Chief Renegade: a reason why you may see that other states do not follow the Kansas model is due in part to the starting age of a child for school. Not every state has the same cut-off date for a child to be in kindergarten. There are plenty of states where the cut-off date is before June (not September), eliminating most 14 year old Freshmen. Then, there are those states like Nebraska that does not group kids by age but rather by grade. While this may seem like an ideal situation, I am sure there are parents living in those states who are upset about the unfair advantage a kid has who is "old" for their grade. Just read some of the post on the high school side over Freshman who are 16 years old.