High school ages

[elizabeth_rice]

Hello! I'm writing a story set in the US (FYI, I'm not an American). My main character is a high school student. My question is: if my MC is 15 when he starts high school, when should his birthday be?

For example, say the student's birthday is 26th June 1997 (this is not my MC's birthday). So what grade would this student be starting in 2012? Ninth grade or tenth grade?

I tried to search this on google but the search results vaguely say "it depends when the student was born". Very unhelpful because that's precisely what I want to know.

If this varies from state to state, then I need this information for high schools in Virginia.

Thank you.

PS: should I tag my entry or should I leave that to the mods?

Comments

[melannen]

Virginia state law is that "Children who will be six years old on or before September 30, must, by law, attend school." So people starting 9th grade should be either 13 or 14 - a fifteen-year-old starting 9th grade either had some sort of special circumstances that led to delayed enrollment, started school in a state/district that had a different cutoff date, or was held back.

(On the other hand, some senior high schools still start with 10th grade, in which case everyone not born in September would start at age 15.)

(I think, if I did the math right.)

[birke]

I agree with this comment.

It used to be common to organize schools as "junior high" (seventh through ninth) and "senior high" (10th through 12th). These days, most of the school districts I've known (in Maryand, Virginia, California, and Oregon) divide into "middle school" (6th through 8th) and "high school" (9th through 12th).

[melannen]

I know of a few rural districts that still do the 1-6/7-9/10-12 split (mostly, I think, because they're still using old buildings that were organized that way). None of the ones I know of are in Virginia, but there are some very small rural districts in Virginia, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few.

[elizabeth_rice]

Thanks for the additional info. I had wondered about this divide between junior high and senior high as well.

[elizabeth_rice]

Thanks for your reply. I have another question. It's important for my story for him to start high school at 15, and in fact the family had moved from another state (it's part of the backstory). Do you know which state has a different cutoff date from Virginia so my character is 15 when he starts high school?

[melannen]

It varies a lot - Virginia seems to have a statewide cut-off, but I know in some states it still goes county-by-county or even district-by-district (and sometimes a district is one small high school in a tiny rural town,) so you can probably just explain it by the fact that he'd moved from 'elsewhere'. I know some of my cousins were in districts with a Jan 1 cutoff, and some with a June or July cutoff, and some in September, and they were all in the same corner of Ohio, so if you don't have to be specific about where he was when he started school, you can probably fudge it however you want.

And if he's been moving around a lot, it's possible that he'd slipped a year behind because of missed classes or curricula not lining up or something (as someone mentioned below.)

Also, it's not that uncommon for a child, especially one with a birthday near the cutoff date, who is somewhat small or immature for their age, or behind in basic skills, to get permission to start school late, or to stay an extra year in kindergarten/pre-K. So if his birthday was late summer or early September, but his parents/teachers didn't think he was ready, it's possible they could have petitioned the school board for permission to keep him out another year, or to stay in pre-K or kindergarten even after he was technically old enough to be in 1st grade. (And they wouldn't necessarily think of this in terms of being held back, if it was before he started 1st grade.)

[elizabeth_rice]

Thank you so much for the explanation. This is good, I'll keep this in mind.

[feuervogel]

There was a boy in my class whose birthday was December 31 (1976, if you really want to know). This was Maryland, and I don't know if the rules have changed since then or if his parents had to argue for it. My college roommate's birthday was September 30, and her parents had to fight to get her to start elementary school in 1981 rather than 1982. She was from Pennsylvania.

[elizabeth_rice]

Thanks for your reply. This is interesting to know.

[holyschist]

I think in most areas, he would have had to have been held back a year or (if you don't want to go that route, since it involves academic problems), he might have had issues with attending school abroad for a while and having difficulty transferring classes, or took a year off for family reasons (travel or the like) and didn't homeschool during that time.

[elizabeth_rice]

I think in most areas, he would have had to have been held back a year
This is so strange because I googled high school ages and most places said it's common for ninth graders to be 15 (but they never mentioned cutoff dates which is why I'm at this comm). Thanks for your reply.

[iosonochesono]

Probably because they end the school year at 15, maybe? (ETA: I realized that might sound rude. The CAPS just meant to emphasize/highlight for the hypothetical, I wasn't directing it at anyone in particular!)

Like, as a US citizen I can remember what grade I was in by counting backwards:

12 - 17/18 (turned 18 less than a month before graduating.)
11 - 16/17
10 - 15/16
9 - 14/15

That said, I was one of the younger kids (the next birthday boom being August) so a lot of kids would turn fifteen relatively early. But I wasn't admitted in early or anything. My sister was 14/15 too. My brother's really tricky because he was born in December - he ended up having to go to Pre-K, so I think he was a year older than most kids.

/Californian myself.

[elizabeth_rice]

Thanks so much for the information. And don't worry about the caps, I understood you used it for emphasis. :)

[holyschist]

It is common for ninth graders to be 15, just not for them to be 15 on the FIRST day of school. I was 14 when I started and turned 15 in December, so I was 15 for about half of the school year. That's quite common, since most students start ninth grade at age 14, and unless they have a summer birthday, turn 15 during the school year.

