“I’m not sure if this is in response to demand”
Well, at a school that had 8th grade, I wasn’t sure either. So I asked a direct question;
“Are you actually suggesting that my daughter apply as a 8th grade repeat rather than 9th grade because she is a few months younger, even though she has been in college full time and is academically ready, and you said yourself that she would be a “star student” for her visual art?”
Guess what? The answer was a simple “Yes.”
She applied as an 8th grade for the school and wasn’t accepted.