Redshirting consequences at Lafayette

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else feeling a really delightful amount of schadenfreude at this whole story? People who think rules don't apply to them having them vigorously applied to them?

Absolutely!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:If the objective is equitable options for every student, what DCPS should do would be for every child make a decision if they are K ready. Even if you are already enrolled in DCPS, have the same standards applied across the city so that children who are in PreK3 / PreK4 do not get social promotion into K. Reframe the message that some kids stick in PreK and not make it a thing for moving to K. If a parent disagrees with the decision that the child is K ready, there is the appropriate supports in place.

I agree with this line of thought. In addition, allow the parents of summer babies to make that decision if they want to enroll their child in k or stay another year. The age gap is still acceptable and those kids would still complete high school as ~18 year olds.

Then go private why should tax payers pay for an extra year of preschool?

I never mentioned anything about tax payers pay for an extra year of preschool. I simply proposed to give the parents leeway to decide when their summer child should start K!
And there is already a DCPS policy in place that students cannot repeat a school year. What I proposed is separate from retaining two years.

If the child is in DCPS PK then that does mean an extra year of public PK.

+1

If you enroll your kid in PK4 and then decide the kid isn’t ready for K, that’s an extra year of Pre-K. Thr logistics of that each year would be difficult to manage from a school standpoint and a staffing standpoint.

What’s the difficulty in management?
It is actually a win-win resolution for everyone: the parents can decide during pk4 if their child is ready for K or not. They can stay through if the child is ready or move to private, then they can come back to public if they wish so for the compulsory K. No extra cost and no management burden incurred for public schools. The parents are absorbing the cost, but at least they have a choice. This is a reasonable choice. And it is a win long term for the child and any future classrooms that the child will be in. Plus, they would still be 18 by the time they graduate.

Why is it so hard for you to follow the rules? If you had a good reason they might work with you but you don’t.

What is the good rationale behind a September 30th date? And rules are meant to be challenged and improved. That’s a good motto to teach our children if we want them to grow up and go on to make a positive change in the world.

I don’t know the rationale behind the September 30th date but I think it is reasonable to align age with 1st day of school. Your child must be 5 by the first day to enter kindergarten. There really aren’t that many kids in each class with a late August or September birthday. My kid is a late September bday and there is only one other child with an August birthday. Someone has to be the youngest. I am also a teacher and suburban school districts aren’t as lenient about age as the letter suggests.

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Palo Alto says at a minimum a child has to be 5. Every district is different. If DCPS wanted to do it right it would hire the best expert from the top child development center to determine the cutoff

They have experts. You just don’t agree with them. No need to hire someone bias. If you want to hire them you pay for it.

Ha. DCPS has experts the way Robert Kennedy Jr is a doctor.

Want equity? Adopt NY public schools cutoff. Why should a child in DC benefit from a later cutoff?

This is incredibly stupid! Why should a child benefit? Because public education policy is meant for the benefit of children.

So get a really good, highly educated public education policy expert. Not whatever dated rule exists now.

I’m wondering where that “follow the rules” harpy is now. From Mr. Goulet statement it seems that the rules do permit holding back, it’s just the school and administrators decided to reinterprets them unreasonably strict.

He says principals have discretion, but this principal decided not to use it. The parents tried to elevate and get the principal in trouble and got a very different reaction. Good. You can’t say you favor principal’s discretion and then try to get the principal fired for not doing what you want.

When you’re paid generously from public money you’re supposed to serve the children and parents in the community that pays your salary, not implement a whacky DEI agenda.

Your job is to work with the parents, not fight them, retaliate left and right and treat them like criminals. If you can’t do that you should make room for someone else to take over, either resigning or being fired, which is the way things will likely end up.

But again - you interpret "fighting them" as using their discretion to reach a result that a select few parents disagree with. That doesn't make it "fighting".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many parents bring an extremely unhealthy competitive background. To the point of assuming everyone is in direct competition and everyone is scheming to get an unfair advantage however minute.

There is a broad ignorance about mental health issues and many of these posters exhibit troublesome paranoia traits that have little anchoring in reality.

I’m sympathetic to these people whom were active posters in this thread, but they end up hurting people around them including their own kids. It’s important to bring awareness and perspective.

Holding your kids back without good reason seems the height of entitlement and mental illness. They are the competitive parents trying to give their kids the edge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many parents bring an extremely unhealthy competitive background. To the point of assuming everyone is in direct competition and everyone is scheming to get an unfair advantage however minute.

There is a broad ignorance about mental health issues and many of these posters exhibit troublesome paranoia traits that have little anchoring in reality.

I’m sympathetic to these people whom were active posters in this thread, but they end up hurting people around them including their own kids. It’s important to bring awareness and perspective.

Holding your kids back without good reason seems the height of entitlement and mental illness. They are the competitive parents trying to give their kids the edge.

Luckily you’re not a psychiatrist. Maybe if you’d been redshirted you’d have gone far enough in your education to understand research and data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Many parents bring an extremely unhealthy competitive background. To the point of assuming everyone is in direct competition and everyone is scheming to get an unfair advantage however minute.

There is a broad ignorance about mental health issues and many of these posters exhibit troublesome paranoia traits that have little anchoring in reality.

I’m sympathetic to these people whom were active posters in this thread, but they end up hurting people around them including their own kids. It’s important to bring awareness and perspective.

Holding your kids back without good reason seems the height of entitlement and mental illness. They are the competitive parents trying to give their kids the edge.

Luckily you’re not a psychiatrist. Maybe if you’d been redshirted you’d have gone far enough in your education to understand research and data.

Do you realize how you sound which is why no one takes you seriously? Spend less time bullying and more time preparing your kids for school. What is far enough in my education? I have a masters. How about you? And, mine went on time because I made sure they were prepared despite sn. See how that works.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone speak to when the "emergency legislation" will actually be voted on and any next steps needed for a decision to be final?

This whole situation is wild, and Eric G's unhinged letter takes it up a notch.

[Anonymous]

I agree that some of these posters show troubling mental health signs. Really surprised the lack of boundary awareness. We are talking about kids here and people are speculating wildly about special needs, IEP, what was approved, with absolutely no shred of evidence. Ultimately that’s a private matter, leave it to the school and parents.

The comments about taking pleasure in someone’s (a child, none the less!) misfortune were truly repugnant. You’ve got to have a massive chip on your shoulder to stoop so low.

The competition these parents imagine themselves to be in is truly disturbing. The kid starting kindergarten later won’t steal anyone spot at a coveted college or a job later on, life is not that deterministic.

Also the strident chest beating about how great of a mother a poster is for taking care of her special needs child, and judging everyone else by how they compare against how much she did for her kid. Are we competing on who sacrificed most for their kids now? That’s what it seems. The bragging and inquiring about whose kid is more advanced in math, that’s a whole next level of insane competitiveness.

Unfortunately these harpies are lost, there’s no relief in sight, because they think of themselves as heroine mothers and models to follow, the very voice of common sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Many parents bring an extremely unhealthy competitive background. To the point of assuming everyone is in direct competition and everyone is scheming to get an unfair advantage however minute.

There is a broad ignorance about mental health issues and many of these posters exhibit troublesome paranoia traits that have little anchoring in reality.

I’m sympathetic to these people whom were active posters in this thread, but they end up hurting people around them including their own kids. It’s important to bring awareness and perspective.

Holding your kids back without good reason seems the height of entitlement and mental illness. They are the competitive parents trying to give their kids the edge.

Luckily you’re not a psychiatrist. Maybe if you’d been redshirted you’d have gone far enough in your education to understand research and data.

