Reply to How to “redshirt” in DC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]D.C. officially ends redshirting for kindergartners

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

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

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

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

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