[Hank 91]

Here's my perspective as a middle school teacher. Even in my seventh grade classroom, I can often tell who the early birthdays are, at least with the boys. That being said, in California public schools it isn't easy to repeat a grade, even if you have legitimate concerns. What some parents will do is pull their child from the public school (eighth grade is common), find a private school willing to take the child as an eighth grader, and then return to the public district for high school. I see this happening from time to time, and in my experience it is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS for athletic reasons. I have an eighth grader on my basketball team right now who happens to have an early birthday, but he's possibly going to repeat eighth grade somewhere, but for basketball. The story will be the early birthday, but the carrot is a basketball scholarship. We'll see.

[Hank 91]

Here's my perspective as a middle school teacher. Even in my seventh grade classroom, I can often tell who the early birthdays are, at least with the boys. That being said, in California public schools it isn't easy to repeat a grade, even if you have legitimate concerns. What some parents will do is pull their child from the public school (eighth grade is common), find a private school willing to take the child as an eighth grader, and then return to the public district for high school. I see this happening from time to time, and in my experience it is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS for athletic reasons. I have an eighth grader on my basketball team right now who happens to have an early birthday, but he's possibly going to repeat eighth grade somewhere, but for basketball. The story will be the early birthday, but the carrot is a basketball scholarship. We'll see.