Do you realize how you sound which is why no one takes you seriously? Spend less time bullying and more time preparing your kids for school. What is far enough in my education? I have a masters. How about you? And, mine went on time because I made sure they were prepared despite sn. See how that works.

You have no data, research, education policy background, information about other children and yet are anonymously making clinical diagnoses online. All of this is what a strong, rigorous education is meant to prevent.

Yes, my education outstrips yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many parents bring an extremely unhealthy competitive background. To the point of assuming everyone is in direct competition and everyone is scheming to get an unfair advantage however minute.

There is a broad ignorance about mental health issues and many of these posters exhibit troublesome paranoia traits that have little anchoring in reality.

I’m sympathetic to these people whom were active posters in this thread, but they end up hurting people around them including their own kids. It’s important to bring awareness and perspective.

Holding your kids back without good reason seems the height of entitlement and mental illness. They are the competitive parents trying to give their kids the edge.

I’m not mentally ill. I decided I would rather send my 18 almost 19 year old child to college than my not quite 18 year old. So he started kindergarten late. I am sorry if that offends you.

[Anonymous]

If principals have discretion, the Lafayette principal should make the 2025-2026 school year the last year that kids can be enrolled a year late and that policy should be broadcast far and wide. None of these families is asking DCPS for an extra year of schooling for their children; they just want K-12, same as everyone else. They’re not incurring extra expense for DCPS.

Yes, the parents were wrong just to assume that rules will be bent for them, wherever there is discretion, but a principal who has the discretion to allow these children to enroll in kindergarten, but is refusing to do so just to prove a point is doing a real disservice to these children. Making children skip kindergarten entirely because their parents didn’t enroll them in a timely manner is detrimental to the children’s scholastic progress. No principal would do this if their students’ best interests was their top priority. It’s nakedly punitive.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen this bonkers newsletter from Eric Goulet, the Ward 3 SBOE rep? It’s a very lengthy piece about how DCPS is now throwing people out of of kindergarten following a Ward wide age audit? Doesn’t seem like DCPS would have its act together to pull something like that off. Are the Lafayette moms behind this? Newsletter was posted on the CC Listseve, which is sort of tabloid like on a good day.

Yes, it was on the Tenleytown one too. Here it is for those interested:

This edition of the Ward 3 DC State Board of Education (SBOE) newsletter focuses on troubling actions by Chancellor Lewis Ferebee and DC Public School (DCPS) leadership that are needlessly traumatizing DC families who just want to send their children to kindergarten next fall. DCPS has abruptly changed policy regarding kindergarten age of enrollment without notice, informed families their children must skip kindergarten and go directly to first grade, and has retaliated against families who pushed back by reporting them to the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) for child neglect. If any family, who has not already been working with me on this issue, has been impacted by these actions, please reach out to me at [e-mail].

BACKGROUND ON DC KINDERGARTEN ENROLLMENT

The District of Columbia has one of the youngest ages in the country at which a child is eligible for kindergarten enrollment. In DC, a child is required to turn five on or before September 30th to be eligible to attend kindergarten. With such a young eligibility age, for decades, some parents with youth who have summer birthdays have decided it was necessary to defer kindergarten enrollment due to academic delays or maturity issues.

Maryland and Virginia, which have age cutoffs of September 1st and September 30th, allow a parent to delay kindergarten enrollment for up to one year with a written request for a maturity exception. A Maryland deferral request requires enrollment in a childcare or pre-K program, while a Virginia parent’s deferral request just needs to include documentation supporting enrollment delay. In the District of Columbia, prior to this year, principals have always utilized the discretion provided in the DC Municipal Regulations (2201.6) to ensure students who are not proficient or who have developmental delays in physical, social or emotional maturity are placed in the appropriate grade level, thus allowing children completing Pre-K4 to progress to kindergarten.

Due to school overcrowding, Ward 3 is the only ward in the District of Columbia that has no DCPS Pre-K3, and it has very limited public options through one charter school and community-based pre-k. Thus, many families are forced to enroll students in private or parochial pre-kindergarten programs. Historically, many of these facilities simply have aligned enrollment based upon the child’s age at the start of the school year, and have applied for licenses that are consistent with serving 3- and 4-year-olds in Pre-K 3 and serving 4- and 5-year-olds in Pre-K4. Thus, a student would need to turn three before starting Pre-K3 at a private school, whereas they often needs to turn three by September 30th to enroll in public Pre-K3. This one-month enrollment misalignment has never been an issue, prior to this year, because a Pre-K4 graduate was always just allowed to advance to kindergarten as the next logical step in their education.

Lastly, I know of an example, where a family moved into DC from a state with a kindergarten age cutoff of September 1st. Since the child has a mid-September birthday, this child was unable to register for kindergarten in the state from which they moved. Historically, upon moving to DC, this family would have been offered the choice of whether they wanted to attend first grade in DC (since DC has a September 30 age cutoff) or whether they wanted the opportunity to attend kindergarten.

Again, there was never a problem with kindergarten enrollment prior to this year. Principals were allowed to exercise their discretion to place children in the appropriate grade based on the child’s academic progress and development.

DCPS LEADERSHIP ABUSES ITS DISCRETION AND INTIMIDATES AND TRAUMATIZES DC FAMILIES

The unfortunate situation at issue began at Lafayette Elementary School with Principal Katie Prall. Some may remember this principal for restricting outdoor recess this past December after alleging the play area was “slippery”. Principal Prall did not utilize the guidance in DC regulations regarding proficiency and physical, social or emotional development to base her decisions. She refused to allow students with birthdays before October 1st to advance from Pre-K4 to Kindergarten, and instead said these students must skip kindergarten and enroll in first grade. Cinthia Ruiz, DCPS Chief Integrity Officer; Andria Caruthers, DCPS Instructional Superintendent for Cluster 4; and Chancellor Lewis Ferebee then became involved.

Parents explained that the guidance in DC Regulations has always been used by principals across DC for decades to place children graduating from Pre-K4 into kindergarten. Unfortunately, rather than understanding that these children should not be forced to skip kindergarten due to an abrupt DCPS policy shift, DCPS decided to escalate matters.

(1) DCPS ordered an age audit of all Ward 3 elementary schools and began disenrolling children that had already previously been enrolled in kindergarten.

(2) Chancellor Ferebee and his staff ordered families to pull their children from the 5-day-a-week Pre-K programs they were attending, with two months left in the school year, and to enroll in DCPS kindergarten. When parents refused, DCPS retaliated by reporting the parents to the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) for child neglect due to purported truancy.

(3) DCPS refused to allow families moving in from other states, whose children could not previously attend kindergarten, to be able to attend this year.

(4) Chancellor Ferebee voided enrollment deferrals, which were already approved by DCPS in School Year 2024-2025 to allow students with developmental delays to attend Pre-K4 instead of kindergarten. Even though these students were found, by DCPS, to not be developmentally ready for kindergarten this year, the Chancellor is now forcing these children to skip kindergarten, despite clear evidence that these children are not academically proficient or developmentally prepared to attend 1st grade. Once a developmental waiver to hold a student back a year is approved by DCPS, it should never be rescinded, forcing the child to skip a grade.

(5) Chancellor Ferebee has refused to assess academic proficiency or physical, social or emotional development before voiding prior age-waivers already granted by DCPS or to even provide assessments this spring. The Chancellor’s position is that he will assess the children in the fall as first graders, after they are forced to skip kindergarten, and if they struggle, then DCPS says it will consider demoting the children to kindergarten.

