Are people going to be more likely to redshirt because of COVID?

[Anonymous]

Save it for a gap year after high school, if the accepted college goes for it.

Or who knows, he might be a hockey phenom and boarding school will want him to do five years of high school!

[Anonymous]

Not for the usual redshirting reasons, per se, but I'm not enrolling a kid in kindergarten that will essentially be online.

[Anonymous]

You also have to look at this from an economic standpoint. Are you in a position to pay for another year of childcare for your kid in this economy? I have a boy born in May. He's almost 7 now, but I'd absolutely still be sending him.

[Anonymous]

Late May? That’s insanity! You want your kid to be 19 and just graduating high school? 18 year olds should be seniors, not 19 year olds. Which means he will be 20 in his first year of college! That’s nuts.

[Anonymous]

If school starts on time I would not redshirt. If we’re still doing distance learning come fall or expecting kids to wear masks over their faces, I would consider redshirtting an incoming K student.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t redshirt for late May. My daughter is the 2nd oldest in her K class with her birthday being 8 days after the cut off. She did not attend preschool at all. She has a little boy in her class that just turned 5 on the day before the cut off date so she was nearly a year older than him but he has done just fine.

[Anonymous]

If someone redshirted a May birthday, I would assume they were special needs. That is super old and weird.

[Anonymous]

OP, I’d redshirt in your shoes, for the reasons you said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had always planned to send our late May boy to K next year. He is small and a bit immature, but there wasn't a real reason to hold him. But now I am having second thoughts.

It looks like he will lose the last few months of preschool and the K prep that went with that. We are trying to do stuff at home, but it just isn't the same. There is also a decent chance that fall classes will be interrupted, at least to a degree. If things are going to be messed up again in the fall, part of me would rather have him missing out on preschool, rather than K.

Anyone else considering this? Do you think there will be more people on the fence about redshirting who decided to do it?

Late May, he would be almost 18 months older than some of his classmates. (Example my son born late sept)

[Anonymous]

Wait I’m confused. OP, does your school
District cut off at September 30th or at a different time? I can’t imagine why you’d redshirt a May baby for a September cut off. That’s ridiculous. I redshirted my Sept. 27th boy who had speech issues, so it’s not like I’m opposed to it in principle either. But May just seems weird.

[Anonymous]

No. Seriously?! May?! The entitlement. I bet you’re UMC and white. You’re son will do just fine in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If someone redshirted a May birthday, I would assume they were special needs. That is super old and weird.

I agree it seems unnecessary to redshirt a May birthday. But the whole redshirt thing in general is weird to me. I mean, is redshirting a late May bday really that different from July or August when the range of development is so wide? Personally I am a fan of sending kids where their birthdays fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If someone redshirted a May birthday, I would assume they were special needs. That is super old and weird.

+1

[Anonymous]

I haven’t heard of any redshirted May kids around here in the public schools, but I know it’s pretty common in private schools. I’m redshirting my August birthday boy. Coronavirus was just the push I needed to make that decision. And if we have to go through all this rigmarole again next school year, better for him to be in pre-K where he’s less likely to be missing vital instruction vs. K which really is the new 1st grade.

[Anonymous]

We redshirted our September boy this past year. I would have never considered doing it for a May birthday. If our son had been 5 before school started, then we would have gone ahead and sent him on time. We just didn’t feel right about a 4 year old being in a full day of academics yet.