I'm going to throw a couple things out there. One is that if you get him evaluated, he may qualify for a free preschool program for "developmental delayed' kids. It's much easier for a child to qualify for that than an "elementary level" IEP.
I don't know if he would though if he meets the 'cutoff' date for your kindergarten. I know here once the kids were IN the program on an IEP, they *could* stay an extra year, if the teachers recommended it. I don't know if they can *start* someone at that point. (As long as they were not six years old before school started is what the teacher I worked with told me.)
The second is I have a child who turned 5 in October, so he missed the cutoff date for kindergarten by a month. Even though he could read and was starting to write, so academically ready, I am VERY GLAD he missed the cutoff. He was *not* socially ready. It wasn't so much separating from me as choosing to interact with the other kids. Until about midway through this school year, he mostly chose to play alone. And his attention span to teacher-initiated activities was not great. Now, his teacher has *no* concerns about his attention span and he is not only choosing to play with the other kids--but he is successfully entering groups who are already playing.
(He was kind of disruptive before, not really destructive but tried to just barge in with his own ideas. He has learned to go with the flow a little more. 
)
I also see a huge difference in how he plays with playmates at home. He is now able to "ignore" some kids who aren't "letting him play" and play happily with others who *want* to play with him. He has a "best friend" in the neighborhood this year and went to his b-day last week without me. He watches for his friend to get home from daycare and is upset when he's not around or he can't go out to play. (It worked in my favor tonight--he broke one of my 'outside' rules and had to come in for the evening. It really sunk in what he was missing when his 'best friend' got home from school about 20 mins. later and was outside.)
So I think staying home a year, but with some opportunities to get to know some other kids on a small-group basis, with some chance for one-on-one playdates if that becomes something he wants, might be a VERY good thing for him.
Many young 5 year olds, especially boys, are not 'ready" for full-day, large-group, structured-academic, low amount of physical playtime classrooms.
I don't know if he would though if he meets the 'cutoff' date for your kindergarten. I know here once the kids were IN the program on an IEP, they *could* stay an extra year, if the teachers recommended it. I don't know if they can *start* someone at that point. (As long as they were not six years old before school started is what the teacher I worked with told me.)
The second is I have a child who turned 5 in October, so he missed the cutoff date for kindergarten by a month. Even though he could read and was starting to write, so academically ready, I am VERY GLAD he missed the cutoff. He was *not* socially ready. It wasn't so much separating from me as choosing to interact with the other kids. Until about midway through this school year, he mostly chose to play alone. And his attention span to teacher-initiated activities was not great. Now, his teacher has *no* concerns about his attention span and he is not only choosing to play with the other kids--but he is successfully entering groups who are already playing.
(He was kind of disruptive before, not really destructive but tried to just barge in with his own ideas. He has learned to go with the flow a little more. )I also see a huge difference in how he plays with playmates at home. He is now able to "ignore" some kids who aren't "letting him play" and play happily with others who *want* to play with him. He has a "best friend" in the neighborhood this year and went to his b-day last week without me. He watches for his friend to get home from daycare and is upset when he's not around or he can't go out to play. (It worked in my favor tonight--he broke one of my 'outside' rules and had to come in for the evening. It really sunk in what he was missing when his 'best friend' got home from school about 20 mins. later and was outside.)
So I think staying home a year, but with some opportunities to get to know some other kids on a small-group basis, with some chance for one-on-one playdates if that becomes something he wants, might be a VERY good thing for him.
Many young 5 year olds, especially boys, are not 'ready" for full-day, large-group, structured-academic, low amount of physical playtime classrooms.
