Allowing parents to postpone their children’s school entry could improve their academic performance

Students born in September are 35 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than those born in October

/EIN News/ -- MONTREAL, Jan. 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Giving parents the option to delay school entry by a year if they think their child lacks sufficient maturity could help improve academic performance, according to an Economic Note published this morning by the MEI.

“Every child develops at their own pace, and some need more time to achieve the maturity level required to perform in elementary school,” says Guillaume Pouliot, assistant professor at the University of Chicago and associate researcher at the MEI. “This can be seen notably in the abnormally high proportion of students born in September who are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.”

In Quebec, the Education Act states that children must begin their schooling in the school year following their sixth birthday. September 30 is used as the cut-off date to establish the start of the school year.

This means that a child who turns six on September 30 should start school that year, at the latest, while a child who turns six on October 1^st should start school the following year, at the latest.

According to the researcher, this leads to a difference of maturity between students, undermining the success of some born just before the cut-off date of September 30. This phenomenon notably entails an overdiagnosis of attention deficit disorder (ADHD).

For the cohort born between 1996 and 2005, data obtained by the CIRANO shows that 15 per cent of Quebec students born in October were diagnosed with ADHD, while the proportion was 21.4 per cent for students born in September.

One study looking at academic results in OECD countries shows that the youngest students of each cohort tend to obtain results that are from 4 to 12 percentiles lower in grade four, as compared to the oldest students in their cohort.

“The lack of flexibility in our system undermines the academic success of many young Quebecers,” explains Mr. Pouliot. “This overdiagnosis of ADHD and these gaps in academic results persist over time, undermining the flourishing of these youths.”

The researcher recommends simplifying the process by which parents can choose to postpone their children’s school entry by one year. This is known as “redshirting,” in reference to the red jerseys worn by young recruits to university sports teams who are withheld from competition for a year in order to develop muscle mass.

Studies have shown that delaying school entry in North Carolina allowed students to obtain results that were from 0.2 to 0.3 standard deviations higher in math and reading, all the way through to fifth grade.

Postponing school entry by a year can reduce anxiety, decrease the chance of repeating a grade, and improve academic results, especially among underprivileged boys, according to another Canadian study.

In Quebec, parents wishing to request the postponement of school entry for their children have to hire experts in order to demonstrate to their school service centre that delaying enrolment will allow their children to avoid “serious harm.”

“Understandably, not all parents have the means to hire experts such as a psychologist, even if they think that postponing school entry would be beneficial,” explains Mr. Pouliot. “Our system should do a better job of recognizing the role of parents as experts on the subject of their own children, and trust their judgment when they make a difficult decision like this.”

The MEI study is available here: https://www.iedm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/note012025_en.pdf

The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.

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