I think this is a hard situation. Just knowing the all day kindergarten my son went through (and our district only has all day kindergarten), it is almost 2 years in a row of first grade and I can see why some parents make that choice when faced with this type of kindergarten. IMHO, kids are shamed if they are unable to focus all day which isn't a great situation. Especially for sensitive kids.
So my son has an October birthday (we have sept 1 cutoff). He is old for grade. I never considered sending him early. I didn't know he was very GT for one. But even now, I couldn't have imagined him being ok in the class he was in a year earlier and doing well behaviorally. Of course now we're going to home school rather than go onto a 2nd grade. And it would have been better to stop after K! A grade skip now would be too little too late. No matter what, he's not a great fit for a standard elementary school environment.
I will say there is a boy in his grade that has an APRIL birthday and he is a 2nd child. He acts out all the time and he is reading a couple grade levels ahead. And he's big. This guy should have definitely not been held back. I know another boy with a July birthday in my DS's class who has highly intelligent (both teach at the college level) and involved parents struggling to read, so for him it was the right choice.
I just wish our public kindergartens weren't so focused on NCLB and achievement, or maybe divided kindergartens out based on age, or temperament, or something.
