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

[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.