How to “redshirt” in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't listen to these people --- my son has a 9/24 birthday -- I "resshirted" him, best decision I ever made. When you go to enter the lottery for prek3 in myschooldc a pop up will appear that says "are you sure you don't mean prek4" , you will say yes and then you will never be asked or think about it again...

the end.

Yes, same here. You just override the pop-up.

We redshirted twins for PK4.

Wow, does this actually work?

This does not work dcps registrar looks at students’ DOB, this could mess you up because would lose your lottery spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (boy) is a late September birthday and the top of his class academically. You have no way to tell at 1 how your kid is going to be in school…

+1. It would have been a disaster if we redshirted DS who would be so bored.

My bday is in Sept and I was always the youngest in the class. No issues. Did very well in school when I started and all subsequent years.

I'm really glad you had a good experience. I feel like there's no truly optimum option for my kid with a summer birthday. She's super smart but shy and a little anxious. Redshirting didn't feel like it made sense because she was academically very ready for kindergarten and already reading on her own. But socially and emotionally I do think she could have used another year of preschool -- she's probably socio-emotionally a bit immature for her age and when you throw in being youngest that starts to look really obvious. So it didn't feel like any solution was an obvious choice.

DC ties your hands. I guess we could have tried to redshirt her in PK but at that time it didn't occur to us -- she was 3 and seemed about as mature as other 3 yr olds at the time. It wasn't until the summer before K that we started to see the merit in another year of PK but by then she was in the system "on time" and was clearly academically ready.

It is what it is. We do our best to support her and give her what she needs. Some teachers are better than others both in terms of providing appropriate academic challenge and recognizing that she is a little behind other kids in stuff like emotional regulation. I'm sure it's not easy for them either.

If we could afford private I'd probably just do that because it's probably the only way to get her what she really needs both academically and socio-emotionally. But we can't so here we are.

Just throwing this out there - redshirting won’t necessarily be great for your kid. Even a kid who doesn’t have a late birthday in the cohort can struggle. I have a December baby who was one of the oldest in her class, one of the most academically advanced, but she found it hard to manage socio-emotionally. She came from daycare/private preschool so it’s not a matter of setting, it’s DCPS or individual teacher. Her PK and K teachers worked with her. Her first grade teacher was horrible about it (literally no communication even when the principals tried to require it). So even if you redshirted an August or September kiddo, especially if you have reason to believe they need the extra time for skills/social reasons, not going to guarantee they won’t struggle. So if anyone is stressed about it, I recommend just going with the flow and supplementing/advocating. That’s life.

This is all very dismissive. Your daughter was one of the oldest in her class and struggled. Now imagine if she was pushed forward a year with the same maturity. What would that have looked like? Yeah. Welcome to what my September kid experienced. She was the absolute youngest in her grade (1 day before the cutoff) AND very immature. She was still 4 yo at the beginning of kindergarten and ended up being removed from the classroom daily and sent to the principal's office. It was a disaster. The complaints were things like being so wiggly she'd fall over in her chair, dropping her pencil too many times, grumping and refusing to sit when she didn't get her favorite spot on the rug, disturbing others with talking, etc. She started refusing school and eloping. She didn't trust teachers and had tons of anxiety about speaking to a teacher. It's been years now and she has no issues other than being immature for her age, though it took years to recover from her terrible start in public school. A redshirted year would have made a huge difference for her.

The problem there is a teacher who punishes a kindergartener for stiff that is perfectly normal behavior for a kindergartener. One of our K teachers was like this too. Would punish kids for being wiggly and then the punishment would be "no recess." Which is precisely why they are wiggly-- they are 5 and spending too little time outside or running around.

You can't solve a bad teacher with redshirting. Even if your specific kid could have been helped by redshirting, what about the kids with April and May birthdays who have the same issues? We need to demand better if teachers and in particular we need to make sure K uses a sound ECE approach. Our experience in DCPS is that there's a lot of variation at the K level and that a good K teacher won't have trouble with on-time summer birthdays.

[Anonymous]

No this does not work. Even if you are able to do this online, the school registrar or teacher will catch the error. DCPS is not giving away a free extra year of school just because you want it.

[Anonymous]

With a one year old I would really really just take a beat and see what things look like in 2-3 years.

I grew up in a state with a Dec 30th cut off and have a late Dec bday. I had many friends a full year older. But there were lots of advantages to being young including time for a gap year after HS without feeling I was getting behind, always knowing there was an option to change schools and start over, etc.

Our cut off is pretty early and common US wide because most kids are ready for kinder if they turn 5 by Sept 30. Just keep that in mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the aggregate, girls mature faster than boys in the early years. Not always, of course, but MOST girls do. I think redshirting benefits MOST boys born shortly before the cutoff. IME, it usually doesn't benefit girls. The girls are still more mature and ready for kindergarten than a good chunk of the boys.

IME, as bad as it is for a girl to experience puberty later than her middle school classmates, it is FAR worse for a girl to experience it earlier than the other girls in her class. Being the only 5th grade girl who has a period isn't fun. Developing breasts before the other girls is also tough. It sometimes attracts attention from older boys and even men that is really hard to deal with. When most of your female classmates are going through puberty at the same time, a girl isn't likely to be singled out as much as a girl who is ahead of her classmates time-wise.

As others have said, OP doesn't yet know what her D will be like. So, no decisions have to be made yet.

Yeah, I would worry about this. Much more risky for a girl to be much older than her peers.

