Redshirting consequences at Lafayette

[Anonymous]

Why would anyone expect a public school to allow redshirting? Just because they allowed it in the past means nothing. Sounds like this was just a mistake. They should move up the redshirted kids in older grades too to fix their mistakes.

[Anonymous]

I’m curious if the pro-redshirting posters think parents should be entitled to do this no matter the kids’ age? If not, how could anyone know what the imaginary rule was? Wouldn’t the onus be on the parents to confirm with the school if they wanted an exception to DCPS’ clear policy? Do you think, in general, new principals shouldn’t be able to change any previous expectations at the school even if those expectations conflict with written DCPS policy?

[Anonymous]

To put this in broader perspective:

What was happening is that DCPS has a district-wide policy against redshirting, but the former principal at Lafayette was letting parents redshirt anyway.

I will note here that Lafayette is 72% white and 3% at risk in a district that has less than 20% white students and 45% of kids are at risk. Make of that what you will.

The new principal at Lafayette is bringing the school in line with district-wide policy. While I can see how these individual families would be frustrated by it, the truth is that it should never have happened, it's good that it stopped, and they are just going to have to suck it up.

DCPS could offer summer programming to these kids to ensure they are ready for 1st grade in the fall. That should probably be the compromise.

DCPS has a district-wide policy against redshirting. If they want to change that policy, it must be changed on a district-wide level.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it seems like DCPS really can't make an exception for these families now that the issue is so public -- how could they possibly justify the differential treatment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because the previous principal allowed parents to do it at Lafayette so all the preschools told their parents it was fine? In many cases two kids in the same family? If they were going to change longstanding school policy they should have given people a years heads up at a minimum.

Also the law says to go to first grade to you have to be six on the first day of school and that’s in direct conflict with the cutoff for anyone born in September.

do you have a cite for that?

Not even sure how a new principal would know that private preschools were telling parents that their kids would be allowed to redshirt. Surely it's easier for the parents to identify the new principal (especially if they already had kids enrolled there) than for the new principal to identify the parents who thought they would be allowed to break the rules?

The mom who keeps posting that parents "should have been TOLD" is so deeply entitled. It's so informative about the kind of parent at Lafayette . "We should be allowed to break the rules whenever we want, and if we aren't we should somehow be proactively identified, out of a community of hundreds and hundreds of parents, and told way in advance. Being told onc we try to break the rules is offensive and WRONG."

If what she now wishes she did was enroll her kid in PK4 at Lafayette rather than private school for the 2024-5 school year, she would have had to enter the lottery in early 2024. I don't think Principal Prall had even been hired by then. So who would have told her, and when?

If I'm thinking about the dates right, she couldn't have enrolled her kid at Lafayette for PK4 at Lafayette for the 2024-25 school year -- that's when her kid should have been enrolled in kindergarten under DC law. Incidentally, her kid had a kindergarten spot by right (assuming in bound) and wouldn't have had to lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seems like DCPS really can't make an exception for these families now that the issue is so public -- how could they possibly justify the differential treatment?

Exactly - why did these parents think that going to the media was going to help their case?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seems like DCPS really can't make an exception for these families now that the issue is so public -- how could they possibly justify the differential treatment?

Exactly - why did these parents think that going to the media was going to help their case?

i

They sound too cheap to hire a lawyer to handle this discretely and too cheap to pay private school tuition. They took the worst approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seems like DCPS really can't make an exception for these families now that the issue is so public -- how could they possibly justify the differential treatment?

Exactly - why did these parents think that going to the media was going to help their case?

i

They sound too cheap to hire a lawyer to handle this discretely and too cheap to pay private school tuition. They took the worst approach.

+1, the problem is that they are both entitled AND ignorant. I don't know these specific families, but I've had conversations with parents at Lafayette and other upper NW schools that allow redshirting (and these are the ONLY schools in the city that allow it absent a diagnosed special need or other extenuating circumstances, like an unhoused kid who didn't attend kindergarten on time because they were unhoused). They do not get that their situation is a weird except based exclusively on being part of wealthy, white school communities where the principals will bend to pressure to break this rule in order to appease them.

