D.C. officially ends redshirting for kindergartners
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D.C. is cracking down on families who want to enroll their kids late into kindergarten — a practice known as redshirting.
Why it matters: D.C. Public Schools used to let principals allow families to delay enrollment, especially if a child has developmental concerns.
- But suddenly D.C. isn't making exceptions, even for kids with doctors' notes.
The big picture: The pivot has enraged a group of upper Northwest parents, who are pushing the D.C. Council to step in.
Zoom in: In the past, D.C. occasionally let some kids with birthdays close to the kindergarten cutoff wait a year to enroll — or redshirt. It meant that newly minted 6-year-olds could start school a whole year older than newly minted 5-year-olds.
- This year, DCPS rejected requests from more than a dozen families trying to delay enrollment into highly rated elementary schools like Lafayette.
- That means for kids who turn 5 by Sept. 30, it's kindergarten — not an extra year of PreK4. For kids who redshirted last year, DCPS is saying to skip kindergarten and go straight to first grade.
"This has been so stressful," one parent who wishes to remain anonymous to protect their child's identity tells Axios.
- Last year, given their child's learning and socialization difficulties, the family decided to repeat PK4, after receiving written assurances from an elementary principal that he could start the 2025-26 school year in kindergarten, per emails the family shared with Axios.
- But that promise was yanked in May. The family's now being told their child will need to jump to first grade in the fall, despite letters from a pediatrician and child psychologist. "There has been zero sympathy," the parent says. "They are making no exceptions."
- Families in similar situations have been contacted by the DC Child and Family Services Agency for not putting their kids in the right grade, says Eric Goulet, a member of the State Board of Education. He calls it "harsh retaliation tactics."
"We are not a redshirt jurisdiction," Mayor Muriel Bowser recently said. (The DC Urban Moms forum abounds with tips — and mostly failed attempts — at redshirting into DCPS.) "We shouldn't have a policy to say we want some kids to be advantaged to the disadvantage of other kids," she said.
- If there are "specific children that demonstrate why they need to be in a lower grade," Bowser added, "then that possibility exists in the chancellor's authority."
- "There may have been instances in the past where select principals may have redshirted students, but we have better tools in place now," DCPS spokesperson Evan Lambert tells Axios. He cited updates to the MySchoolDC portal, which now automatically aligns enrollment to the correct grade based on a child's age. Improvements like that are ensuring "the law is being followed in a consistent manner throughout the District," he adds.
Context: A long time ago, redshirting meant taking a gap year to gain an edge in college athletics.
- Now it's become more common in kindergarten, sometimes seen in hypercompetitive D.C. as a way to give a kid an edge academically or athletically.
- Families whose kids have developmental disorders, meanwhile, say they just need more time to mature.
What's next: The State Board of Education is proposing a bill to the Council that would loosen the kindergarten cutoff and allow for exceptions such as when kids arrive from out of state or private schools.
- But Council Chair Phil Mendelson doesn't appear open to the idea. He suggested Monday that students should be evaluated once enrolled — that means starting school and being taken down a grade, if needed.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a comment from DCPS spokesperson Evan Lambert.