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

[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.