One of my kids has an August birthday, is small for their age, and has what is likely a special need (maybe just ADHD, maybe a sensory issue, still working on diagnosis) and we were told "no" in no uncertain terms when we asked about the possibility of repeating PK4 and that DCPS has a firm policy against redshirting. I've had people at these schools criticize my "decision" not to redshirt, and I've pointed out it wasn't a decision -- we can't afford private and DCPS doesn't allow it. They'll say "oh you just didn't ask the right way" or "you didn't talk to the right person." They think their ability to redshirt was based on their unique understanding of childhood development, their savvy in working the system, or their abilities of persuasion. Nope. It's because they are rich white people attending rich white schools where lots of parents think the rules don't apply to them.

I'd have so much more respect for these people if instead of whining about how their special privileges had been taken away, they'd band together with parents like me who would love to change the DCPS policy and also address the very real problem of the district's K curriculum not being developmentally appropriate for the age assigned to the grade. That would be great! I fully agree with these issues. Instead they want me to feel sorry for them? B****, please.

[Anonymous]

Horrible reporting by the news. In the video clip, the parents emphasize that kindergarten is compulsory, but not a single question about why the parents did not comply with the law that makes kindergarten compulsory and enroll them by age 5. The parents claim that the district is only focusing on certain laws, but the parents are clearly doing the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seems like DCPS really can't make an exception for these families now that the issue is so public -- how could they possibly justify the differential treatment?

Exactly - why did these parents think that going to the media was going to help their case?

i

They sound too cheap to hire a lawyer to handle this discretely and too cheap to pay private school tuition. They took the worst approach.

+1, the problem is that they are both entitled AND ignorant. I don't know these specific families, but I've had conversations with parents at Lafayette and other upper NW schools that allow redshirting (and these are the ONLY schools in the city that allow it absent a diagnosed special need or other extenuating circumstances, like an unhoused kid who didn't attend kindergarten on time because they were unhoused). They do not get that their situation is a weird except based exclusively on being part of wealthy, white school communities where the principals will bend to pressure to break this rule in order to appease them.

One of my kids has an August birthday, is small for their age, and has what is likely a special need (maybe just ADHD, maybe a sensory issue, still working on diagnosis) and we were told "no" in no uncertain terms when we asked about the possibility of repeating PK4 and that DCPS has a firm policy against redshirting. I've had people at these schools criticize my "decision" not to redshirt, and I've pointed out it wasn't a decision -- we can't afford private and DCPS doesn't allow it. They'll say "oh you just didn't ask the right way" or "you didn't talk to the right person." They think their ability to redshirt was based on their unique understanding of childhood development, their savvy in working the system, or their abilities of persuasion. Nope. It's because they are rich white people attending rich white schools where lots of parents think the rules don't apply to them.

I'd have so much more respect for these people if instead of whining about how their special privileges had been taken away, they'd band together with parents like me who would love to change the DCPS policy and also address the very real problem of the district's K curriculum not being developmentally appropriate for the age assigned to the grade. That would be great! I fully agree with these issues. Instead they want me to feel sorry for them? B****, please.

DP here and not connected to the school or story. But I am curious and did not know that DCPS does not allow kids to repeat a grade if a parent felt that the social emotional development of the child is subpar for their class? So a young child- August birth will have to struggle in x grade while another child just two weeks older will have the benefit of developing, skipping that year, and eventually they will perform better in the same X grade.
So DCPS does not give any consideration or leniency for this case to set the student for success instead of falling behind!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seems like DCPS really can't make an exception for these families now that the issue is so public -- how could they possibly justify the differential treatment?

Exactly - why did these parents think that going to the media was going to help their case?

i

They sound too cheap to hire a lawyer to handle this discretely and too cheap to pay private school tuition. They took the worst approach.

+1, the problem is that they are both entitled AND ignorant. I don't know these specific families, but I've had conversations with parents at Lafayette and other upper NW schools that allow redshirting (and these are the ONLY schools in the city that allow it absent a diagnosed special need or other extenuating circumstances, like an unhoused kid who didn't attend kindergarten on time because they were unhoused). They do not get that their situation is a weird except based exclusively on being part of wealthy, white school communities where the principals will bend to pressure to break this rule in order to appease them.

One of my kids has an August birthday, is small for their age, and has what is likely a special need (maybe just ADHD, maybe a sensory issue, still working on diagnosis) and we were told "no" in no uncertain terms when we asked about the possibility of repeating PK4 and that DCPS has a firm policy against redshirting. I've had people at these schools criticize my "decision" not to redshirt, and I've pointed out it wasn't a decision -- we can't afford private and DCPS doesn't allow it. They'll say "oh you just didn't ask the right way" or "you didn't talk to the right person." They think their ability to redshirt was based on their unique understanding of childhood development, their savvy in working the system, or their abilities of persuasion. Nope. It's because they are rich white people attending rich white schools where lots of parents think the rules don't apply to them.

