WSJ:
Families are turning to consultants like ... a Virginia private school counselor with a sideline as a “reclass specialist.”
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“The interest in doing it for athletic reasons has gone vertical over the last decade,” said ... an administrator at the Cardigan Mountain School, an $80,000-a-year New Hampshire junior boarding school where boys repeating eighth grade make up the largest cohort of new students.
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Sixty other boys are repeating a grade at the same academy, The Togethership, where coursework includes throwing mechanics, game film review and nutrition along with traditional subjects such as Algebra and English.
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In the prep sports mecca of Southern California, at least 15 schools and academies now advertise reclassification for eighth-graders. Orange County’s largest public school district, Capistrano Unified, is rolling out its own taxpayer-funded athletic holdback year this fall.