Some families just received notices of kindergarten disenrollment last week. Parents are understandably confused, panicked, and traumatized. None of these actions by DCPS are in the best interests of these children. This is intentional cruelty and retaliation by Chancellor Ferebee and DCPS leadership against parents who advocated for the best interests of their children. For months, parents have tried to work with the Chancellor, and all he has done is escalate his retaliation to harm more families. The Chancellor’s decision to report families with five-year-old-children attending five-day-a-week Pre-K4 to DC’s child protective service for neglect is unnecessary, chilling, and indefensible.

If a drastic change in DCPS kindergarten enrollment policy was contemplated, DCPS should have provided advance notice to pre-k facilities and to parents. Some impacted parents testified at our State Board of Education meeting that if they had any idea that DCPS was going to remove the enrollment discretion from its principals that had existed for decades, then they would have enrolled their children in kindergarten this year, instead of enrolling in Pre-K4.

SOLUTIONS

There is a very straightforward short-term solution to this, and I have drafted emergency legislation that will solve the immediate problem. None of these families have done anything wrong, and their children should not be victims of DCPS’s poor planning, lack of notice, and sudden policy change. Every one of these children should be allowed to attend kindergarten in School Year 2025-2026. Further, since students have already enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs for next school year, children completing Pre-K4 in 2026 should also be allowed to next attend kindergarten in the 2026-2027 school year. The DC State Board of Education can approve the transmission of this legislation to the DC Council, and then it will be up to the Council to approve the legislation on an emergency basis. SBOE will vote on the transmission of the bill either this week or the following week. The legislation also provides that no family can be reported by DCPS for child neglect, while their child is attending a pre-k program.

There must also be a long-term fix to prevent further confusion and trauma in School Year 2027-2028 and beyond. DC should either align enrollment dates between private and public pre-k providers, or at least provide clear guidance to parents. DC must have a fair and reliable process for families with children who have developmental delays to request waivers. This solution should be developed in a thoughtful manner over the next six months and should include early childhood development experts. After a policy is set for School Year 2027-2028, there should be clear communication with private and parochial pre-k schools and parents. In some cases, pre-k facilities may want to change their licensure to also become licensed to serve 2-year-olds with September birthdays in Pre-K3.

REMINDER TO AFFECTED FAMILIES

I’d like to reiterate what I said at the beginning. If you are a family who has been told your child must skip kindergarten, or who DCPS has reported to CFSA for truancy and educational child neglect, please reach out to me at [e-mail]. I can only imagine how scared and frustrated you must be, but there are still people who want help ensure your child gets to attend kindergarten this coming fall.

Lastly, on Memorial Day, I want to express my gratitude and remember those who gave their lives to serve our nation. My sincere condolences to the friends and family of fallen heroes.

Sincerely,
Eric Goulet

It’s also posted on his twitter account. I like how he named all the offenders including the principal and the bureaucrats in the central office who really overplayed their hands antagonizing parents and voters.

Really brave reporting parents to child protective services. They should and will pay with their jobs. Guaranteed that parents are filing FOIAs and preparing lawsuits.

They are mandated reporters. These parents are technically committing educational neglect and have been very public about that fact.

Educational neglect! Ha!

Well, then why are they only doing this to award 3? There’s no neglect in other wards you say?

Also sure, they’re truant. Hold em back ….. in Kindergarten!!!!

I know others have already responded to you, but I think it's important for you to understand how off base this comment is.

Here's the CPS reports in DC by Ward for 2022 (the most recent year for with data is available at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in collaboration with DC Action):

City District of Columbia 2022 Number 939
Ward Ward 1 2022 Number 56
Ward Ward 2 2022 Number 20
Ward Ward 3 2022 Number 23
Ward Ward 4 2022 Number 76
Ward Ward 5 2022 Number 136
Ward Ward 6 2022 Number 50
Ward Ward 7 2022 Number 228
Ward Ward 8 2022 Number 338

Wards are balanced to have roughly similar populations, and Wards 7 and 8 actually have the smallest populations in the district (even more so in 2022 prior to redistricting).

Ward 7 has an 11x higher rate of CPS reports than Ward 3. Ward 8 has a 17x higher rate. Educational neglect is one of the most common reasons for CPS reports because DC uses the public school system as a way to identify kids at risk for abuse or neglect -- kids who are not being sent to school on time are also more likely to experience other forms of neglect and abuse, including failure to obtain needed medical or dental treatment, inadequate nutrition, housing insecurity, etc. So families that fail to enroll their children in kindergarten on time are highly likely to be investigated by CPS if the problem is identified. Whether that's because a neighbor reports it or because the parents go on the local news to explain that they didn't enroll their kids in kindergarten by age 5.

Now you might say, yeah but these kids aren't experiencing other forms of neglect! In fact the reason these parents didn't enroll their kids in kindergarten on time was because they care so much about their kids that they wanted to optimize their educational experience. Well, I'm glad you mentioned this because guess what, that is also what parents in other wards say when they are investigated by CPS for failure to enroll on time. "He isn't ready for kindergarten, we decided he's better off at home with grandma until he's 6." How receptive do you think CPS is to these arguments for parents in Wards 7 and 8? I can assure you: not very.

The idea that DCPS, or CPS, is somehow *targeting* Ward 3 families on this issue is laughable. As a general matter, families in Ward 3 who are wealthy and white are given much broader latitude by CPS than families of other races and lower socioeconomic levels. However, these Ward 3 families chose to advertise their behavior on television and announce it on list serves, which puts the city in a situation where they pretty much have to enforce these rules and investigate these families just as they would a low income black or Hispanic family in another ward. The Ward 3 families gave the city no real other choice.

If they wanted to change the rules about enrollment for the whole city, they should have lobbied for that but also followed the same rules that every other family in the city is expected to follow. The idea that a handful of wealthy white schools in upper NW get to violate these rules because.... reasons is just ridiculous on its face. And now that those handful of schools are being forced to comply the way everyone else in the city has been complying for years, NOW they are arguing the entire system should be changed? So brave.

Well let me tell you what they do to other kids in the city that don’t come to school…absolutely nothing. They can’t! That’s what we were told on the community safety call directly by HHS in response to this: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/5-year-old-boy-found-naked-and-unconscious-died-living-in-squalor/3736474/?amp=1

Again, asking DCPS to use their brains and not waste resources.

You haven’t responded to my other suggestion which is - fine label them truant, now why won’t they hold them back in K? Could it possibly be because of the Ward they live in?😱

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen this bonkers newsletter from Eric Goulet, the Ward 3 SBOE rep? It’s a very lengthy piece about how DCPS is now throwing people out of of kindergarten following a Ward wide age audit? Doesn’t seem like DCPS would have its act together to pull something like that off. Are the Lafayette moms behind this? Newsletter was posted on the CC Listseve, which is sort of tabloid like on a good day.

Yes, it was on the Tenleytown one too. Here it is for those interested:

This edition of the Ward 3 DC State Board of Education (SBOE) newsletter focuses on troubling actions by Chancellor Lewis Ferebee and DC Public School (DCPS) leadership that are needlessly traumatizing DC families who just want to send their children to kindergarten next fall. DCPS has abruptly changed policy regarding kindergarten age of enrollment without notice, informed families their children must skip kindergarten and go directly to first grade, and has retaliated against families who pushed back by reporting them to the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) for child neglect. If any family, who has not already been working with me on this issue, has been impacted by these actions, please reach out to me at [e-mail].

BACKGROUND ON DC KINDERGARTEN ENROLLMENT

The District of Columbia has one of the youngest ages in the country at which a child is eligible for kindergarten enrollment. In DC, a child is required to turn five on or before September 30th to be eligible to attend kindergarten. With such a young eligibility age, for decades, some parents with youth who have summer birthdays have decided it was necessary to defer kindergarten enrollment due to academic delays or maturity issues.

