Jennifer Lilintahl said she knew her 5-year-old daughter wasn't ready to learn how to read with other kids her age in the kindergarten classes last school year at Lafayette Elementary School in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of Washington D.C.
Although her daughter was eligible to attend kindergarten due to her age, Lilintahl enrolled her daughter in a mostly play-based pre-kindergarten class at a local preschool for the third year in a row.
This January, Lilintahl emailed the school's principal to say her now almost-6-year-old daughter is ready for kindergarten this fall. But the principal said the girl must enroll in first grade for the 2025-2026 school year, which begins on Aug. 25, because she'll be six-years-old in September.
Lilantahl was dismayed. She thought it wouldn't be an issue because she knows other parents from the district who had previously delayed their child's start of kindergarten by one year.
Several other parents made similar requests to enroll their nearly six-year-old children in kindergarten for the 2025-2026 school year. Their requests led DC Public Schools officials to say in the 2024-2025 spring semester the district is going to more strictly enforce an existing policy that disallows parents from delaying their children's kindergarten start date, said Evan Lambert, a district spokesperson. That means parents who don't enroll their kids in kindergarten when the district says they are supposed to will have to forego that year, he said.
