Parents Are Sending Kids to Kindergarten Before They're Ready to Save on Daycare Costs

The number on my calculator stared back up at me, as if saying your move: $1,125. This was the amount I’d save each month if I sent my 5-year-old to his first year of public kindergarten shortly after turning 5, rather than waiting another year. The dilemma was as clear as that four-digit figure staring back at me—do I push my kid to start kindergarten slightly earlier than I’d prefer, for the sake of the family finances? Or shell out the money for another year of childcare?

This decision is one wrought with emotion, parenting guilt, and numbers, and one facing parents across the country as kindergarten sign-ups are in full swing. Recent data shows that Americans spend an average of $13,128 per year, per child, for child care, accounting for roughly 10% of a median dual-family income. In single-parent households, this accounts for 35% of their annual income.

Parents, including myself, have to weigh this immense savings against social, academic, and physical readiness—even potty skills. Yes, I have a very late potty trainer, and it’s becoming a $10,000 problem.

The issue conjures up much of the same emotions and consideration as parents face as they decide to “redshirt” their to-be kindergarteners, meaning to delay their start year as long as possible—but, well, opposite. Those who consider redshirting believe there are advantages to being older, and physically bigger too, than classmates. But what isn’t talked about is the opposite—parents sending kids early to save money.

Here’s how parents like me are thinking through the decision to send our preschoolers to kindergarten as soon as possible to save money.

Enrollment rates in public and private preschool and kindergarten are rising, according to the National Center for Education Statistics—specifically, for 5-year-olds (from 79 to 84 percent), but also 4-year-olds. This could point to the stress parents feel around money, partially. A 2025 American Family Survey found that 7 in 10 Americans feel raising kids is unaffordable, increasing significantly from previous years.

Though money isn’t everything, they say, it sure isn’t nothing—an $1,125 “raise” each month becomes a very real dilemma. “Parents are often told to choose what’s ‘best for the child’ as if it exists in a vacuum,” says Dr. Jenny Yip, board-certified clinical psychologist and author. She points out that the budget aspect isn’t a small part of the decision, just as a kid’s “readiness” isn’t either. “Chronic financial stress doesn’t stay contained to a spreadsheet. It shows up in the household's nervous system. Kids are highly attuned to that. Reducing sustained stress in the home is not separate from supporting a child’s well-being; it’s central to it,” she says.

Not only would sending my own kid save $10,000 the first year, but research shows there are lasting financial benefits in future years. This can mean the difference between skipping or taking vacations, paying off a car, or for some, just making ends meet and paying rent or mortgage. A 2025 paper found that access to universal pre-K increased the parents’ earnings by 21.7% and that the impact on earnings lasts for at least six years following pre-K completion. Though it’s about free care the year before kindergarten, the same theory could apply, with financial gains lasting beyond just the single year.

Developmentally, parents might wonder if a child is negatively impacted by their choice to send them on the earlier side, if that will be an issue that follows them through their entire education. But a recently released study found that redshirting is relatively uncommon and any advantage to it faded by the time the children reached 3rd grade. To me, this is comforting that, conversely, the disadvantages to sending them on the earlier side might also level out by around the same time. This was true for my second son, who went on the early side, and has since caught up to his peers socially, academically, and even physically by around that time.

While some parents are stressing about the optimal moment to start kindergarten, we should remember it’s maybe not that important. In fact, only 20 states in the U.S. even require kindergarten.

Gennie Gorback, M.Ed, California Kindergarten Association Board President-Elect and early childhood educator, says some families are “relieved” to pay much less (or nothing), prompting early kindergarten enrollment. But, she also sees other reasons, such as “parents pushing for younger/earlier enrollment due to an incorrect assumption that earlier schooling will lead to getting ahead in academics, which will lead to a more successful life.”

Whether it’s for financials or academics, she says her organization recommends against enrolling a child in kindergarten if they are “much younger than their peers.”

“While it is true that all children grow and develop at their own pace, it may be more difficult for a much younger child to meet the behavioral and communication expectations that are appropriate for their kindergarten-aged classmates,” she adds. She emphasizes parents can help with “readiness” at home, such as simply reading with kids and letting them practice independence.

The American Academy of Pediatrics breaks readiness down into multiple categories, including:

• Physical well-being, including sensory development
• Social-emotional development, such as impulse control, communicating emotions, and more
• A temperament ready for learning, such as curiosity
• Listening, speaking, and vocabulary readiness
• General knowledge and cognition, such as early reading and math skills

However, the report emphasizes that readiness testing is highly variable, and shouldn’t be a reason kids are excluded from starting kindergarten if they are eligible.

More parents might be able to focus on readiness if finances weren’t part of the discussion. Bree Shirvell, mother of a 7-year-old daughter, was going to have to send her child early, with finances as a “big consideration,” but then got to wait another year after her employer, Yale, gave a childcare stipend. She wishes more people had that option. “I spent so much time agonizing over what to do about kindergarten.”

Jason Simms, father of a now-third grader who started kindergarten before her 5th birthday in Connecticut, says sending their daughter early was an “obvious choice.” She was born in late September, so she started kindergarten about a month before her 5th birthday, and kids in her class are a year or more older.

“Our daughter is very outgoing and by the end of the second year of preschool, the teachers were joking that she could basically teach the class,” he says. “Keeping her in preschool for another year just didn't seem like an option. Meanwhile, we also had baby twins at home. The slightly longer school day of kindergarten actually made a big difference to us in terms of balancing everything at that time.”

He says since that time, new laws preventing kids from starting too early have gone into effect in their area, so it wouldn’t be allowed anymore. The preschool's costs were around $10,000 annually, which was “certainly an incentive” to send her. “With twins just a few years from entering preschool, it seemed wise to save that $10,000.”

The complicated decision isn’t one that he’d change, but it did have drawbacks. “I just coached girls basketball, and the older third graders definitely seemed to have an advantage,” he says. “There were some academic challenges too, with our daughter sometimes being the last to finish tests. In second grade, she was complaining about being the youngest in the class and things being hard. We helped her where she needed help and it seems to have evened out.”

He says some accommodations have been made along the way outside the classroom too. “We got permission from a local soccer league to let her play with her age group instead of her grade level, and that was helpful.”

Yip wants parents to contextualize the gravity of the choice. “Children don’t benefit from a single ‘optimized’ decision,” she says. “They benefit from caregivers who are present, responsive, and able to recover from stress. That’s what builds resilience over time.”

Kathy Larson, a mom of three in Eastern North Carolina, sent her kid to kindergarten "early" when all her friends were “redshirting their boys,” she says, “mostly because it was free. He is now a senior and doing amazing in both academics and sports—it did not hurt him at all.”

She has advice for parents of potential kindergarteners: “If I could go back, I would tell myself [and friends] to chill out about the pressure and do whatever makes the most sense for your child and your family.”

Of course, parents’ financial struggles likely won’t end even if you send your kids to kindergarten “early.” After all there are still half day programs, leaving the other half of the day to find expensive childcare, and after and before school care, and summer care, and more. Such is the life until they leave the house (and maybe still after that).

My own decision is yet to be made, as it seems like an impossible one. But if my almost 5-year-old starts consistently (finally!) pooping on the potty in the meantime, well, let’s just call that a $10,000 sign that he’s heading to kindergarten this fall.