Indeed - it even has a term - &quot;red shirting&quot;. I believe there is some movement in some states to limit the ability to do this.<p>For my family, I have adopted a &quot;play the child, not the age&quot; approach. My oldest son was clearly ready for kindergarten at age 5, my middle son is not so we&#x27;re delaying him for one year.<p>One part of this not discussed is what cut off dates do to the process. My oldest son was born in December - while my middle son was born at the end of July. If we put him into kindergarten, he would have been one of the youngest kids. My daughter was born on September 1st, thus she will always be the oldest in the class.