Washington, D.C., is no longer allowing parents to delay their child’s entrance into kindergarten by one year, a practice often referred to as “redshirting.” 

The practice is commonly used by parents of children with later birth dates relative to the school year, or children viewed as facing a higher risk of struggling or failing in kindergarten due to delayed social, physical, or academic development. 

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However, while D.C. Public Schools has historically taken a lenient approach to redshirting, often allowing parents to delay enrollment, DCPS has rejected requests from more than a dozen families trying to delay enrollment into highly rated elementary schools so far this year, according to Axios. Principles are even turning down children with doctor’s notes requesting an exception. 

The crackdown comes despite outcry earlier this year from parents seeking to delay their children’s entrance into Lafayette Elementary School’s first grade. The school told parents they were implementing a strict age cut-off date for children allowed to attend kindergarten. Any child aged 6 years old by September 30 would be required to attend first grade, officials said, according to WJLA, even if they had not attended kindergarten. 

“I can’t believe that we’re in this position,” parent Avra Siegel said in March. 

Some districts, including New York City and Chicago public schools, have already banned the practice, while states such as Oklahoma have placed restrictions on redshirting, preventing parents from enrolling their children in schools a year later if the student has a late summer birth date or poses developmental concerns.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser stood by the district’s strict regulatory crackdown last month, arguing that redshirting provides children unfair advantages over their peers. 

“We are not like a red shirt jurisdiction,” she said during remarks to the media. “You know what that means? That means when people delay their child to go into the grade that their age specifies, so that they’re older than the other kids in the class. Our policies don’t allow that.” 

“Now, if there are specific cases and for specific children that demonstrate why they need to be in a lower grade, then that possibility exists in the Chancellor’s authority, but as a rule, children are admitted to the grade that their age determines,” she continued. “We shouldn’t have a policy to say we want some kids to be advantaged to the disadvantage of other kids.” 

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Boys are more likely to be redshirted, “not only for social reasons, but also for sports,” Christopher Brown, a professor of early childhood education at the University of Texas at Austin, told Today.com.

“I live in Texas, and football is king. Many families want their child to be as old and big as possible by the time they are ready to play high school football,” he said.