There is growing evidence that school starting age impacts children's likelihood of receiving special education services, but less is known about variations in this effect. Using a regression discontinuity design, I found that the youngest students in a kindergarten cohort are 40% more likely (p < 0.001) to be placed in special education than…

We present evidence of a positive relationship between school starting age and children's cognitive development from ages 6 to 18 using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and large-scale population-level birth and school data from the state of Florida. We estimate effects of being old for grade (being born in September vs. August) that are…

A five-year longitudinal study examined initial placement decisions of six Virginia districts with junior kindergarten programs. Relationships between placement into regular or junior kindergartens, and socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, and age are analyzed. Young, poor boys were more likely than members of other groups to be placed in…