Jennifer Lilintahl began to hear rumors last year that her local public school in the District of Columbia had begun to enforce the district’s age cutoff dates for kindergarten, putting her in a difficult position: Lilintahl’s daughter will turn 6 on Sept. 19, and the district requires incoming kindergartners to be no older than 5 on Sept. 30.
The rumors were true. Lilintahl said the school system told her that her daughter must bypass kindergarten and go straight to 1st grade. The news was a shock: “We never in a million years would have thought … that a public school would deny public kindergarten to her based on an 11-day difference,” she said.
Her family had previously lived in Maryland, which requires incoming kindergartners to be 5 by Sept. 1. Their daughter’s birthday fell smack between the neighboring areas’ cutoffs—an example of just how complicated and emotional kindergarten cutoff rules can be for families.
“For us, it was never a matter of quote-un-quote redshirting,” said Lilintahl, referring to the practice of parents delaying their children’s entry into the grade that coincides with their age. “Our plan was always for our daughter to go to kindergarten in what we thought was the appropriate time.”
But by the time the family moved to D.C., Lilintahl’s daughter was in preschool, on track to enroll in kindergarten in the 2025-26 year. Lilintahl had consulted the director at her daughter’s private preschool in D.C., asking if she recommended they skip pre-K and enroll her in kindergarten for the 2024-25 school year to comply with the public school district’s age cutoff rules. “The decision was, ‘No, pre-K is an important year,’” Lilintahl recounted.
That decision backfired. In January 2025, Lilintahl began one of what she said were several attempts to meet with the principal of their zoned public school and plead her case. The principal declined, according to Lilintahl, instead referring her to the policy.
At least a dozen other D.C.-area families found themselves in the same situation this year. A spokesperson for D.C. public schools said the district needed to enforce the law systemwide instead of making exceptions for individual families.
More than 1,000 miles away, in Lafayette, La., Corrie R. Gallien felt a similar sting last spring when her daughter got shut out of kindergarten—but in reverse. Her daughter will turn 5 on Nov. 3, about a month after the Sept. 30 kindergarten cutoff in the state. Children must have turned 5 on or before that date to enroll in kindergarten.
Too young to start kindergarten, according to state law, the little girl returned to preschool this fall.
“It came to my attention when she came home sad because her day care classmates had a graduation in May and she did not,” said Gallien, who first shared the incident in her city’s parenting blog, Lafayette Mom.
“She learned she would not be graduating because she wasn’t eligible to go to ‘big kid school’ next year,” added Gallien, who felt that her daughter, who knew her ABCs, could color “within the lines,” and exhibited strong social skills, was ready for kindergarten.
This type of strict enforcement of kindergarten cutoff dates comes at a pivotal time in early education. In recent years, the academic expectations for kindergarten—which is mandated in only 17 states and the District of Columbia, and required to be offered for at least a half day in 44 states plus D.C.—have evolved and become more rigorous. Once commonly associated with developing social and motor skills, kindergarten has become, in many districts, focused on learning foundational reading and math skills.
Also in recent years, parents in general have begun to demand a greater say in their children’s education, starting in the early grades. About 4% of families each year choose to “redshirt” their children, delaying their entry into kindergarten by one year and enrolling them at age 6.
Taken together, these factors raise the question: Who or what should decide if a child is ready for kindergarten?
Differing views on how to assess kindergarten readiness
Districts that enforce a strict age cutoff point to a child’s age as the singular determining factor for when they should begin kindergarten.
In Washington, “this requirement has been in place since 1990 and reflects our city’s belief that all children should benefit from the programming and services that schools provide. … DCPS’s enrollment policies are aligned with local laws and regulations to ensure fairness and consistency for all families,” wrote Lewis D. Ferebee, chancellor of the city’s public schools, in a July letter to D.C. Council members.
The letter came in response to the council members’ efforts in support of the group of at least a dozen local parents requesting an exception to the cutoff date this year for their children, who hadn’t yet attended kindergarten but had received notification from the school system that their birth dates made them eligible for 1st grade only.
Chris Brown, associate dean for teacher education at the University of Buffalo-SUNY and a former kindergarten teacher, notes that conversations around school readiness aren’t new. His former academic adviser, now in his 80s and retired, wrote his dissertation on the topic many decades ago.
What is new, Brown said, are elevated expectations of children in the early school years. “There’s a lot more pressure in early grades for kids to be performing at higher academic levels than were historically expected,” he said.
As for determining school readiness, Brown said: “I think that, when we make a policy [regarding start dates], we don’t know individual children, and every child is different.”
Gallien, the Louisiana parent whose daughter has to wait a year to start kindergarten because she narrowly missed the cutoff date, agrees. “Age is an arbitrary factor. I think schools should look at the kids individually to assess whether they’re ready for kindergarten,” she said.
Better communication could prevent cutoff disputes
Not all districts are prepared to open the age cutoff conversation for debate. But some district officials, like Ferebee in the District of Columbia, have recently acknowledged a need for better communication between districts and parents.
In his letter to D.C. Council members, Ferebee acknowledged “that some families have received mixed messages from different parts of our system. That should not happen.”
This year, Lilintahl’s daughter is attending a private preschool. Lilintahl remains uncertain what her daughter’s school plans for next year will be.
In Louisiana, Gallien said she never received any direct notification that her daughter missed the cutoff for kindergarten and didn’t realize she could have made the case to school officials that her child was ready for school. “I know now that under exceptional circumstances, a child missing the cutoff may qualify by testing as gifted,” she said.
Tracy Wirtz, spokesperson for the Lafayette Parish school system, said the district actively publicizes registration information “via website, social media, and a digital and radio campaign for 12 weeks from the time registration for the following year opens.”
Still, after her experience, Gallien has a message for both parents and school systems: “Parents, ask questions. Look at state laws,” she said, adding, “I feel the school system should be more proactive about informing parents about their options.”