I'd have so much more respect for these people if instead of whining about how their special privileges had been taken away, they'd band together with parents like me who would love to change the DCPS policy and also address the very real problem of the district's K curriculum not being developmentally appropriate for the age assigned to the grade. That would be great! I fully agree with these issues. Instead they want me to feel sorry for them? B****, please.

DP here and not connected to the school or story. But I am curious and did not know that DCPS does not allow kids to repeat a grade if a parent felt that the social emotional development of the child is subpar for their class? So a young child- August birth will have to struggle in x grade while another child just two weeks older will have the benefit of developing, skipping that year, and eventually they will perform better in the same X grade.
So DCPS does not give any consideration or leniency for this case to set the student for success instead of falling behind!?

It is principal’s discretion at the recommendation of the teacher, not the request of the parent. At my school, it is rare but not unheard of and usually involves repeating K, likely because that is not a finite resource in the same way PK is, so there’s no sense anyone is cheating the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seems like DCPS really can't make an exception for these families now that the issue is so public -- how could they possibly justify the differential treatment?

Exactly - why did these parents think that going to the media was going to help their case?

i

They sound too cheap to hire a lawyer to handle this discretely and too cheap to pay private school tuition. They took the worst approach.

+1, the problem is that they are both entitled AND ignorant. I don't know these specific families, but I've had conversations with parents at Lafayette and other upper NW schools that allow redshirting (and these are the ONLY schools in the city that allow it absent a diagnosed special need or other extenuating circumstances, like an unhoused kid who didn't attend kindergarten on time because they were unhoused). They do not get that their situation is a weird except based exclusively on being part of wealthy, white school communities where the principals will bend to pressure to break this rule in order to appease them.

One of my kids has an August birthday, is small for their age, and has what is likely a special need (maybe just ADHD, maybe a sensory issue, still working on diagnosis) and we were told "no" in no uncertain terms when we asked about the possibility of repeating PK4 and that DCPS has a firm policy against redshirting. I've had people at these schools criticize my "decision" not to redshirt, and I've pointed out it wasn't a decision -- we can't afford private and DCPS doesn't allow it. They'll say "oh you just didn't ask the right way" or "you didn't talk to the right person." They think their ability to redshirt was based on their unique understanding of childhood development, their savvy in working the system, or their abilities of persuasion. Nope. It's because they are rich white people attending rich white schools where lots of parents think the rules don't apply to them.

I'd have so much more respect for these people if instead of whining about how their special privileges had been taken away, they'd band together with parents like me who would love to change the DCPS policy and also address the very real problem of the district's K curriculum not being developmentally appropriate for the age assigned to the grade. That would be great! I fully agree with these issues. Instead they want me to feel sorry for them? B****, please.

DP here and not connected to the school or story. But I am curious and did not know that DCPS does not allow kids to repeat a grade if a parent felt that the social emotional development of the child is subpar for their class? So a young child- August birth will have to struggle in x grade while another child just two weeks older will have the benefit of developing, skipping that year, and eventually they will perform better in the same X grade.
So DCPS does not give any consideration or leniency for this case to set the student for success instead of falling behind!?

It is principal’s discretion at the recommendation of the teacher, not the request of the parent. At my school, it is rare but not unheard of and usually involves repeating K, likely because that is not a finite resource in the same way PK is, so there’s no sense anyone is cheating the system.

This. Part of the issue is parents wanting the same redshirting situation as at Lafayette but ALSO free PK for as long as possible. And I get it. I hope the PP is able to get some help for their child. But the reason they will likely not allow a repeat of PK versus K is because it's not a guaranteed right like K is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seems like DCPS really can't make an exception for these families now that the issue is so public -- how could they possibly justify the differential treatment?

Exactly - why did these parents think that going to the media was going to help their case?

i

They sound too cheap to hire a lawyer to handle this discretely and too cheap to pay private school tuition. They took the worst approach.

+1, the problem is that they are both entitled AND ignorant. I don't know these specific families, but I've had conversations with parents at Lafayette and other upper NW schools that allow redshirting (and these are the ONLY schools in the city that allow it absent a diagnosed special need or other extenuating circumstances, like an unhoused kid who didn't attend kindergarten on time because they were unhoused). They do not get that their situation is a weird except based exclusively on being part of wealthy, white school communities where the principals will bend to pressure to break this rule in order to appease them.

