Redshirting consequences at Lafayette
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Anonymous
She seems truly insufferable. If she had kept her head down she probably would have been able to get her kid into K. |
Anonymous
DCPS isn't "digging in." They are finally enforcing a two-decades old policy that the entire rest of the city follows, at the small handful of upper NW elementaries that imagined themselves somehow exempt from this policy. Also, the policy doesn't say that a kid will never be allowed to do K at 6. It's just that in DC, parents are not allowed to unilaterally make that decision. You have to do it through the school. This is the rule every other family in DC follows. That 10 families at wealthy schools in the city's richest neighborhoods somehow think it's "unfair" for them to follow it does not mean DC is "digging in." They are following the rule. I live in another ward, have a kid with a summer birthday, and I had zero opportunity to redshirt. But these Lafayette parents should get it because.... they are richer than me? They can afford housing in more expensive neighborhoods? They can afford extra time in private PK whereas I relied on DCPS PK for financial reasons? Tell me why they get special rules. What is it about their situation that means they deserve a separate system? |
Anonymous
It is true that by publicizing the issue and making a big stink about it, they are just highlighting the reason why it is completely unfair for them to expect to be allowed to redshirt. If their kids had special needs or any real developmental reason other than "mommy just thinks I need more seasoning," that would be obvious by now and DCPS would have given in. But the more public they are about it, the more obvious it is that these kids would have been perfectly fine starting on time. |
Anonymous
+1. Borrowing the below from another thread because it’s spot on. (Sorry/thank you PP) …these three moms are intentionally making a mess of the messaging because it benefits them. There are absolutely important reasons to redshirt, as have been raised here already — trauma, ESL, developmental delays, neurodivergence, etc. And those can all be properly evaluated, approved and set up with a plan for success. Especially at a school like Lafayette. “I don’t want my kid to be the youngest” is not that. They say “I want my kid to have an advantage” but they intentionally drop the second part of the sentence. Guess what? It’s “I want my kid to have an advantage OVER YOUR KID.” Doesn’t exactly garner as much support when they actually have to admit that’s what they mean. But by virtue of shoving their kid who is over a year too old for a class in with yours, that’s exactly what it means. |
Anonymous
My conspiracy theory is that these three wealthy parents are so insufferable that DCPS is united against them in a way it wouldn’t be if it were a more reasonable family or group. My fear is that their entitlement will cause harm to families who legitimately need to hold their kids back. |
Anonymous
I don't think this is a conspiracy theory I think they've forced DCPS to make a very public declaration that will hurt other kids and families. This is a not a private school where donor money is good money. DCPS serves thousands of families. It's not so simple as every family being able to unilaterally decide when their kid starts school. |
Anonymous
+1 If DCPS gave into these parents two things would happen. It would perpetuate or highlight, depending on your view, that schools WOTP get advantages other schools don’t get. Second it would open the flood gates for parents redshirting or trying to skirt other rules or procedures in DCPS. |
Anonymous
No, they should get it because their previous principal’s policy for years and years was that parents could redshirt if they chose to do so. He had the discretion to allow it. Then DCPS decided to start enforcing their official policy more vigorously and a new principal came to Lafayette. Apparently, no one made their community aware that redshirting was no longer up to the principal’s discretion, and therefore, registration age requirements that had not customarily been honored would now be enforced. Had they been made aware, they probably would have sent their kids on time. DCPS’s policy didn’t change, but Lafayette’s did — with no notice. Now DCPS is refusing to budge on this for just 10 families at one school, for one more time only, and has taken the extraordinary position that these children should skip kindergarten entirely. If decisions were being made based on what is best for these children, rather than making these parents an example, the kids would be enrolled in kindergarten this fall. |
Anonymous
Wow you come off as entitled. “But officer, I’ve been breaking this law for years and haven’t gotten in trouble, why are you deciding to now enforce the law as it’s been written this whole time???” |
Anonymous
| IDK my kids are older and I didn’t redshirt but I think the negative comments are a little nuts. Let the kids go to kindergarten it’s not that big of a deal. |
Anonymous
They weren’t breaking the law. They weren’t even violating DCPS policy, because DCPS policy left redshirting up to the principal’s discretion until recently. DCPS decided to change that aspect of policy enforcement at the same time these families redshirted these children. They were unaware. The kids shouldn’t be punished due to the change in enforcement. This is a problem of DCPS’s own making. |
Anonymous
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I have a theory.
It used to be very rare for white or UMC people outside of upper NW to send their kids to their neighborhood DCPS. For a long time white and UMC people simply avoided living in any but upper NW neighborhoods, and if they did, they sent their kids to private or charters. But over the last 15 years, som east side, or just east of the park, neighborhoods have both gentrified a lot AND gotten buy in from those new families for the neighborhood schools. As a school's white and UMC population increases, so too will interest in redshirting. It's an educational trend that is very concentrated among upper-income white people. Well, what if families in, for instance, Capitol Hill started asking or trying to redshirt at their neighborhood schools? They are going to get a hard no, because the official policy of DCPS is that you are not allowed to do this and that kindergarten is delayed only if the school itself has evaluated the child and determined it is appropriate -- not at parental discretion. But UMC talk. At work, with friends, here on DCUM. So if you are an UMC parent on Cap Hill who wants to redshirt, you might know for a fact that there are people in upper NW who have been allowed to do it. And that is very likely to be what you say to your principal when they give you a hard no on redshirting: "Well we know multiple families at Lafayette and Mann who have redshirted in recent years, so obviously it's allowed." It would not take more than one or two such conversations with principals outside JKLM for this to get up to Central Office and force DCPS to realize that the situation has to be addressed, and that the politics and demographics of DC, and DCPS, are such that the only reasonable solution is to crack down on the "loop hole" in those upper NW schools. It may just be coming to a head now because for so long there were simply not enough high income white people at schools outside of upper NW to press the issue. Gentrification/integration of DCPS schools requires that everyone follow the same rules. |
Anonymous
Of course it’s not. It’s crazy that DCPS is handling the situation this way. |