MCPS to ban redshirting?

[Anonymous]

I was informed today by my son's preschool that MCPS is planning on copying the DCPS policy that bans redshirting in the next two years. I have twin 4 year old boys with a late August birthday that I had planned to put in PreK next year, not Kindergarten.

Is this really happening? If so, when would the policy go in effect and would the affected kids really be expected to skip Kindergarten and start first grade??

[Anonymous]

Have not heard about this, but if it's happening, and if it were to stary Fall 2026, then I think that would mean 5 year-olds at that time would need to start K. But for kids who are currently 5 but not in K now, making them start in 1st next year wouldn't make sense.

[Anonymous]

I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

[Anonymous]

According to Google what you heard isn’t true.

[Anonymous]

Is this controlled by MCPS or the state?

[Anonymous]

Unlike DCPS, MCPS doesn’t have universal PreK. It would be a little harder to implement here.

[Anonymous]

OP Here: Thanks for the replies so far.

I have reached out to the registrar of our home elementary school for clarification and I will update this thread when I get a response.

Of course, it seems some of the families affected by this in DC had received assurances they could redshirt and were still not allowed to so a reply from the school is not binding.

[Anonymous]

Enrollment is falling so they need to get these kids enrolled as quickly as possible because some funding is based on overall enrollment. Banning redshirting would briefly slow the decline so it would make sense as a stop-gap to preserve funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

What does this even mean? Is there an MCPS elementary school where parents are consciously redshirting their kids as a group?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

What does this even mean? Is there an MCPS elementary school where parents are consciously redshirting their kids as a group?

W school cluster parents think it will give their kid an advantage.
5 year olds go to kindergarten, as they should, OP.

[Anonymous]

If your kids are developmentally on target, why would you do this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

Lol keep telling yourself you're doing some kind of public service rather than seeking the best advantages for your own kid.

I don't think MCPS needs to ban anything but you sound ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will happen because people will lose their minds over it. They might try to pass the policy, but it will never stick. In DC it wound up being a handful of parents throwing a fit. In MoCo it would be thousands of parents. And not even just parents who redshirt -- a lot of MoCo families believe redshirting should be permitted because they think it improves the maturity of K cohorts overall. In some elementary schools, it's a huge part of the culture of the school.

I have never ever heard this. Only side eye at the parents who do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kids are developmentally on target, why would you do this?

+1 99.9% of the red shirted kids should have gone to K on time and would have done just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kids are developmentally on target, why would you do this?

OP Here:

My kids are not developmentally on target. They were months premature and have been in PT, speech, OT, etc pretty much since both. We suspect an ADHD diagnosis for one kid and are in the (long) process of having him assessed. Both kids are currently repeating PreK 3 as recommended by their preschool.