Redshirting illegal in California?
Hi - I have a late summer boy who is young for his age, and am trying to figure out my options in terms of possibly holding him back a year for kindergarten. The Berkeley school district has told me that it is illegal to hold a kid back who will technically be 5 by September 1, and they referred me to the state law provision saying that people between ages 6 and 18 must be in school. But I know many people who have redshirted their kids, and my understanding from the district is that they would allow him to stay out for the year and then enroll in FIRST grade, which seems also to violate state law under their theory, so I don't see why waiting and enrolling him in Kindergarten would violate state law.
Does anyone have experience with this or thoughts on how to navigate the system if I decide that holding my son back a year is the right thing for him to do? I would rather avoid kindergarten continuance (repeating K), which I know is also an option if he doesn't meet milestones in kindergarten.
Parent Replies
Does your preschool offer kindergarten? If so, he could do kindy there, and the teacher could recommend he repeat (if she really believes he needs it). Or you could just enroll him and see how it goes. He might be fine. And if he's not, well, kids repeat kindy all the time now and there seems to be no stigma with the other kids.
Would it work for you to send him to a preschool that includes a kindergarten or pre-K, somewhere like Step-One, but there must be others. That way, you/he can opt in to kindergarten or not. If the kindergarten works well, he can go on to 1st grade the next year at age 6. If it doesn't work out he can repeat kindergarten at your public school. Also keep in mind that he will be almost 19 when he graduates from high school, being a year older than his classmates might make him feel self-conscience later on (I mean *really* self-conscience; I have an older teenager and trust me you don't want to do anything now that may damage him later, even if you mean well).
We live in Albany and our youngest is in 3rd grade this year. He is an August kid too. We did not register him for K the year he turned 5 due to a chronic health condition. He spend a year at a private TK, and then we registered him for public school K next year. The enrollment was smooth and nobody questioned his age. Not sure why the district people said it is illegal. Must not be true since so many people homeschool around here.
Hi - My now BUSD 4th grader has a late summer birthday and we decided not to enroll in K at the prescribed time. He did another year of preschool and then we registered him for K the following year. He is close to the oldest in his grade but not the oldest. No questions from the district, we never even asked about it. Good luck!
We just did this last year, and it has worked beautifully. My small, young-for-his age son is now thriving and confident in first grade. We started him in kindergarten when he was 6 after 3 years of preschool. There is a lot of data from Europe showing that kids do wonderfully when given that extra year to play and mature. If the district gives you a hard time about it, you could always say you homeschooled for kindergarten (even if he was in preschool), and that he did not meet the milestones and needs to repeat. Definitely go with what you think is best for your kid!
I don't know this for sure, but perhaps BUSD is trying to make their policy more equitable. Children born after the cut off date have not been allowed to enter kindergarten even when parents and preschool teachers believe they are ready/recommend it, while older kids (like yours) have been allowed to stay back a year as their parents wish. It sounds like insisting on enrollment according to the cut off date is a new interpretation of policy. My children attend school with many, many kids whose parents chose to hold them back. But remember, for every family like yours that wishes to hold a kid back there are those gnashing their teeth over the fact that their September 2nd birthday child cannot attend kindergarten until age 6. Like us you may just have to take a deep breath, accept the policy as inflexible but not created with malintent and hope for the best!