Minnetonka Public Schools has signaled it will rein in its practice of allowing dozens of students a year to repeat kindergarten — action that follows a visit from state education officials.
At issue is a program, Ready-Start Kindergarten (RSK), designed for 5-year-olds with summer birthdays, but one that sees only a small percentage of kids moving on to first grade.
Instead, the children advance the following year to more traditional kindergarten classrooms, leaving state and local taxpayers to cover not just one but two years of kindergarten costs for those students. Currently, RSK brings in nearly $1 million a year in state aid and local levy money.
That a school system would allow a large number of students to repeat kindergarten — almost in blanket fashion — is highly unusual. In 2018-19, for example, Minnetonka had 101 RSK students, and this year, 96 of them are attending kindergarten again in the district.
Minnetonka says it was the parents' choice, but the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), concerned by what Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker described as "a pattern of significantly higher rates of kindergarten retention" in the district, stepped in and now is working with the district to ensure parents are better informed about first grade.
As a result, RSK families can expect a different conversation when finalizing next year's plans at schools this spring.
Said JacQueline Getty, the district's spokeswoman, "We will be encouraging RSK parents to realize their children are ready for first grade and encouraging them to move their children forward."
The education department acted on a parent's complaint, but it was not the first time the district had drawn fire over the RSK program.