Maryland and Virginia, which have age cutoffs of September 1st and September 30th, allow a parent to delay kindergarten enrollment for up to one year with a written request for a maturity exception. A Maryland deferral request requires enrollment in a childcare or pre-K program, while a Virginia parent’s deferral request just needs to include documentation supporting enrollment delay. In the District of Columbia, prior to this year, principals have always utilized the discretion provided in the DC Municipal Regulations (2201.6) to ensure students who are not proficient or who have developmental delays in physical, social or emotional maturity are placed in the appropriate grade level, thus allowing children completing Pre-K4 to progress to kindergarten.

Due to school overcrowding, Ward 3 is the only ward in the District of Columbia that has no DCPS Pre-K3, and it has very limited public options through one charter school and community-based pre-k. Thus, many families are forced to enroll students in private or parochial pre-kindergarten programs. Historically, many of these facilities simply have aligned enrollment based upon the child’s age at the start of the school year, and have applied for licenses that are consistent with serving 3- and 4-year-olds in Pre-K 3 and serving 4- and 5-year-olds in Pre-K4. Thus, a student would need to turn three before starting Pre-K3 at a private school, whereas they often needs to turn three by September 30th to enroll in public Pre-K3. This one-month enrollment misalignment has never been an issue, prior to this year, because a Pre-K4 graduate was always just allowed to advance to kindergarten as the next logical step in their education.

Lastly, I know of an example, where a family moved into DC from a state with a kindergarten age cutoff of September 1st. Since the child has a mid-September birthday, this child was unable to register for kindergarten in the state from which they moved. Historically, upon moving to DC, this family would have been offered the choice of whether they wanted to attend first grade in DC (since DC has a September 30 age cutoff) or whether they wanted the opportunity to attend kindergarten.

Again, there was never a problem with kindergarten enrollment prior to this year. Principals were allowed to exercise their discretion to place children in the appropriate grade based on the child’s academic progress and development.

DCPS LEADERSHIP ABUSES ITS DISCRETION AND INTIMIDATES AND TRAUMATIZES DC FAMILIES

The unfortunate situation at issue began at Lafayette Elementary School with Principal Katie Prall. Some may remember this principal for restricting outdoor recess this past December after alleging the play area was “slippery”. Principal Prall did not utilize the guidance in DC regulations regarding proficiency and physical, social or emotional development to base her decisions. She refused to allow students with birthdays before October 1st to advance from Pre-K4 to Kindergarten, and instead said these students must skip kindergarten and enroll in first grade. Cinthia Ruiz, DCPS Chief Integrity Officer; Andria Caruthers, DCPS Instructional Superintendent for Cluster 4; and Chancellor Lewis Ferebee then became involved.

Parents explained that the guidance in DC Regulations has always been used by principals across DC for decades to place children graduating from Pre-K4 into kindergarten. Unfortunately, rather than understanding that these children should not be forced to skip kindergarten due to an abrupt DCPS policy shift, DCPS decided to escalate matters.

(1) DCPS ordered an age audit of all Ward 3 elementary schools and began disenrolling children that had already previously been enrolled in kindergarten.

(2) Chancellor Ferebee and his staff ordered families to pull their children from the 5-day-a-week Pre-K programs they were attending, with two months left in the school year, and to enroll in DCPS kindergarten. When parents refused, DCPS retaliated by reporting the parents to the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) for child neglect due to purported truancy.

(3) DCPS refused to allow families moving in from other states, whose children could not previously attend kindergarten, to be able to attend this year.

(4) Chancellor Ferebee voided enrollment deferrals, which were already approved by DCPS in School Year 2024-2025 to allow students with developmental delays to attend Pre-K4 instead of kindergarten. Even though these students were found, by DCPS, to not be developmentally ready for kindergarten this year, the Chancellor is now forcing these children to skip kindergarten, despite clear evidence that these children are not academically proficient or developmentally prepared to attend 1st grade. Once a developmental waiver to hold a student back a year is approved by DCPS, it should never be rescinded, forcing the child to skip a grade.

(5) Chancellor Ferebee has refused to assess academic proficiency or physical, social or emotional development before voiding prior age-waivers already granted by DCPS or to even provide assessments this spring. The Chancellor’s position is that he will assess the children in the fall as first graders, after they are forced to skip kindergarten, and if they struggle, then DCPS says it will consider demoting the children to kindergarten.

Some families just received notices of kindergarten disenrollment last week. Parents are understandably confused, panicked, and traumatized. None of these actions by DCPS are in the best interests of these children. This is intentional cruelty and retaliation by Chancellor Ferebee and DCPS leadership against parents who advocated for the best interests of their children. For months, parents have tried to work with the Chancellor, and all he has done is escalate his retaliation to harm more families. The Chancellor’s decision to report families with five-year-old-children attending five-day-a-week Pre-K4 to DC’s child protective service for neglect is unnecessary, chilling, and indefensible.

If a drastic change in DCPS kindergarten enrollment policy was contemplated, DCPS should have provided advance notice to pre-k facilities and to parents. Some impacted parents testified at our State Board of Education meeting that if they had any idea that DCPS was going to remove the enrollment discretion from its principals that had existed for decades, then they would have enrolled their children in kindergarten this year, instead of enrolling in Pre-K4.

SOLUTIONS

There is a very straightforward short-term solution to this, and I have drafted emergency legislation that will solve the immediate problem. None of these families have done anything wrong, and their children should not be victims of DCPS’s poor planning, lack of notice, and sudden policy change. Every one of these children should be allowed to attend kindergarten in School Year 2025-2026. Further, since students have already enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs for next school year, children completing Pre-K4 in 2026 should also be allowed to next attend kindergarten in the 2026-2027 school year. The DC State Board of Education can approve the transmission of this legislation to the DC Council, and then it will be up to the Council to approve the legislation on an emergency basis. SBOE will vote on the transmission of the bill either this week or the following week. The legislation also provides that no family can be reported by DCPS for child neglect, while their child is attending a pre-k program.

There must also be a long-term fix to prevent further confusion and trauma in School Year 2027-2028 and beyond. DC should either align enrollment dates between private and public pre-k providers, or at least provide clear guidance to parents. DC must have a fair and reliable process for families with children who have developmental delays to request waivers. This solution should be developed in a thoughtful manner over the next six months and should include early childhood development experts. After a policy is set for School Year 2027-2028, there should be clear communication with private and parochial pre-k schools and parents. In some cases, pre-k facilities may want to change their licensure to also become licensed to serve 2-year-olds with September birthdays in Pre-K3.

REMINDER TO AFFECTED FAMILIES

I’d like to reiterate what I said at the beginning. If you are a family who has been told your child must skip kindergarten, or who DCPS has reported to CFSA for truancy and educational child neglect, please reach out to me at [e-mail]. I can only imagine how scared and frustrated you must be, but there are still people who want help ensure your child gets to attend kindergarten this coming fall.

Lastly, on Memorial Day, I want to express my gratitude and remember those who gave their lives to serve our nation. My sincere condolences to the friends and family of fallen heroes.

Sincerely,
Eric Goulet

It’s also posted on his twitter account. I like how he named all the offenders including the principal and the bureaucrats in the central office who really overplayed their hands antagonizing parents and voters.

Really brave reporting parents to child protective services. They should and will pay with their jobs. Guaranteed that parents are filing FOIAs and preparing lawsuits.

