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Deciding When to Start Kindergarten

The transition into kindergarten has always been a big one for kids. And as this first year of elementary school has become increasingly academic, some parents wonder whether it’s best to enroll children as soon as they’re eligible, or wait an additional year until they’re more mature.To get more news about kindergarten, you can visit wikifx.com official website.

Considerations may feel especially fraught now, as fewer kids attended preschool during the pandemic.

Experts say that delaying kindergarten – a practice known as “redshirting” – may benefit kids in certain circumstances, but caution that there are also disadvantages to waiting.

When Are Kids Required to Start School?
In most states, children must be 5 years old by August or September to enter kindergarten that academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But the age when kids are legally required to start school is often older, and state laws and school districts’ policies can vary greatly. Sometimes the enrollment cutoff date falls after the school year has started, so children as young as 4 are eligible for kindergarten. Some states don’t require kindergarten, and some districts, such as New York City's, don’t allow redshirting. In practice, these disparate policies mean that caregivers are frequently given a lot of latitude around the decision.
“When you look across the country at children who are age-appropriate for kindergarten, the large majority are in fact going,” says Mary Kay Irwin, director of school health services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. A 2013 NCES report showed that 87% of kindergartners nationally enrolled on time in the 2010-2011 academic year, and only 6% had been redshirted (another 6% repeated kindergarten for a second year). That could be because for most working parents, delaying kindergarten means another year of paying for child care. The report found that more affluent households – those with incomes over 200% of the federal poverty line – were the most likely to redshirt.

Irwin notes there are cases in which delaying kindergarten might be a good idea. These include for children with developmental delays (though access to early intervention services, which are available in public schools, should be a consideration for these families); and for children who have experienced trauma.

She says some children with birthdays close to the cutoff date may be helped by another year of early learning and time to mature, but encourages families to talk to their pediatrician about their concerns first.For some parents, the decision is more about the long-term. Scott Odachowski, the father of a 4-year-old with a summer birthday in Broadview Heights, Ohio, decided to wait an extra year before enrolling his daughter in kindergarten. Though Odachowski says his daughter's pre-K teachers report she is academically and socially prepared, he is concerned about how her age might affect her future experiences. He says milestones like driving and puberty that he and his wife “didn’t want her to be last on,” were a factor in their choice.

Being young compared to other students in the grade has been associated with higher rates of certain diagnoses. A 2018 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed students who were young for their grade were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. And research published by the education news site Chalkbeat in 2020 found New York City students born in the last two months of the year were more likely to be identified as having a learning disability than their older peers.

Preschool teachers often talk about a less tangible benefit of waiting: extending the experience of early childhood. Odachowski says teachers at his daughter’s pre-K program called it “gifting your child another year.”