North Carolina had an October 15 cut off until just a few years ago. Now it is Sept 1st.
It's a gamble - to hold back a child because they may be more athletically mature - is such a remote possibility why do it? I do believe there are some very valid reasons for doing holding a child back, but not many.
This is an interesting topic.
I don't think you can tell at kindergarten age whether there is any "bang for the buck" in holding kids back. But I have seen two specific instances, one of which is my own son, where there would have been a clearly different pattern (much for the better) in high school if he had been delayed by a year. Both instances involve kids who are late maturers. And by this I mean boys who are 8 inches taller as seniors than they were as freshman, and who are about 50% heavier (and still thin).
Where we are, the few parents who make this adjustment sometimes do it at about the 8th grade level. They send the kid to private school for a year (to repeat 8th grade) and then re-enroll him in public school as a 9th grader one year behind his original group. It costs you a years private tuition to do this.
Under rules in our state, once you start 9th grade there is no way to do the one year private school holding pattern and then come back with the same eligibility. Your four year clock is running when you start 9th grade, so all deferrals have to take place before that. Of course, you can always leave the public school after 9th grade and just spend the next four years in prep school, but that requires some serious $ outlay and is not available to most....although more than a few have done it.
I don't think you can tell at kindergarten age whether there is any "bang for the buck" in holding kids back. But I have seen two specific instances, one of which is my own son, where there would have been a clearly different pattern (much for the better) in high school if he had been delayed by a year. Both instances involve kids who are late maturers. And by this I mean boys who are 8 inches taller as seniors than they were as freshman, and who are about 50% heavier (and still thin).
Where we are, the few parents who make this adjustment sometimes do it at about the 8th grade level. They send the kid to private school for a year (to repeat 8th grade) and then re-enroll him in public school as a 9th grader one year behind his original group. It costs you a years private tuition to do this.
Under rules in our state, once you start 9th grade there is no way to do the one year private school holding pattern and then come back with the same eligibility. Your four year clock is running when you start 9th grade, so all deferrals have to take place before that. Of course, you can always leave the public school after 9th grade and just spend the next four years in prep school, but that requires some serious $ outlay and is not available to most....although more than a few have done it.