They are mandated reporters. These parents are technically committing educational neglect and have been very public about that fact.

Educational neglect! Ha!

Well, then why are they only doing this to award 3? There’s no neglect in other wards you say?

Also sure, they’re truant. Hold em back ….. in Kindergarten!!!!

I know others have already responded to you, but I think it's important for you to understand how off base this comment is.

Here's the CPS reports in DC by Ward for 2022 (the most recent year for with data is available at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in collaboration with DC Action):

City District of Columbia 2022 Number 939
Ward Ward 1 2022 Number 56
Ward Ward 2 2022 Number 20
Ward Ward 3 2022 Number 23
Ward Ward 4 2022 Number 76
Ward Ward 5 2022 Number 136
Ward Ward 6 2022 Number 50
Ward Ward 7 2022 Number 228
Ward Ward 8 2022 Number 338

Wards are balanced to have roughly similar populations, and Wards 7 and 8 actually have the smallest populations in the district (even more so in 2022 prior to redistricting).

Ward 7 has an 11x higher rate of CPS reports than Ward 3. Ward 8 has a 17x higher rate. Educational neglect is one of the most common reasons for CPS reports because DC uses the public school system as a way to identify kids at risk for abuse or neglect -- kids who are not being sent to school on time are also more likely to experience other forms of neglect and abuse, including failure to obtain needed medical or dental treatment, inadequate nutrition, housing insecurity, etc. So families that fail to enroll their children in kindergarten on time are highly likely to be investigated by CPS if the problem is identified. Whether that's because a neighbor reports it or because the parents go on the local news to explain that they didn't enroll their kids in kindergarten by age 5.

Now you might say, yeah but these kids aren't experiencing other forms of neglect! In fact the reason these parents didn't enroll their kids in kindergarten on time was because they care so much about their kids that they wanted to optimize their educational experience. Well, I'm glad you mentioned this because guess what, that is also what parents in other wards say when they are investigated by CPS for failure to enroll on time. "He isn't ready for kindergarten, we decided he's better off at home with grandma until he's 6." How receptive do you think CPS is to these arguments for parents in Wards 7 and 8? I can assure you: not very.

The idea that DCPS, or CPS, is somehow *targeting* Ward 3 families on this issue is laughable. As a general matter, families in Ward 3 who are wealthy and white are given much broader latitude by CPS than families of other races and lower socioeconomic levels. However, these Ward 3 families chose to advertise their behavior on television and announce it on list serves, which puts the city in a situation where they pretty much have to enforce these rules and investigate these families just as they would a low income black or Hispanic family in another ward. The Ward 3 families gave the city no real other choice.

If they wanted to change the rules about enrollment for the whole city, they should have lobbied for that but also followed the same rules that every other family in the city is expected to follow. The idea that a handful of wealthy white schools in upper NW get to violate these rules because.... reasons is just ridiculous on its face. And now that those handful of schools are being forced to comply the way everyone else in the city has been complying for years, NOW they are arguing the entire system should be changed? So brave.

This city doesn't have equity so the idea that these Lafayette families are suffering because of too much equity in DC is laughable if it weren't so enraging.

I know nothing of anyone involved beyond what they've chosen to say publicly but the general idea that wealthy white Ward 3 families cannot abuse or neglect their children is racist and classist. You are correct that many other parents use similar arguments, some rooted in cultural and religious beliefs as well, and the same families stomping their feet here would absolutely look down on those groups for not sending their kids to school.

The purpose of CPS is to investigate any allegations. And the idea that these allegations are just coming from the Chancellor himself because he's mad people went to the news is ridiculous. Bowser has bent over backwards for Ward 3 and certain areas (read her own) of Ward 4.

The allegations of child neglect are coming directly from the school chancellor. This is a tweet from Eric Goulet, school board representative:

@DCPSChancellor tried to tell me he had no choice because he’s a mandatory reporter for truancy. Yet this 5-year-old child is attending a 5-day-per-week pre-k school. Further, the 2 cases of CPS reporting “coincidentally” both occurred when parents pushed back on DCPS.

Why are these people leading the school district? The hypocrisy is breathtaking, and they should absolutely resign.

CPS reporting is enforced selectively to parents that disagree with the chancellor.

I mean the Chancellor, as much as I dislike him, is right. He has to report known cases of truancy. And it's not coincidental. They told the school our kid is eligible but isn't there. That's not what a coincidence is.

If you think the Chancellor is only investigating people who dislike and disagree with him the numbers are staggeringly low. Our school alone would probably account for hundreds of cases.

If you believe that DCPS and the Chancellor don’t target people…godspeed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen this bonkers newsletter from Eric Goulet, the Ward 3 SBOE rep? It’s a very lengthy piece about how DCPS is now throwing people out of of kindergarten following a Ward wide age audit? Doesn’t seem like DCPS would have its act together to pull something like that off. Are the Lafayette moms behind this? Newsletter was posted on the CC Listseve, which is sort of tabloid like on a good day.

Yes, it was on the Tenleytown one too. Here it is for those interested:

This edition of the Ward 3 DC State Board of Education (SBOE) newsletter focuses on troubling actions by Chancellor Lewis Ferebee and DC Public School (DCPS) leadership that are needlessly traumatizing DC families who just want to send their children to kindergarten next fall. DCPS has abruptly changed policy regarding kindergarten age of enrollment without notice, informed families their children must skip kindergarten and go directly to first grade, and has retaliated against families who pushed back by reporting them to the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) for child neglect. If any family, who has not already been working with me on this issue, has been impacted by these actions, please reach out to me at [e-mail].

BACKGROUND ON DC KINDERGARTEN ENROLLMENT

The District of Columbia has one of the youngest ages in the country at which a child is eligible for kindergarten enrollment. In DC, a child is required to turn five on or before September 30th to be eligible to attend kindergarten. With such a young eligibility age, for decades, some parents with youth who have summer birthdays have decided it was necessary to defer kindergarten enrollment due to academic delays or maturity issues.

Maryland and Virginia, which have age cutoffs of September 1st and September 30th, allow a parent to delay kindergarten enrollment for up to one year with a written request for a maturity exception. A Maryland deferral request requires enrollment in a childcare or pre-K program, while a Virginia parent’s deferral request just needs to include documentation supporting enrollment delay. In the District of Columbia, prior to this year, principals have always utilized the discretion provided in the DC Municipal Regulations (2201.6) to ensure students who are not proficient or who have developmental delays in physical, social or emotional maturity are placed in the appropriate grade level, thus allowing children completing Pre-K4 to progress to kindergarten.

Due to school overcrowding, Ward 3 is the only ward in the District of Columbia that has no DCPS Pre-K3, and it has very limited public options through one charter school and community-based pre-k. Thus, many families are forced to enroll students in private or parochial pre-kindergarten programs. Historically, many of these facilities simply have aligned enrollment based upon the child’s age at the start of the school year, and have applied for licenses that are consistent with serving 3- and 4-year-olds in Pre-K 3 and serving 4- and 5-year-olds in Pre-K4. Thus, a student would need to turn three before starting Pre-K3 at a private school, whereas they often needs to turn three by September 30th to enroll in public Pre-K3. This one-month enrollment misalignment has never been an issue, prior to this year, because a Pre-K4 graduate was always just allowed to advance to kindergarten as the next logical step in their education.

Lastly, I know of an example, where a family moved into DC from a state with a kindergarten age cutoff of September 1st. Since the child has a mid-September birthday, this child was unable to register for kindergarten in the state from which they moved. Historically, upon moving to DC, this family would have been offered the choice of whether they wanted to attend first grade in DC (since DC has a September 30 age cutoff) or whether they wanted the opportunity to attend kindergarten.

