no age-based reason to keep your kid from progressing with his cohort.
I was absolutely fine academically, socially, and athletically throughout my academic career and not anywhere close to the youngest or smallest in my class. I can’t begin to imagine how bored and unhappy I would have been if my parents denied me the opportunity to progress to kindergarten with my peers and insisted I join a cohort of students 6-12 months younger than me.
If your kid is ready for kindergarten (not necessarily the biggest and brightest kid in the room, but ready to learn the kindergarten curriculum) I think you’d be doing him a huge disservice by keeping him from learning what he’s ready to learn.
@tgia413 Ok I was a 4k teacher and after May is not a time to redshirt a kid. Maybe an August birthday, if parents want to have their kids repeat. Other people are giving their opinion and evidence. I just had to comment that I’m surprised she suggest MAY as a time to redshirt. Real eye brow raiser.
@tgia413 Anecdotal, but in my city the birthday cutoff for kindergarten is December 31 of that school year (ie they have to be 5 by December 31st). So the argument that a child would be “too young” with a May birthday is extra ludicrous to me.
If he’s not struggling with the class materials then there’s no reason to hold him back, in my opinion!
@mvchante That's our cutoff too, and I redshirted my son because he was born on December 28. I just couldn't send him to kindergarten when he was just over 4 1/2. I wouldn't have held him out if he had a summer birthday or even September.
@mvchante Oh wow! So my son's birthday would be almost 7 months before the cutoff in your area, making him one of the older ones in the class. Very interesting. His preschool actually has a similar cutoff - in the PreK-4 class they have to be 4 before November 1, I believe. So there are a handful of those kids who will be forced to do an extra year of PreK because they will miss the cutoff to start Kindergarten.
@tgia413 It's not allowed where I live but we wouldn't do it even if it was. My son will start kindergarten in the fall about a week after his 5th (August) birthday.
Honestly from your description I'd guess they're suggesting that based on their current availability and ratios and/or hoping to get an extra year tuition out of kids before they go to public school... but maybe that's the cynic in me. This topic comes up here fairly regularly and I've never seen any one share research supporting redshirting as a standard.
