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

[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.