Again, there was never a problem with kindergarten enrollment prior to this year. Principals were allowed to exercise their discretion to place children in the appropriate grade based on the child’s academic progress and development.

DCPS LEADERSHIP ABUSES ITS DISCRETION AND INTIMIDATES AND TRAUMATIZES DC FAMILIES

The unfortunate situation at issue began at Lafayette Elementary School with Principal Katie Prall. Some may remember this principal for restricting outdoor recess this past December after alleging the play area was “slippery”. Principal Prall did not utilize the guidance in DC regulations regarding proficiency and physical, social or emotional development to base her decisions. She refused to allow students with birthdays before October 1st to advance from Pre-K4 to Kindergarten, and instead said these students must skip kindergarten and enroll in first grade. Cinthia Ruiz, DCPS Chief Integrity Officer; Andria Caruthers, DCPS Instructional Superintendent for Cluster 4; and Chancellor Lewis Ferebee then became involved.

Parents explained that the guidance in DC Regulations has always been used by principals across DC for decades to place children graduating from Pre-K4 into kindergarten. Unfortunately, rather than understanding that these children should not be forced to skip kindergarten due to an abrupt DCPS policy shift, DCPS decided to escalate matters.

(1) DCPS ordered an age audit of all Ward 3 elementary schools and began disenrolling children that had already previously been enrolled in kindergarten.

(2) Chancellor Ferebee and his staff ordered families to pull their children from the 5-day-a-week Pre-K programs they were attending, with two months left in the school year, and to enroll in DCPS kindergarten. When parents refused, DCPS retaliated by reporting the parents to the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) for child neglect due to purported truancy.

(3) DCPS refused to allow families moving in from other states, whose children could not previously attend kindergarten, to be able to attend this year.

(4) Chancellor Ferebee voided enrollment deferrals, which were already approved by DCPS in School Year 2024-2025 to allow students with developmental delays to attend Pre-K4 instead of kindergarten. Even though these students were found, by DCPS, to not be developmentally ready for kindergarten this year, the Chancellor is now forcing these children to skip kindergarten, despite clear evidence that these children are not academically proficient or developmentally prepared to attend 1st grade. Once a developmental waiver to hold a student back a year is approved by DCPS, it should never be rescinded, forcing the child to skip a grade.

(5) Chancellor Ferebee has refused to assess academic proficiency or physical, social or emotional development before voiding prior age-waivers already granted by DCPS or to even provide assessments this spring. The Chancellor’s position is that he will assess the children in the fall as first graders, after they are forced to skip kindergarten, and if they struggle, then DCPS says it will consider demoting the children to kindergarten.

Some families just received notices of kindergarten disenrollment last week. Parents are understandably confused, panicked, and traumatized. None of these actions by DCPS are in the best interests of these children. This is intentional cruelty and retaliation by Chancellor Ferebee and DCPS leadership against parents who advocated for the best interests of their children. For months, parents have tried to work with the Chancellor, and all he has done is escalate his retaliation to harm more families. The Chancellor’s decision to report families with five-year-old-children attending five-day-a-week Pre-K4 to DC’s child protective service for neglect is unnecessary, chilling, and indefensible.

If a drastic change in DCPS kindergarten enrollment policy was contemplated, DCPS should have provided advance notice to pre-k facilities and to parents. Some impacted parents testified at our State Board of Education meeting that if they had any idea that DCPS was going to remove the enrollment discretion from its principals that had existed for decades, then they would have enrolled their children in kindergarten this year, instead of enrolling in Pre-K4.

SOLUTIONS

There is a very straightforward short-term solution to this, and I have drafted emergency legislation that will solve the immediate problem. None of these families have done anything wrong, and their children should not be victims of DCPS’s poor planning, lack of notice, and sudden policy change. Every one of these children should be allowed to attend kindergarten in School Year 2025-2026. Further, since students have already enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs for next school year, children completing Pre-K4 in 2026 should also be allowed to next attend kindergarten in the 2026-2027 school year. The DC State Board of Education can approve the transmission of this legislation to the DC Council, and then it will be up to the Council to approve the legislation on an emergency basis. SBOE will vote on the transmission of the bill either this week or the following week. The legislation also provides that no family can be reported by DCPS for child neglect, while their child is attending a pre-k program.

There must also be a long-term fix to prevent further confusion and trauma in School Year 2027-2028 and beyond. DC should either align enrollment dates between private and public pre-k providers, or at least provide clear guidance to parents. DC must have a fair and reliable process for families with children who have developmental delays to request waivers. This solution should be developed in a thoughtful manner over the next six months and should include early childhood development experts. After a policy is set for School Year 2027-2028, there should be clear communication with private and parochial pre-k schools and parents. In some cases, pre-k facilities may want to change their licensure to also become licensed to serve 2-year-olds with September birthdays in Pre-K3.

REMINDER TO AFFECTED FAMILIES

I’d like to reiterate what I said at the beginning. If you are a family who has been told your child must skip kindergarten, or who DCPS has reported to CFSA for truancy and educational child neglect, please reach out to me at [e-mail]. I can only imagine how scared and frustrated you must be, but there are still people who want help ensure your child gets to attend kindergarten this coming fall.

Lastly, on Memorial Day, I want to express my gratitude and remember those who gave their lives to serve our nation. My sincere condolences to the friends and family of fallen heroes.

Sincerely,
Eric Goulet

It’s also posted on his twitter account. I like how he named all the offenders including the principal and the bureaucrats in the central office who really overplayed their hands antagonizing parents and voters.

Really brave reporting parents to child protective services. They should and will pay with their jobs. Guaranteed that parents are filing FOIAs and preparing lawsuits.

They are mandated reporters. These parents are technically committing educational neglect and have been very public about that fact.

Educational neglect! Ha!

Well, then why are they only doing this to award 3? There’s no neglect in other wards you say?

Also sure, they’re truant. Hold em back ….. in Kindergarten!!!!

I know others have already responded to you, but I think it's important for you to understand how off base this comment is.

Here's the CPS reports in DC by Ward for 2022 (the most recent year for with data is available at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in collaboration with DC Action):

City District of Columbia 2022 Number 939
Ward Ward 1 2022 Number 56
Ward Ward 2 2022 Number 20
Ward Ward 3 2022 Number 23
Ward Ward 4 2022 Number 76
Ward Ward 5 2022 Number 136
Ward Ward 6 2022 Number 50
Ward Ward 7 2022 Number 228
Ward Ward 8 2022 Number 338

Wards are balanced to have roughly similar populations, and Wards 7 and 8 actually have the smallest populations in the district (even more so in 2022 prior to redistricting).

Ward 7 has an 11x higher rate of CPS reports than Ward 3. Ward 8 has a 17x higher rate. Educational neglect is one of the most common reasons for CPS reports because DC uses the public school system as a way to identify kids at risk for abuse or neglect -- kids who are not being sent to school on time are also more likely to experience other forms of neglect and abuse, including failure to obtain needed medical or dental treatment, inadequate nutrition, housing insecurity, etc. So families that fail to enroll their children in kindergarten on time are highly likely to be investigated by CPS if the problem is identified. Whether that's because a neighbor reports it or because the parents go on the local news to explain that they didn't enroll their kids in kindergarten by age 5.

Now you might say, yeah but these kids aren't experiencing other forms of neglect! In fact the reason these parents didn't enroll their kids in kindergarten on time was because they care so much about their kids that they wanted to optimize their educational experience. Well, I'm glad you mentioned this because guess what, that is also what parents in other wards say when they are investigated by CPS for failure to enroll on time. "He isn't ready for kindergarten, we decided he's better off at home with grandma until he's 6." How receptive do you think CPS is to these arguments for parents in Wards 7 and 8? I can assure you: not very.

