Repeating K or PreK

[Anonymous]

Find a junior kindergarten. You won’t regret it.

Where do you live? A good one near me has a couple openings.

[Anonymous]

What junior kindergartens are people considering? We will have to apply this year. DS has an early fall birthday, right after the cut-off. We are looking in NW DC / Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the perspectives. OP here. Leaning toward advancing to K and evaluating. How would a private K view an applicant who’s already in K (vs doing Pre-K twice). Just musing as K has more openings too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all the perspectives. OP here. Leaning toward advancing to K and evaluating. How would a private K view an applicant who’s already in K (vs doing Pre-K twice). Just musing as K has more openings too

Totally normal for a kid to do K in public and then K in private. The schools are very used to that.

[Anonymous]

It’s all a matter of chance. In one school, the kindergarten class may consist of children who have just turned five. In another school there may be children who were redshirted (i.e., started school a year later). It all depends on the percentage of siblings, since parents try to send their siblings to the same school as early as possible.

[Anonymous]

DS with a June bday did preK 3 and 4 at a very good DC charter, but i felt like he was a little behind the other kids. We asked if he could repeat prek 3 AND 4, but they said no both times.

We applied to 2 privates for k, but didn't get in, so he went to a dcps in the Capitol Hill cluster. We even asked them if he could repeat preK 4, but because he was already 5, they also said no and enrolled him in K. That fall, we applied to 3 privates for K, and he got accepted. This was 100% the right call for him as he really needed the extra year to mature, so it worked out well for us.

[Anonymous]

Apply again for K next year. I only have boys but my oldest has a June birthday and I regret not holding him back, especially when compared to his brother who has a September birthday which means he was “on time” but the oldest in his grade because his birthday falls right after the cutoff. My youngest, as the oldest in his grade, is doing exponentially better than my oldest, as one of the youngest in his grade, in every area

[Anonymous]

OP: I wouldn't stress over this. The great schools make that decision if an offer were to be extended. There's no way you could know the composition of that grade. That is a key factor in whether your child thrives in that particular circumstance. It worked out great for our DC for us to consider the team as us and the school.

[Anonymous]

Some schools are definitely more open to this. I suggest you be honest up front.