Cari Sullivan watched as just six weeks of kindergarten transformed her normally happy and boisterous kid into one who said he never had good days at school.

It was the fall of 2021, and the 5-year-old was having behavioral problems, Sullivan said. So his parents made a difficult choice they’ve never regretted: They sent their child back to day care for an extra year of pre-K.

“Once we returned to him to an environment where he felt, I think, physical and emotional safety, we kind of asked him how he liked being back,” Sullivan recalled. “And he was like, ‘Do I ever have to go to a different school again?’ ”

The extra time turned out to be exactly what her son needed, Sullivan said. He’s now 8 and thriving in second grade in Baltimore County, where he’s getting the accommodations he needs.

In Maryland, kindergarten is the first compulsory year of schooling, requiring children who are 5 years or older by Sept. 1 to enroll. But caregivers can opt to send in a maturity waiver, which delays kindergarten for one year if they think it’s “in the best interest of their child.”

The practice is known as redshirting, and while just a small portion of families do it in Central Maryland, parents and educators say it can make or break school readiness for certain kids. They emphasize that it’s an individual decision that should reflect what a child needs academically and socially, and the “why” of that decision shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“Is it because you’ve heard stories that it’s better to do that for your child?” asked Christopher P. Brown, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a former kindergarten teacher who wrote the book on school readiness. “Or is there a real concern about whether or not you feel your child is ready for kindergarten?”

Here’s what to consider as you’re contemplating the right choice for your child.

Consideration 1: What it costs

Kindergarten is the first year of guaranteed free public education in most Baltimore-area school districts. That means families who decide to redshirt may be on the hook to pay for an extra year of child care.

Tammy Patzwall teaches pre-K at Small Wonders in Reisterstown, the Sullivans’ day care, which she said costs $235 a week for full-time preschool. She said in the past, she’s had kids who could use a little more time to develop socially or academically, and she’s encouraged parents to keep their kids with her for longer. Most of them turn her down.

“They don’t want to pay for day care anymore,” Patzwall said.

According to the Maryland Family Network, the average cost of care for children ages 2 to 5 is between $246 and $296 a week.

In five Central Maryland school districts that serve hundreds of thousands of kids, just 236 maturity waivers were submitted for this school year, though districts are continuing to receive them. Last year, 292 waivers were submitted across those counties.

Brown said redshirting is more common in upper-class communities, a trend that holds true in the Baltimore area.

Howard County is one of the smaller local school districts, with fewer than 58,000 students in 2023, compared to over 110,000 in Baltimore County. Yet in 2023, Howard recorded 88 waivers while Baltimore County received 27. On average, 2.5% of families waive kindergarten each year in Howard, a spokesperson said.

Howard County has a median household income of $140,971, compared to $88,157 in Baltimore County, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Consideration 2: Maturity, not birthdays

Dawn Popp held her now-26-year-old son back over 20 years ago. She’s never regretted it.

Popp said her “incredibly smart” son wasn’t socially ready for kindergarten; he lacked focus and couldn’t sit still in class. He stayed back an extra year in a play-based pre-K “to have a little bit of extra time to mature,” even though his June birthday is over two months ahead of the Sept. 1 cutoff.

“We felt like we knew our kid better than an arbitrary number, an arbitrary date,” Popp said.

Kids with summer birthdays, depending on their parents’ decision, will always be the oldest or youngest in a class. Because children develop so rapidly and at different paces in the first years of life, the months-long gap between them may be more noticeable in the younger grades. Sometimes it works out: Popp said because her son was on the smaller side, he actually fit in better physically as one of the older students, though she doesn’t think it makes a big difference in kindergarten with a “range of both sizes and abilities.”

Brown said that generally, research shows that younger kindergartners tend to catch up socially and academically by first and second grade, even if every kid is different.

Consideration 3: Trusted adults’ observations

Brown doesn’t think every parent needs to consider redshirting; if your child is ready for kindergarten, send them, he said. But parents who are carefully weighing their options should talk to other adults in their child’s life, such as their pre-K teacher or sports coach, to see if they’re noticing the same factors that could lead to a later kindergarten start.

Kids may be struggling with focus, communication with peers, setting boundaries or developing fine motor skills, which they can work on in an extra year of pre-K. That way, they’re ready for kindergarten teachers who expect kids who can pay attention, follow directions and develop routines that help them learn the academics.

“You need to do what’s best for your child,” Brown said. “And once you make that decision, you need to stick with that decision and be an advocate for your child as they move forward.”

While parents may be thinking about redshirting from the social-emotional perspective, there can be some academic drawbacks, Brown said: If an older child ends up being academically way ahead of their peers in kindergarten, it can be hard on both them and their teacher. But because parents make so many decisions in the K-12 years, it’s hard to determine if there’s a true advantage or disadvantage to delaying kindergarten.

Ultimately, it’s an individual choice, Brown stressed.

Popp started her other two children’s schooling on time, though all three of her kids have summer birthdays. But a delayed start was the right choice for her eldest: It set him up to succeed through the rest of his schooling.

Popp said while she’s talked to many people who wish they’d held their child back, she’s never talked to a parent who’d done it but wished they hadn’t.

Sullivan knows redshirting was the right choice for her son.

“There’s no reason to rush their childhood,” Sullivan said. “There’s no prize for finishing childhood first.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.