The idea that DCPS, or CPS, is somehow *targeting* Ward 3 families on this issue is laughable. As a general matter, families in Ward 3 who are wealthy and white are given much broader latitude by CPS than families of other races and lower socioeconomic levels. However, these Ward 3 families chose to advertise their behavior on television and announce it on list serves, which puts the city in a situation where they pretty much have to enforce these rules and investigate these families just as they would a low income black or Hispanic family in another ward. The Ward 3 families gave the city no real other choice.

If they wanted to change the rules about enrollment for the whole city, they should have lobbied for that but also followed the same rules that every other family in the city is expected to follow. The idea that a handful of wealthy white schools in upper NW get to violate these rules because.... reasons is just ridiculous on its face. And now that those handful of schools are being forced to comply the way everyone else in the city has been complying for years, NOW they are arguing the entire system should be changed? So brave.

This city doesn't have equity so the idea that these Lafayette families are suffering because of too much equity in DC is laughable if it weren't so enraging.

I know nothing of anyone involved beyond what they've chosen to say publicly but the general idea that wealthy white Ward 3 families cannot abuse or neglect their children is racist and classist. You are correct that many other parents use similar arguments, some rooted in cultural and religious beliefs as well, and the same families stomping their feet here would absolutely look down on those groups for not sending their kids to school.

The purpose of CPS is to investigate any allegations. And the idea that these allegations are just coming from the Chancellor himself because he's mad people went to the news is ridiculous. Bowser has bent over backwards for Ward 3 and certain areas (read her own) of Ward 4.

Except that all the children were in OSSE licensed programs for their age and were on file with the city 🤯😵‍💫

It’s really hard understanding facts when they’re not on your side.

And OF COURSE the Chancellor is targeting people. Do you really think this is not possible in DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many parents bring an extremely unhealthy competitive background. To the point of assuming everyone is in direct competition and everyone is scheming to get an unfair advantage however minute.

There is a broad ignorance about mental health issues and many of these posters exhibit troublesome paranoia traits that have little anchoring in reality.

I’m sympathetic to these people whom were active posters in this thread, but they end up hurting people around them including their own kids. It’s important to bring awareness and perspective.

Holding your kids back without good reason seems the height of entitlement and mental illness. They are the competitive parents trying to give their kids the edge.

I’m not mentally ill. I decided I would rather send my 18 almost 19 year old child to college than my not quite 18 year old. So he started kindergarten late. I am sorry if that offends you.

So, you are bullying others to do what you do to rationalize it. My kid will be a few week of 17 in college. Not a big deal. Far better than being 18 in hs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen this bonkers newsletter from Eric Goulet, the Ward 3 SBOE rep? It’s a very lengthy piece about how DCPS is now throwing people out of of kindergarten following a Ward wide age audit? Doesn’t seem like DCPS would have its act together to pull something like that off. Are the Lafayette moms behind this? Newsletter was posted on the CC Listseve, which is sort of tabloid like on a good day.

Yes, it was on the Tenleytown one too. Here it is for those interested:

This edition of the Ward 3 DC State Board of Education (SBOE) newsletter focuses on troubling actions by Chancellor Lewis Ferebee and DC Public School (DCPS) leadership that are needlessly traumatizing DC families who just want to send their children to kindergarten next fall. DCPS has abruptly changed policy regarding kindergarten age of enrollment without notice, informed families their children must skip kindergarten and go directly to first grade, and has retaliated against families who pushed back by reporting them to the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) for child neglect. If any family, who has not already been working with me on this issue, has been impacted by these actions, please reach out to me at [e-mail].

BACKGROUND ON DC KINDERGARTEN ENROLLMENT

The District of Columbia has one of the youngest ages in the country at which a child is eligible for kindergarten enrollment. In DC, a child is required to turn five on or before September 30th to be eligible to attend kindergarten. With such a young eligibility age, for decades, some parents with youth who have summer birthdays have decided it was necessary to defer kindergarten enrollment due to academic delays or maturity issues.

Maryland and Virginia, which have age cutoffs of September 1st and September 30th, allow a parent to delay kindergarten enrollment for up to one year with a written request for a maturity exception. A Maryland deferral request requires enrollment in a childcare or pre-K program, while a Virginia parent’s deferral request just needs to include documentation supporting enrollment delay. In the District of Columbia, prior to this year, principals have always utilized the discretion provided in the DC Municipal Regulations (2201.6) to ensure students who are not proficient or who have developmental delays in physical, social or emotional maturity are placed in the appropriate grade level, thus allowing children completing Pre-K4 to progress to kindergarten.

Due to school overcrowding, Ward 3 is the only ward in the District of Columbia that has no DCPS Pre-K3, and it has very limited public options through one charter school and community-based pre-k. Thus, many families are forced to enroll students in private or parochial pre-kindergarten programs. Historically, many of these facilities simply have aligned enrollment based upon the child’s age at the start of the school year, and have applied for licenses that are consistent with serving 3- and 4-year-olds in Pre-K 3 and serving 4- and 5-year-olds in Pre-K4. Thus, a student would need to turn three before starting Pre-K3 at a private school, whereas they often needs to turn three by September 30th to enroll in public Pre-K3. This one-month enrollment misalignment has never been an issue, prior to this year, because a Pre-K4 graduate was always just allowed to advance to kindergarten as the next logical step in their education.

Lastly, I know of an example, where a family moved into DC from a state with a kindergarten age cutoff of September 1st. Since the child has a mid-September birthday, this child was unable to register for kindergarten in the state from which they moved. Historically, upon moving to DC, this family would have been offered the choice of whether they wanted to attend first grade in DC (since DC has a September 30 age cutoff) or whether they wanted the opportunity to attend kindergarten.

Again, there was never a problem with kindergarten enrollment prior to this year. Principals were allowed to exercise their discretion to place children in the appropriate grade based on the child’s academic progress and development.

DCPS LEADERSHIP ABUSES ITS DISCRETION AND INTIMIDATES AND TRAUMATIZES DC FAMILIES

The unfortunate situation at issue began at Lafayette Elementary School with Principal Katie Prall. Some may remember this principal for restricting outdoor recess this past December after alleging the play area was “slippery”. Principal Prall did not utilize the guidance in DC regulations regarding proficiency and physical, social or emotional development to base her decisions. She refused to allow students with birthdays before October 1st to advance from Pre-K4 to Kindergarten, and instead said these students must skip kindergarten and enroll in first grade. Cinthia Ruiz, DCPS Chief Integrity Officer; Andria Caruthers, DCPS Instructional Superintendent for Cluster 4; and Chancellor Lewis Ferebee then became involved.

Parents explained that the guidance in DC Regulations has always been used by principals across DC for decades to place children graduating from Pre-K4 into kindergarten. Unfortunately, rather than understanding that these children should not be forced to skip kindergarten due to an abrupt DCPS policy shift, DCPS decided to escalate matters.

(1) DCPS ordered an age audit of all Ward 3 elementary schools and began disenrolling children that had already previously been enrolled in kindergarten.

(2) Chancellor Ferebee and his staff ordered families to pull their children from the 5-day-a-week Pre-K programs they were attending, with two months left in the school year, and to enroll in DCPS kindergarten. When parents refused, DCPS retaliated by reporting the parents to the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) for child neglect due to purported truancy.

(3) DCPS refused to allow families moving in from other states, whose children could not previously attend kindergarten, to be able to attend this year.