Fwiw our DC school experience did not have any redshirted kids. Pepper feel within the cutoffs except for a couple who moved here from pieces with different cutoff dates. And by high school a lot of the high academic performers are the ones on the young side. And the kids are heard about vaping and worse in the bathroom in middle school are the older ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No this does not work. Even if you are able to do this online, the school registrar or teacher will catch the error. DCPS is not giving away a free extra year of school just because you want it.

No, they are. There are many kids who are redshirted for PK. We did it twice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No this does not work. Even if you are able to do this online, the school registrar or teacher will catch the error. DCPS is not giving away a free extra year of school just because you want it.

You have it backwards -- they are sacrificing one year of school (not enrolling in PK3 when they could have, but instead enrolling a year later).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We redshirted a September birthday for DCPS PK.

I never regretted it. We ended up moving to a top private for high school and those schools have a Sept 1 cut-off and many summer birthdays are held back. As a Sept birthday, our kid was probably at the 70% for age in the class.
He graduated last year top 10% in the grade, perfect SAT, socially very strong (an incredible friend group), leader, went on to an Ivy.
Sure, maybe he would have been the exact same outcome if he went to school a year earlier but in our experience there was ZERO downside to waiting.

Also---I am SO, SO grateful for having another year with the kid at home. 17-18 years go by so quickly. Kids have their lifetime to be an adult, work, etc. The years at home are incredibly short.

This delusion pretty much says it all - there is no way can know that this will be the outcome for a full year old. I guess this does give PP something to brag about.

[Anonymous]

My DD has a Nov bday and has kids a year older in class. She attended a school with a Dec 31 cutoff until HS. She's totally fine. A Sept bday won't be alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No this does not work. Even if you are able to do this online, the school registrar or teacher will catch the error. DCPS is not giving away a free extra year of school just because you want it.

You have it backwards -- they are sacrificing one year of school (not enrolling in PK3 when they could have, but instead enrolling a year later).

Right but DC could just put them in pk4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No this does not work. Even if you are able to do this online, the school registrar or teacher will catch the error. DCPS is not giving away a free extra year of school just because you want it.

You have it backwards -- they are sacrificing one year of school (not enrolling in PK3 when they could have, but instead enrolling a year later).

Right but DC could just put them in pk4.

Which is what they will do in the vast majority of cases.

[Anonymous]

D.C. officially ends redshirting for kindergartners

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2025/07/01/dcps-kindergarten-redshirting-rules

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:D.C. officially ends redshirting for kindergartners

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2025/07/01/dcps-kindergarten-redshirting-rules

The fact that this became a thing is.....something. My kid has a late bday and an IEP and by default was 'red shirted'. Did pk4 twice. I was initially bummed about it but there was nothing I could do to get DS skipped despite DS being advanced academically. But i'm glad it worked out the way it did because the year started off rocky but ended amazing maturity wise. Kids are just that, KIDS. They mature on their own and for a parent to assume so much about a human being that is constantly evolving is peak tiger parent behavior. I personally don't care about age, and I can admit I had to unlearn that.

Also, DS teachers recognized his advanced ability and gave him work on his level while he learned the concepts for what he already knew which in hindsight is very important. DS is going to Kindergarten and I know they'll be some new things he will experience (schedule wise) that he will have to adjust to but that's life right? It's not fluid.

I understand both sides of the argument but one side is increasingly imo kind of gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:D.C. officially ends redshirting for kindergartners

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2025/07/01/dcps-kindergarten-redshirting-rules

The fact that this became a thing is.....something. My kid has a late bday and an IEP and by default was 'red shirted'. Did pk4 twice. I was initially bummed about it but there was nothing I could do to get DS skipped despite DS being advanced academically. But i'm glad it worked out the way it did because the year started off rocky but ended amazing maturity wise. Kids are just that, KIDS. They mature on their own and for a parent to assume so much about a human being that is constantly evolving is peak tiger parent behavior. I personally don't care about age, and I can admit I had to unlearn that.

Also, DS teachers recognized his advanced ability and gave him work on his level while he learned the concepts for what he already knew which in hindsight is very important. DS is going to Kindergarten and I know they'll be some new things he will experience (schedule wise) that he will have to adjust to but that's life right? It's not fluid.

I understand both sides of the argument but one side is increasingly imo kind of gross.

Gross is the right word.

Move out of DC or put child in private. DCPS doesn't care about what's best for all kids. Pressing kids into the wrong boxes is just the beginning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:D.C. officially ends redshirting for kindergartners

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2025/07/01/dcps-kindergarten-redshirting-rules

This is good. A clear policy with no little backdoor workarounds for (mostly wealthy) families at certain elementaries.

Also something not discussed in the article and never mentioned in these discussions: DC has a host of application high schools and admission is based on grades, teacher recs, and an interview. Well being a year older during that process could be a major advantage, especially given the emphasis on factors where maturity is a huge benefit -- an older 8th grader may have an easier time developing relationships with teachers and being composed during an admissions interview. But should certain students actually get an edge in applying to these schools simply because they are older than others in their grade? I personally don't think so, especially when it's a benefit really only available to families that can afford an extra year of preschool and whose kids attend schools where the parent community exerts enough pressure on principals to permit the practice.

I am open to a new policy like those in nearby districts where there's a flexible cut off, but it would need to be a district-wide policy, not at the discretion of principals, and you need to have a plan in place to ensure it's available to all kids and not those whose parents have the means to pay for preschool. I think requiring a readiness evaluation before a family could redshirt might have to be part of the conversation, so that families with developmentally normal kids couldn't redshirt just to nab an advantage. There needs to be a reason.