Academic redshirting

What It Means

Academic redshirting is the decision to have a child start kindergarten a year later than the first year they're old enough to enroll. Researchers Daphna Bassok and Sean Reardon define kindergarten redshirting simply as delaying a child's school entry, and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) describes it as parents enrolling a child after the age their school district says they may start. NCES found it more common among children born late in the year, who are relatively young when they first become eligible.

How Parents Say It

• "His birthday's in August, so we're thinking about waiting a year."
• "We redshirted her and haven't regretted it."
• "The school said he's ready, but he'd be the youngest in the class."

The Breakdown

Formula. With a cutoff date, a child's age on the first day of kindergarten depends on how far their birthday falls before that date. Waiting a year adds exactly 12 months, and for a birthday just before the cutoff it turns one of the youngest in a class into one of the oldest.

Worked example with a September 1 cutoff (an example date; states set their own)

Benchmark: how common it is. Bassok and Reardon's 2013 study of two nationally representative data sets put it at 4% to 5.5% of children. An older NCES report, from 1993 and 1995 surveys, found that, by parents' reports, 9% of first- and second-graders had started kindergarten late. Both found boys more likely to be held back, and NCES found it more often among children born later in the year. Bassok and Reardon also found it more common for White children and higher-income families, and saw no sign that children with weaker skills at age 4 were the ones being held back.

What the research found on outcomes. In the NCES surveys, children who started late did about as well as others on most school measures, and in 1995 they were half as likely to repeat first or second grade. These are decades-old surveys of early grades, so they say little about later years.

Good to Know

Kindergarten entry ageKindergarten readinessHow prepared a child is for kindergarten, in social, emotional, language, thinking and physical skills, alongside meeting their state's entry age. See more is set by state law, and cutoff dates differ from state to state; your state's department of education or your school district has the rule, including any early entry or waiver process. Readiness is more than age: HealthyChildren.org points to communication, getting along with others, toileting and physical skills, which Buhata's kindergarten readiness page covers. Talk with your child's pediatrician and the school before deciding.

Related Terms and Categories

• Kindergarten readiness

  How prepared a child is for kindergarten, in social, emotional, language, thinking and physical skills, alongside meeting their state's entry age.

• Kindergarten registration

  Enrolling your child in kindergarten with the school district, usually by showing proof of age, proof of residence and immunization records before the school year.

• Transitional kindergarten

  California's free first year of a two-year kindergarten program, open to every child who turns 4 by September 1 of the school year, from 2025-26.

• Pre-K

  Prekindergarten: school-readiness classes for children, typically 3 and 4 years old, in the year or two before they start kindergarten.

• Social-emotional development

  How a child learns to understand their own feelings, read other people's, and build relationships, from early smiles to taking turns in games.

• Developmental milestones

  Skills most children can do by a certain age, like rolling over or waving bye-bye. CDC places each at the age 75% or more of children reach it.

Parenting and child development