(4) Chancellor Ferebee voided enrollment deferrals, which were already approved by DCPS in School Year 2024-2025 to allow students with developmental delays to attend Pre-K4 instead of kindergarten. Even though these students were found, by DCPS, to not be developmentally ready for kindergarten this year, the Chancellor is now forcing these children to skip kindergarten, despite clear evidence that these children are not academically proficient or developmentally prepared to attend 1st grade. Once a developmental waiver to hold a student back a year is approved by DCPS, it should never be rescinded, forcing the child to skip a grade.

(5) Chancellor Ferebee has refused to assess academic proficiency or physical, social or emotional development before voiding prior age-waivers already granted by DCPS or to even provide assessments this spring. The Chancellor’s position is that he will assess the children in the fall as first graders, after they are forced to skip kindergarten, and if they struggle, then DCPS says it will consider demoting the children to kindergarten.

Some families just received notices of kindergarten disenrollment last week. Parents are understandably confused, panicked, and traumatized. None of these actions by DCPS are in the best interests of these children. This is intentional cruelty and retaliation by Chancellor Ferebee and DCPS leadership against parents who advocated for the best interests of their children. For months, parents have tried to work with the Chancellor, and all he has done is escalate his retaliation to harm more families. The Chancellor’s decision to report families with five-year-old-children attending five-day-a-week Pre-K4 to DC’s child protective service for neglect is unnecessary, chilling, and indefensible.

If a drastic change in DCPS kindergarten enrollment policy was contemplated, DCPS should have provided advance notice to pre-k facilities and to parents. Some impacted parents testified at our State Board of Education meeting that if they had any idea that DCPS was going to remove the enrollment discretion from its principals that had existed for decades, then they would have enrolled their children in kindergarten this year, instead of enrolling in Pre-K4.

SOLUTIONS

There is a very straightforward short-term solution to this, and I have drafted emergency legislation that will solve the immediate problem. None of these families have done anything wrong, and their children should not be victims of DCPS’s poor planning, lack of notice, and sudden policy change. Every one of these children should be allowed to attend kindergarten in School Year 2025-2026. Further, since students have already enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs for next school year, children completing Pre-K4 in 2026 should also be allowed to next attend kindergarten in the 2026-2027 school year. The DC State Board of Education can approve the transmission of this legislation to the DC Council, and then it will be up to the Council to approve the legislation on an emergency basis. SBOE will vote on the transmission of the bill either this week or the following week. The legislation also provides that no family can be reported by DCPS for child neglect, while their child is attending a pre-k program.

There must also be a long-term fix to prevent further confusion and trauma in School Year 2027-2028 and beyond. DC should either align enrollment dates between private and public pre-k providers, or at least provide clear guidance to parents. DC must have a fair and reliable process for families with children who have developmental delays to request waivers. This solution should be developed in a thoughtful manner over the next six months and should include early childhood development experts. After a policy is set for School Year 2027-2028, there should be clear communication with private and parochial pre-k schools and parents. In some cases, pre-k facilities may want to change their licensure to also become licensed to serve 2-year-olds with September birthdays in Pre-K3.

REMINDER TO AFFECTED FAMILIES

I’d like to reiterate what I said at the beginning. If you are a family who has been told your child must skip kindergarten, or who DCPS has reported to CFSA for truancy and educational child neglect, please reach out to me at [e-mail]. I can only imagine how scared and frustrated you must be, but there are still people who want help ensure your child gets to attend kindergarten this coming fall.

Lastly, on Memorial Day, I want to express my gratitude and remember those who gave their lives to serve our nation. My sincere condolences to the friends and family of fallen heroes.

Sincerely,
Eric Goulet

It’s also posted on his twitter account. I like how he named all the offenders including the principal and the bureaucrats in the central office who really overplayed their hands antagonizing parents and voters.

Really brave reporting parents to child protective services. They should and will pay with their jobs. Guaranteed that parents are filing FOIAs and preparing lawsuits.

They are mandated reporters. These parents are technically committing educational neglect and have been very public about that fact.

Educational neglect! Ha!

Well, then why are they only doing this to award 3? There’s no neglect in other wards you say?

Also sure, they’re truant. Hold em back ….. in Kindergarten!!!!

I know others have already responded to you, but I think it's important for you to understand how off base this comment is.

Here's the CPS reports in DC by Ward for 2022 (the most recent year for with data is available at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in collaboration with DC Action):

City District of Columbia 2022 Number 939
Ward Ward 1 2022 Number 56
Ward Ward 2 2022 Number 20
Ward Ward 3 2022 Number 23
Ward Ward 4 2022 Number 76
Ward Ward 5 2022 Number 136
Ward Ward 6 2022 Number 50
Ward Ward 7 2022 Number 228
Ward Ward 8 2022 Number 338

Wards are balanced to have roughly similar populations, and Wards 7 and 8 actually have the smallest populations in the district (even more so in 2022 prior to redistricting).

Ward 7 has an 11x higher rate of CPS reports than Ward 3. Ward 8 has a 17x higher rate. Educational neglect is one of the most common reasons for CPS reports because DC uses the public school system as a way to identify kids at risk for abuse or neglect -- kids who are not being sent to school on time are also more likely to experience other forms of neglect and abuse, including failure to obtain needed medical or dental treatment, inadequate nutrition, housing insecurity, etc. So families that fail to enroll their children in kindergarten on time are highly likely to be investigated by CPS if the problem is identified. Whether that's because a neighbor reports it or because the parents go on the local news to explain that they didn't enroll their kids in kindergarten by age 5.

Now you might say, yeah but these kids aren't experiencing other forms of neglect! In fact the reason these parents didn't enroll their kids in kindergarten on time was because they care so much about their kids that they wanted to optimize their educational experience. Well, I'm glad you mentioned this because guess what, that is also what parents in other wards say when they are investigated by CPS for failure to enroll on time. "He isn't ready for kindergarten, we decided he's better off at home with grandma until he's 6." How receptive do you think CPS is to these arguments for parents in Wards 7 and 8? I can assure you: not very.

The idea that DCPS, or CPS, is somehow *targeting* Ward 3 families on this issue is laughable. As a general matter, families in Ward 3 who are wealthy and white are given much broader latitude by CPS than families of other races and lower socioeconomic levels. However, these Ward 3 families chose to advertise their behavior on television and announce it on list serves, which puts the city in a situation where they pretty much have to enforce these rules and investigate these families just as they would a low income black or Hispanic family in another ward. The Ward 3 families gave the city no real other choice.

If they wanted to change the rules about enrollment for the whole city, they should have lobbied for that but also followed the same rules that every other family in the city is expected to follow. The idea that a handful of wealthy white schools in upper NW get to violate these rules because.... reasons is just ridiculous on its face. And now that those handful of schools are being forced to comply the way everyone else in the city has been complying for years, NOW they are arguing the entire system should be changed? So brave.

Well let me tell you what they do to other kids in the city that don’t come to school…absolutely nothing. They can’t! That’s what we were told on the community safety call directly by HHS in response to this: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/5-year-old-boy-found-naked-and-unconscious-died-living-in-squalor/3736474/?amp=1

Again, asking DCPS to use their brains and not waste resources.

You haven’t responded to my other suggestion which is - fine label them truant, now why won’t they hold them back in K? Could it possibly be because of the Ward they live in?😱

DCPS has a policy not to hold back any kids before a certain grade. So truancy does not lead to a kid being held back. It has nothing to do with Ward- but you have a real chip on your shoulder as to the injustices heaped upon kids in Ward 3.