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This is on my mind a LOT lately, as a mom to a late summer bday girl, in an area with sept 1 cutoff and red shirting is pretty common. So I know for sure if I send her on time, just after she turns 5, she will be more than a year younger than some kids.

I don't know. Some towns near us have a hard and fast, no exceptions cut off, and I see the problem there- some kids really truly aren't ready. Some have no firm rules and tons of kids are red shirted and that's got problems too. Right now we plan to send her on time but I'm worried I'll make the wrong choice.

I think another separate but connected issue is that school cut off dates vary so much around the country. So where we live my DD will be 5 years 9 months when she starts on time but in another state if we started her on time she might only be 4 years 9 months. I can see why in some states parents are more tempted to redshirt.

Both of my girls have October birthdays in a state with an August 1 cutoff, so they will be almost six when they start kindergarten. For my oldest, I hate it. I know in my heart that she is going to be socially and academically ready to enter kindergarten next year, but I can't send her because a) the deadline to register is April 1 and I don't know where we will be living at that time, b) they will test her to make sure she is ready and I don't know how I feel about that, and c) even if she passes all of that, I'll have to pay tuition for the privilege of sending her to public K a year early, which in my current county is $6,500. The state won't pay for students who aren't already five and counties can charge what they charge for students who live out of the district. My youngest is only 1, so I don't know how she will do yet.

Both my sister (12/17) and I (10/3) started kindergarten at age 4 in a state where the cutoff was December 31. I thrived in kindergarten. My mom maintains that my sister should have been kept home an extra year but she bowed to pressure from the grandparents/others to put her in early. It wasn't until middle school that she was really socially ready to be where she was; for years teachers would remark in the first half of the year that they couldn't get her to talk but in the second half they couldn't get her to stop talking.

Tl;dr, I think redshirting is silly and I do think there needs to be a national standard on when you start K.

I find this fascinating!
In NZ - you can start when you turn 5, some schools do an intake every 2 weeks - but you have to be 5. You don't *need* to start school until you are 6.
My daughter turns 5 in late October and she isn't starting until Feb - we have a big 6-7week break through summer so she would only be at school for 5 weeks and then have a big holiday - so I am keeping her in daycare until the new year.
They have a New Entrants class which they stay in for an unspecified time until they're ready for year 1 - it could be a couple of weeks, or a couple of months.

I also follow this with interest since my son's birthday is August 24th. Our school system's cut off is Sept. 1, so he would truly be one of the youngest if I sent him "on time". He's only 2, so I have plenty of time to think, but right now I am leaning towards holding him back.

@catgirl: I agree with you. Just in my surrounding districts, the rules are all different!

This has been an topic of interest for me b/c I have 2 girls that have Dec birthdays. Our district has a 12/31 cut off (so essentially no cut off). I currently have no plans to redshirt at least for DD1. We had the option to start preschool late, but we ended up starting her "on time". Financially, it will be tough to keep her in another year of pre-k (it's not free here). But of course, it's in the back of my mind especially if we see any red flags.

I know people still redshirt in my town anyway.

My daughter has a 12/30 Birthday and the cutoff in our school district is 12/31, so she'll be the youngest in her grade if I start her on time. It's scarier for me to think that if I start her on time she'll be 17 for her entire first semester at college vs thinking she'll be 4 when she starts kindergarten, and it's interesting to see that the author of this article noticed her age gap for the first time in college too. My daughter's only 8 months old though, so perhaps I can just hope for better standards by the time I have to worry about this.

I'm not a fan of red shirting except in a few select cases. And don't get me started on red shirting just so kids would have an athletic advantage. DS1 has a November birthday and will turn 5 this year. It's crazy that if he was born just a few months earlier, he would be in kindergarten right now. That boy is so ready but he'll get another year in daycare/transitional kindergarten and all will be well. DS2 has a June birthday so I guess we could potentially hold him back but I don't see that happening. He's only 2 but I can see that he'll follow his brother in readiness.

But really, I would rather have my kids being younger and constantly challenged than being the oldest and bored/complacent. To get a little personal, things always came easy in school to DH growing up so he has a really hard time when he's challenged. I feel like it killed his confidence. He is the poster child for the don't tell the kid that they're smart and instead praise the effort movement.

ETA: I have an 8/31 birthday and was always on the younger side of my friends. And yes, it sucked to not drive until Junior year and not turn 21 until my senior year of college but otherwise, I don't think it was a hindrance at all. But I recognize that I'm just one person and everyone has their own story.

I think parents are the best position to determine when their kids should start school, but hopefully most parents are smart enough to consult with teachers and professionals to make an informed decision. I also think a range of ages in a classroom is fine as long as the teachers are skilled enough to manage that range. My son is in a 2-3 combo classroom and his two teachers are very well equipped and trained to handle that entire age span, as wide as the developmental differences are at that stage.

My son is an early September birthday so if he was in public, we would have to redshirt him. We will be sending him to a private school for a variety of reasons, but that was one factor. The private school has a cut off in December but also requires all children to get assessed for readiness regardless of age, which frankly I think makes a lot more sense, and they offer half day kinder or full day kinder depending on what the parents and staff think is more appropriate for the child.

