"Redshirt" DS or not? Opinions please

[Anonymous]

From a teacher's perspective--generally, schools will refrain from holding children back if there is a hint that the "issue" might be related to special education, which if your son has some delays and possibly a ADHD diagnosis, he could eventually qualify for. Retention should really be reserved for maturity, age or attendance issues, not academic.

But, since you are moving from private to public, you have more power, and it sounds like your son's teachers have given you their well-informed and experienced opinions. Not knowing your son, I would lean more towards sending him to 1st grade (April is spring, but really not a "late" birthday). But I don't know him, and his teachers do.

While this is really a huge decision, keep perspective in mind. Your son's new teachers will do what is necessary to help him succeed whether he is in K or 1st grade, and there is always a range of abilities in every classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I am generally against red shirting but in your case I would do it. Elementary schools should be equipped to deal with a range of students and learning styles but they are not. The class sizes at public schools are very large and a child with ADHD combined will have to deal with discipline issues and get lost in trying to complete things on his own. The school may make accomodations in not counting some of this against him but they can't give him the environment or one on one attention that he would need. K is more set up to deal with kids at different levels.

The public schools will also not hold a child back without significant problems. If you run into problems in 1st grade you are basically stuck.

I also agree with this poster and I am not usually for red-shirting. You can legally delay your child 1 year from entering kindergarten so even though your child is in private K, for all intent and purposes you could have been using this year as the delay so the child starts K this September. All of the local elementary schools are encouraging parents to pre-register for K so they can get headcount for planning purposes and have you on the list for the late April/maybe early May kindergarten orientation. The teachers will be able to observe your child during the K orientation. They not only the years of teaching experience behind them in their evaluation but they also have an idea of how your child would fit into that peer grouping of kids starting K that year. I can't speak for all MCPS schools, but in my local school they try to balance the classroom so for example you wouldn't have all the kids that need closer attention in the same classroom. You want the school to have a sense of your child before they start so maybe that can help in determining which teacher/classroom to assign to your child. You will have that checkpoint of the orientation to confirm that your child is better suited to K than 1. I could be wrong but let's say your kid starts in K and it's October when the teachers have already assessed the heck out of all the kids in the class and have a good sense of your child's personality and needs - I would think you could also do a checkpoint to again make sure it was the right decision and he/she shouldn't be moved up to 1st grade. The one thing you want to make sure though is in K that your child is getting what he/she needs. You don't want to risk the school deciding to hold your child back after you already delayed entrance by 1 year.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

The public schools will also not hold a child back without significant problems. If you run into problems in 1st grade you are basically stuck.

Not necessarily true--it's the nature of those problems that is the issue. If the issue is related to the student's "level" (low reader, etc) or the student may have an issue that will qualify him/her for Sp. Ed., then schools (in MCPS, at least) generally will NOT retain. The theory is that that student should go to the age-appropriate grade and be taught at his or her level. That could mean going to a lower grade for reading or math, or having extra supports from paras. It's the same when a child is far above grade level--"skipping" a grade is usually not the first choice--educating the student at the appropriate level WITHIN their own grade is.

All of the kindergarten retentions I have seen have related to maturity and/or attendance (surprise--I am a kindergarten teacher).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP.
Thank you for all the comments!

As you know, the Montessori classroom is a mixed aged 3 to 5 year old class. This has allowed me to see that my son's work is at the 5-6 year old level, but that he gravitates towards the 3-4 year old kids for play. The teacher insisted that his attention problems would hinder his academic progress if she wasn't breathing down his shoulder ALL of the time. So even if we make him repeat Kindergarten in public school to pair him with younger children of similar maturity, he might still have problems due to his attention deficit.
Sigh. I have pondered this in my head all day and now have no idea what to do.

This is a key statement to me. It seems to me as if his problems will still exist even if he is red-shirted. In that case, what is the point of redshirting and April birthday? Will it do anything to solve his problems? Or will they still be there?

Definitely get him evaluated for the ADHD. Maybe get him evaluated by a development ped. for other stuff too. Then get him into therapy for his issues.

This doesn't seem like an issue of maturity, but a case of your son still having issues that need to be addressed.

[Anonymous]

OP,
I think your DS sounds like a great candidate for the NIMH ADHD study in Bethesda. It's free and you should be able to get in quickly. You will get the input of several expert evaluators.

FWIW, we redshirted our Aug DD and it was one of the best parenting decisions we have ever made. It really gave us time to help sort out her issues before the work became far more demanding.

Have you considered trying ADD meds?