Why is redshirting so rare if it's so advantageous?

[Anonymous]

Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

I think everyone does have a choice right???

[Anonymous]

No, any child can’t just decide to choose their peers so that they are the eldest. There is a maximum of a couple of months before the cut off that allows for redshirting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, any child can’t just decide to choose their peers so that they are the eldest. There is a maximum of a couple of months before the cut off that allows for redshirting.

really? where is that written? and for which school district?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who don’t know, redshirting is the practice of delaying a fall-born child’s Kindergarten entrance until they’re almost 6 instead of almost 5. This is something I’m thinking about doing with my son, who will be 4 in November and will be eligible for Kindergarten in the fall of 2022. There are many studies that show that kids who are redshirted do better in school as well as later in life, and honestly, you don’t have to be a scientist to see why this makes sense. Kids who start older are going to be more mature and ready to handle the challenges of school. This means they’ll get better grades, get into better colleges, and get better jobs.

You’d think that based on this information, any parent with a fall-born child who could afford an extra year of daycare would redshirt without hesitation. But this is not the case. When I think of all people I know who have fall birthdays and are from affluent families, the vast majority started Kindergarten at 4. As tempted as I am to redshirt my son, I can’t help but feel that there must be a reason why so few parents do it.

If you have a fall-born child who you could afford to redshirt but didn’t, why not? And if you could do it over again, would you redshirt?

1) it's not rare but common here
2) the claims of its advantages are dubious at best

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

They could do that already. You just need to have your kid in school by the compulsory age of attendance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

They could do that already. You just need to have your kid in school by the compulsory age of attendance.

What? If a kids starts schools before the compulsory age of attendance (5) then they would be on the younger side, not the oldest. What I am saying is that you can’t currently start many kid at 6 when they will turn 7 within the school year. Only redshirters begin school at 6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

They could do that already. You just need to have your kid in school by the compulsory age of attendance.

What? If a kids starts schools before the compulsory age of attendance (5) then they would be on the younger side, not the oldest. What I am saying is that you can’t currently start many kid at 6 when they will turn 7 within the school year. Only redshirters begin school at 6.

Link? My daughter is in middle school and we've known a handful of kids with spring birthdays who turned 7 at the end of K, 12 at the end of 5th, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

They could do that already. You just need to have your kid in school by the compulsory age of attendance.

What? If a kids starts schools before the compulsory age of attendance (5) then they would be on the younger side, not the oldest. What I am saying is that you can’t currently start many kid at 6 when they will turn 7 within the school year. Only redshirters begin school at 6.

Because the vast majority of redshirted kids are summer birthdays. They’re 6 for the entire year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

They could do that already. You just need to have your kid in school by the compulsory age of attendance.

What? If a kids starts schools before the compulsory age of attendance (5) then they would be on the younger side, not the oldest. What I am saying is that you can’t currently start many kid at 6 when they will turn 7 within the school year. Only redshirters begin school at 6.

Link? My daughter is in middle school and we've known a handful of kids with spring birthdays who turned 7 at the end of K, 12 at the end of 5th, etc.

They where redshirted! My point that kids with Fall and Winter birthdays don’t have the same option, they have start school on the September ( or whatever the district policy is) they are 5. They can’t be 6 going on 7 like your spring born redshirted example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

If they are several years older they are not true peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

They could do that already. You just need to have your kid in school by the compulsory age of attendance.

What? If a kids starts schools before the compulsory age of attendance (5) then they would be on the younger side, not the oldest. What I am saying is that you can’t currently start many kid at 6 when they will turn 7 within the school year. Only redshirters begin school at 6.

Link? My daughter is in middle school and we've known a handful of kids with spring birthdays who turned 7 at the end of K, 12 at the end of 5th, etc.

They where redshirted! My point that kids with Fall and Winter birthdays don’t have the same option, they have start school on the September ( or whatever the district policy is) they are 5. They can’t be 6 going on 7 like your spring born redshirted example.

You have a choice. Some can test in or go private. You can homeschool. My fall kid tested in. No big deal.

[Anonymous]

If you can’t afford anything but your allocated public school and are developmentally ready ( or can pay for a psychologist to say what you want to hear) then you don’t have that choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Why should only the youngest in the year group get to choose the age of their peer group?

What if a the parents of a January born kid in a district with an August cut off decides that they want them to be the very oldest in the room and decide to redshirt.

Let’s let everyone have the right to choose and not a select few.

They could do that already. You just need to have your kid in school by the compulsory age of attendance.

What? If a kids starts schools before the compulsory age of attendance (5) then they would be on the younger side, not the oldest. What I am saying is that you can’t currently start many kid at 6 when they will turn 7 within the school year. Only redshirters begin school at 6.

Because the vast majority of redshirted kids are summer birthdays. They’re 6 for the entire year.

That's not true. The vast majority of redshirted kids are fall birthdays. They're 6 for almost the entire year. Summer kids aren't in danger of starting college at 17, so it wouldn't make any sense to redshirt them.

[Anonymous]

I think some clarification is needed.

There are obviously differences in cut off dates in different school districts. Redshirting is most common when birthdays are just before the cut off because ordinarily they would be the youngest in the class.

So redshirting is most common in kids with summer birthdays when the cut off is September. It’s most common with fall birthday when the cut off is December.

Have I got that straight?