How to Decide if Your Child Should Repeat a Grade

By eHow Education Editor

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Despite everyone's best efforts, there may come a point in your child's school career when he simply can't make the grade. Here's how to decide if repeating that grade might help.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Academic Counselings
Educational Software

Step1

Determine why your child is struggling. Does the difficulty stem from a temporary problem (personal or academic), or is it ongoing?

Step2

Assess the severity of the problem. Could your child make up the work with extra credit projects or summer school classes?

Step3

Consider all the options. For an older child in middle school or high school, perhaps dropping down to a less demanding track in major subject areas would give your child enough breathing room to pull his work up to par.

Step4

Involve your child in the decision. His reaction to the idea of retention may give you some valuable clues to the situation. For example, an overplaced child who has struggled in school for months or even years may express relief at the prospect of stepping off the treadmill.

Step5

Make sure you understand whether the school is recommending that your child be retained, or if the school cannot promote him because of failure to meet minimum standards. Except in the latter case, which is rare, the final decision is up to you and your child.

Step6

Prepare your child for the reality that he may suffer socially from a decision to repeat a grade. Emphasize the potential to offset these negatives with increased self-esteem when he experiences academic success, often for the first time.

Tips & Warnings

Many problems with overplacement in later grades can be avoided by making sure your child is ready to start school in the first place. If your struggling child has a younger sibling, think carefully about when that youngster should enter kindergarten (see "How to Know if Your Child is Ready for Kindergarten").
Carefully monitor a decision not to have your child repeat a grade and be willing to reevaluate if he continues to struggle.

Comments

Anonymous said

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on 8/8/2006 It would be emotionally very difficult to retain my first grader twin when the other is ready to move on to second grade. As I can see it, the 2 options I have is to ask my other son to stay back with his brother or put them both in second grade with extra help for the one with difficulties.

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