Probably different in each state? Or maybe there actually isn’t a limit? Can’t find anything online, but I don’t claim to be good at finding these things.
It differs by state but a common age is 20 or so for traditional high school. After that, you can still get a GED at any age and most states will have alternative classes to prepare for it.
. . . and I’m referring to public school . . .
I was under the impression that 18 is the limit, and then only if you were 17 when the school year started.
Right, I know about getting a GED. . . but, let’s say someone learns the English language late, for example, and ends up being a senior at age 20 (turns 21 during senior year), is this possible?
To start or finish? There are lots of students that get held back in earlier years that eventually complete high school well after the class they started in.
You still need to have a state in mind if you want an answer to a specific type of case.
I remember my mother talking about guys going back to high school after WWII.
My mother is an educational consultant who speaks and works in all 50 states. She might know or at least know who to ask if this is a real case. Sometimes there are posted limits but they may also have appeals procedures.
One of my favorite documentaries is Strangers With Candy if you want to check that out.
One of my reporters did a story on a related subject and speaking for Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico, it is 20, 21 and 19 respectively, but the alternative schools run by different districts in the state can extend that. I got the impression that if the student is special ed, that can extend it, too.
I doubt any school would expell 19 year old seniors on account of age.
In South Australia (at least) there’s a couple of adult-aged reentry high schools - one in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, and one in the northern suburbs.
I went through a period of unemployment in my mid-20s and figured ‘what the heck, may as well be doing something’… so ever though I’d done matriculation already, I signed up for a semester. (After that, I really did have to go back to work. Bills to pay, y’know.)
Still, it was fun! I didn’t enjoy high school the first time, because I was so damned serious and grades-focused…and chronically bullied to boot.
Entering as an adult, however, I found that life experience gave a lot of help towards understanding some of the learning, because I had a context to put it in - which allowed me to really get into what was being presented.
If I were a SAHM, I reckon I’d sign up to ‘high school’ while my kids were at school themselves, just because it’s far more interesting as an adult.
I’m fairly certain, though, that you can go back to high school (in Australia) at any age, and that the adult-aged ones are just so you don’t feel weird being the odd one out in a class of teens.
In NYC (and probably NYS), “Anyone age 5 to 21 on December 31 who has not received a high school diploma can attend a public school for free.” I guess that means if you turn 22 on Jan 1, they let you finish the year.
In Virginia, the state’s mandate for a “free and appropriate public education” ends at 22, I believe. Not sure what they’d do if you turn 22 during your senior year.
My uncle didn’t graduate from public high school in Wisconsin until he was 20 (this was in the 70’s). