Reply to Why don’t schools make you just through some hoops for redshirting?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People really forget what it looks like to send a kid to kindergarten who isn't ready.  You end up with child who continually disrupts the entire classroom and who ends up 100% miserable because they can't seem to meet expectations and view themselves as bad.

It really isn't good for the other students or teacher.  Redshirting for maturity isn't the same as for a sports advantage. [/quote]

I have zero problem with redshirting for maturity. But I agree with OP that outside of a certain age window (say within 3 months of the cutoff, which would cover all summer birthday for a Sep 1 cutoff), a redshirting decision should require some kind of assessment or evidence of delays. Because some people will say they are redshirting for maturity, but they aren't. If you are redshirting a January birthday, and there is no clear evidence that it's necessary, I just assume it's because you are trying to work an advantage.

Bracing to be called a "crazed anti-redshirter" even though I literally just expressed support for redshirting in 3, 2, 1...[/quote]

NP. Your position is pretty much the most reasonable one on this thread![/quote]

Why do you think this is a reasonable position? PP is demanding that cash-strapped school districts across the entire country implement an entire assessment protocol, presumably to be administered by costly specialist evaluators, to solve something that very few people and districts seem to think is a problem. There is no widespread evidence of harm from redshirting and there are very few kids redshirted who are outside PPs three-month window. If there was actually a problem here, school districts could implement a strict cutoff rule, like NYC has, no expensive assessments needed. However, very few districts nationally have followed NYC’s approach.

I genuinely do not understand what is “reasonable” about demanding an entire regulatory apparatus be installed in school districts across the country. What PP wants is probably millions of dollars per district, by the time it’s up and running. That’s millions of dollars that could be spent on education, just so PPs kid doesn’t encounter a kid that is older than PPs kid. Could you explain why you think that’s reasonable? It seems wildly and somewhat insanely unreasonable to me.

[/quote]

Uh, I'm PP and I'm not "demanding" anything of the sort. The vast majority of parents don't want to redshirt, and of those that do, most of the time the kids are summer birthdays. My suggestion (actually OP's suggestion, I just happen to agree with it) is that outside maybe a 3 month window, redshirting should require some kind process.[b] So this means that for the small handful of students each year whose parents want to redshirt them even though they will be a minimum of 5 years and 3 months on September 1st, the parents have the option of (1) providing documentation from their own pediatrician/behavioral psychologist/etc. showing a delay that merits a delayed start, or (2) asking a district counselor to assess the child.[/b] This would really not be enormously burdensome because we are talking about a small percentage of the overall school population, and most parents in this category who want to redshirt likely would already have the documentation necessary. But the advantage of this approach is that it would discourage anyone hoping to game the system by redshirting a winter or spring birthday without any documentation.

Most parents send their kids on time and most prefer to do so.[/quote]

So, you want redshirting outside of a three-month window to be managed in a parallel IEP-like system? Who is going to do these assessments and how will they be paid and trained? Will they need special training like IEP evaluators? What certifications will be needed? What “district counselors” do you think have the free time and resources to handle something like this? (Do you know literally anything about how over-burdened most counselors are in most districts now?) What administrative employees have the free time to implement this program, particularly in poorer districts? How much money do you think should be funneled towards this?

Meanwhile your system will also work like IEPs in practice, meaning that the children of wealthy and educated parents who can spot issues will have their children in expensive private psychologist offices years before school starts, assessments complete, while poorer children or those children who don’t have parents advocating for them will never be assessed. You could attempt to take the position that public preschool programs should be set up to identify kids like this, who could benefit, but now you are talking millions of dollars annually.

I’m sorry, but I fail to see why you believe this is a remotely reasonable idea. Do you know anything about the IEP system? Why would you think it’s reasonable to build an entire structure like the IEP system for a very small number of children, just so your kid won’t encounter an older child? That strikes me as wholly unreasonable and frankly strongly on the entitled end of things. [/quote]

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