[Jughead07]

The bottom line is that kids being held back in the same grade has been happening for a long time in school systems across the commonwealth. It was happening 15 years ago when I was in school and it happens today. I have coached grade school, middle school, and high school sports for the past 7 years and I am confident that it has happened every year in the school system that I am in. Sometimes it is done because the student athlete needs another year to mature academically or socially before they enter high school and then sometimes it is done because it is thought that another year of maturity when the kid is a senior could help them get a scholarship to play a sport. I personally do not see a problem with this in the 8th grade if the parents, kid, and school system are in agreement. The cases that I have seen that have not worked out well have been those were kids stay back in the 6th grade and do not go on to the middle school. Regardless what the argument here is, in a public school system a parent has the right too keep their child in the same grade again for whatever reason they wish and this has been going on and will continue to go on.