If you don't need your character to be 15 on day 1, you could give them an early September birthday, so they'll be 15 for most of the school year.

[elizabeth_rice]

Thanks so much for the clarification. I think I might just use your suggestion.

[holyschist]

I'm not exactly sure how it works in the state you want, so I'd find some way of double-checking that an early September birthday wouldn't bump someone back to starting at 13, but I don't think it's likely it would.

[elizabeth_rice]

busaikko (below in comments) gave me a link where all the ages to start school are listed by state. So I'll check against that and see what works best. Thanks.

[chomiji]

It really, really depends on the school system, and there are county schools and city schools (publicly funded) as well as many categories of privately funded schools, and they have their own requirements.

For example, I went to public school in Montgomery County, MD (one of the larger systems in the nation), and you had to be 5 years old during the calendar year that you started kindergarten. December 31 was fine. More than 30 years later, our daughter and our twin niece and nephew all started school in that same county - but now, kindergarteners have to 5 on September 1. So our daughter (born in February) started school at an earlier point than her cousins (born in October) did.

[birke]

Hi there! MCPS FTW! :-D

[chomiji]

\o/

Yay, MoCo!

I grew up in the Rock Creek Forest corner of Chevy Chase, but now we live in Tacky Park.

[birke]

Neat! My family's house is kinda... not quite Garrett Park, and not quite Rockville.

[elizabeth_rice]

Interesting. Thanks for the information.

[livrelibre]

I started high school (9th grade) in Virginia at 14 (pre Sept. 30 birthday). Eta: Sorry I realized that didn't answer your question. 15 is possible if held back or in some other situation as noted above so if your character is starting 9th grade in Sept 2012 then they would probably have been born before Sept. 30 in 1998. If born in 1997 is a requirement then 10th grade in 2012 probably.

[elizabeth_rice]

I see. Thank you for the information.

[dragonscrawl]

This Virginian thinks this page from the state department of education might prove useful.

The most pertinent bit looks to be the bit that says a child "must be five years of age or reach his/her fifth birthday on or before September 30th of the school year". In your hypothetical situation, your character would start kindergarten, at earliest, in 2002. Provided he advances through the grades without any delay, he'd start 10th grade in 2012.

If you're looking to have him be a specific age on the first day of school in which he attends high school, I should note that some Virginian school systems (not sure offhand how widespread this is) begin the school year at the tail end of August, which may affect when you place your characters' birthday.

[elizabeth_rice]

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. Thanks for all of the information too.

[bookblather]

I'm a Virginian who started high school in 2002 with a birthday in 1988. Students here generally start high school in ninth grade at the age of fourteen as long as they have a birthday before October 1st. So, if your student was born in 1997 before October 1st, he or she would begin high school in 2011. If after October 1st, 2012.

[elizabeth_rice]

Hm, this means I'm going to have to make some changes for most of my characters. *headdesk* Thanks for the information.

[busaikko]

It also depends if the character has ever attended school outside of the state. If they started school in a different state, the official start-of-school age might be different and they might be a grade higher or lower (happens most often with birthdates between September and Feb/Jan. in my experience). Basically, even if he's a year older or younger than his classmates, I think in the US no one's going to bat an eye, because that happens all the time.

[elizabeth_rice]

I'm very interested in this because my character's family moved to Virginia. So do you know which states have a different start-of-school age so my character starts high school at 15? Thanks for the information.

[busaikko]

http://www.superpages.com/supertips/age-to-start-kindergarten-by-state.html lists the kindergarten start dates by state. This list was probably posted within the past 5 years, but it gives a general idea. Your character was born in 1997, so you'd need to find a state with a suitable start-date and then find out what their policy was in 1997... or really? You could probably use current data or make it up in a vague way, because as the US has different dates for different states, people are entirely blase about classmates being older/younger, and likely readers won't know for sure either. (Also, boys are sometimes held back a year by their parents so they'll be more developmentally able to handle school, starting a year later.)

[elizabeth_rice]

Thanks so much for the link.

because as the US has different dates for different states, people are entirely blase about classmates being older/younger, and likely readers won't know for sure either. (Also, boys are sometimes held back a year by their parents so they'll be more developmentally able to handle school, starting a year later.)
This is good to know and I'll keep it in mind. Thanks. :)

[brigid]

Remember that students can be held back for social, not just academic reasons, especially younger kids.

Also, a friend of mine switched high schools because of severe bullying. Her new high school was of higher academic quality plus her studying had suffered from stress, so after some placement testing she repeated a year at the new school. If your character is moving to a more challenging school, or missed a lot of school, they might repeat a year and give you the age you need.

[elizabeth_rice]

I'm very sorry for your friend. Thanks for your reply.

[brigid]

Eh, considering that she's got her masters degree, is working in a field she loves, has a million friends and an awesome family, owns her own home, has a cool car, etc I'm PRETTY SURE she did ok. :D

[elizabeth_rice]

I'm very glad for her. :)