One of my kids has an August birthday, is small for their age, and has what is likely a special need (maybe just ADHD, maybe a sensory issue, still working on diagnosis) and we were told "no" in no uncertain terms when we asked about the possibility of repeating PK4 and that DCPS has a firm policy against redshirting. I've had people at these schools criticize my "decision" not to redshirt, and I've pointed out it wasn't a decision -- we can't afford private and DCPS doesn't allow it. They'll say "oh you just didn't ask the right way" or "you didn't talk to the right person." They think their ability to redshirt was based on their unique understanding of childhood development, their savvy in working the system, or their abilities of persuasion. Nope. It's because they are rich white people attending rich white schools where lots of parents think the rules don't apply to them.

I'd have so much more respect for these people if instead of whining about how their special privileges had been taken away, they'd band together with parents like me who would love to change the DCPS policy and also address the very real problem of the district's K curriculum not being developmentally appropriate for the age assigned to the grade. That would be great! I fully agree with these issues. Instead they want me to feel sorry for them? B****, please.

DP here and not connected to the school or story. But I am curious and did not know that DCPS does not allow kids to repeat a grade if a parent felt that the social emotional development of the child is subpar for their class? So a young child- August birth will have to struggle in x grade while another child just two weeks older will have the benefit of developing, skipping that year, and eventually they will perform better in the same X grade.
So DCPS does not give any consideration or leniency for this case to set the student for success instead of falling behind!?

It is principal’s discretion at the recommendation of the teacher, not the request of the parent. At my school, it is rare but not unheard of and usually involves repeating K, likely because that is not a finite resource in the same way PK is, so there’s no sense anyone is cheating the system.

This. Part of the issue is parents wanting the same redshirting situation as at Lafayette but ALSO free PK for as long as possible. And I get it. I hope the PP is able to get some help for their child. But the reason they will likely not allow a repeat of PK versus K is because it's not a guaranteed right like K is.

I'm the PP and my kid is in 1st now. We worked it out. K was a brutally hard year for this particular kid (as we anticipated, knowing how academic it would be an how much time they would be expected to sit quietly in a chair based on our experience with our older kid, who was more ready for that). I actually wound up rearranging my work schedule stop they could just come home after school instead of doing aftercare, to help support during that year. That's also the year we started working with a developmental pediatrician who identified the sensory issues. We got through it. This year has been better.

I'll note that while I get that PK is a more limited resource in DCPS, from a developmental standpoint, that was the correct year to repeat. My kid needed one more year of a less academic setting that emphasized movement, social-emotional development, and more focus on certain classroom/personal skills. Repeating K would have been pointless -- from a classroom expectations and environment standpoint, there's no real difference between K and 1st. Which is the whole problem. K used to be treated as a transitional year in elementary school and was more like PK (or halfway between PK and 1st). Now, in many schools including ours, K is what 1st grade was like 20 years ago. We knew our kid wasn't ready for it, and we were right, and our kid, the teacher, and the rest of our family had a tough time that year as a result.

There are answers to this, but none of them involve just allowing a handful of rich white families in a few upper NW elementaries to redshirt their kids while the rest of us are SOL. It's frustrating to me that these families are willing to go on TV and call the media over their individual children being sent to 1st at age 6 (even though, as I've just explained, this actually isn't that big of a deal because K and 1st are so similar in DCPS in terms of expectations) but have zero interest in advocating for district-wide changes that would benefit all kids. They want their special allowances (and advantages) but not to actually improve education. Cue the sound of the world's tiniest violin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seems like DCPS really can't make an exception for these families now that the issue is so public -- how could they possibly justify the differential treatment?

Exactly - why did these parents think that going to the media was going to help their case?

Honestly you'd have to put a gun to my head to get me to look like such an ass in the paper.

[Anonymous]

I get that "grey area" can't be a law-- but I do think principles should have a right to review redshirts on a case by case bases -- example -- say you just moved in from a different state that had a sept 1 cut off (since most do) -- is DC really going to make said child skip a grade because they were born sept 2nd? OR say you have a child born on September 30th and you can already tell they aren't developmental ready for K (or to be with kids almost an entire year older then then). What I don't agree with is parents just thinking they can do whatever they want... especially when their kids birthday is in May/June/July....