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.)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.