As his mama, I know my son would be bored if we had to hold him back. As it is, they moved him up to the 2-3 combo room from his 2 year old classroom because he was picking up the concepts so fast that he was getting bored and started getting disruptive in class. So instead we work harder at home on discipline, manners, and behavior so that he is able to conduct himself appropriately even if he is younger than the other children in class. He's also slightly behind in expressive language, so moving up to a 2/3 combo class was also meant to challenge him in speech by being around older kids and he's really thrived in that area as well.

On the flip side, I know people who hold their kids back because they just knew their kids weren't ready for school, whether it was academic or emotionally or whatever. And that's fine too. An arbitrary date just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

@mrsbubbletea: Yes, the cut off here ranges from sometime in August to sometime in September for public schools in my area. The private school is December and they still do assessments and meet with the parents to figure out readiness. That gives kids the chance to hit the age of 5 within the same calendar year, which if we have to set arbitrary deadlines, makes more sense to me. Especially since schools change their schedules all the time - some schools say you have to be 5 by the time the school year starts and in some places thats the first week of August!

@sillymilly: that was like me! Honestly, college was the only time it really sucked--I was the last of my friends to turn 21!

@youboots: @Truth Bombs: right, red shirting affects more than just your own kid if enough parents are doing it. And it often is parents with the means to afford an extra year of full time child care who do it, while other kids who might also benefit from waiting have to just start on time because their parents can't pay another fortune for daycare. I'm not saying it shouldn't be to the parents discretion, but it's hard.

@gilmoregirl: yes- I'm so frustrated that they keep making kinder more and more rigorous and just developmentally wrong for kids who have barely turned 5, so then teachers are quietly suggesting holding "normal" kids back. So why?? What is the benefit then?

My son is a textbook case study. He was due in January and born in October. Our cutoff was Dec 2 when I was in school and now it is Sept 1st. It feels super weird to me that he is not in K right now (almost 5). He can fully read (really). But he's small and not super strong in gross motor activities. Socially he's probably right at normal. I think he would be ok this year, but I think he'll do better next year. His soccer team is all 2012 and he's the smallest. He doesn't typically play with the bugger stronger boys. But he has a better chance of matching the boys next year.

So for me I'm almost glad the decision was made for me. But in no way would I put him in at almost 7. He would be bored or if his mind.

I work in education too and abilities are so diverse no matter what. I don't think school should really be dependent on age/grade anyway. What if you went to math class, reading class, PE class based on level (or at least some
Times). By having mixed ability models is also really impt for kids to learn. The less able learn from the more and the older kids learn better by teaching others. So in that case we could have elementary school classes that span 2-3 years...

(I have lots of ideas...)

I find redshirting really frustrating (with the exception of really close to the cutoff dates or other circumstances). For example, our cutoff in Texas is Sept 1. I legit know 2 people with 4 year olds who already plan to hold their children back one more year. These kids were born June 14 and July 4. 2.5 months and nearly 2 months before the cutoff. I love these families, but this just seems ridiculous to me and annoys me that then the age range in my sons kindergarten class could be more like 15-18 months apart.

I'm surprised at how common it is, because it wasn't that way when I was younger.

@Foodnerd81: yes, this. I'm not an elementary school teacher so maybe it isn't that big a deal but I can't help to think that such an age gap isn't actually an advantage for anyone. Especially at young ages, even just 6 months can seem huge developmentally.

I had a friend strongly considering redshirting our March born child... for no reason other than she wasn't ready to send him.

I have to also think that the amount of redshirting directly correlates with the increased academic rigor required of kindergarteners, which is too bad.

I am annoyed with redshirting. Our cutoff is 5 before 9/1. We have 2 September birthdays and a May birthday. Almost all July & August kids are held back and some even as early as April. So now we have to consider if we should hold our May LO, which is crazy!!! I don't understand why they can't either implement a cut off period where the parent decides if the birthday falls within a certain time frame or hold firm to the cut off unless there is a real developmental reason why the child can't go on time (confirmed by professionals). I don't want to send my LO when he is almost 6.5 but I also don't want him to be a full year younger than his classmates.

I definitely think there should be more rules. Having a bunch of 6 year olds in a class moves the dial and then you still have a bunch of parents bitching about how "academic" Kindergarten is. Of course it is, the classes are full of older kids who need more challenges. Honestly though I'm also kind of over the "omg academics!!!" minor hysteria that's en vogue right now, because there is more often than not no thought around it outside of the label. My LO is a few weeks into (public) kindergarten and is learning sign language. Is that "academic"? Sure! Guess what though; its done in song and fun sort of word association games so it's FUN for them. Do they focus on STEM? Yes! By playing games. That's all academic, it's also good. They play outside everyday and visit the library - again, academic. And good.

ETA: don't get me started on the parents who want to redshirt because they are worried their kids won't be old enough to drink and "experience" college. Guess what; 18 years olds drink in college if they want to. Your kid is bright enough to figure out where the parties are at

I think there should be a cutoff of maybe 4-6 weeks from the regular cutoff date. I WAS the youngest in my class (except someone who skipped a grade) and I graduated with honors, but I do think that there are other ways it would have been better to not be the youngest- everything from maturity at times to not being an adult in college.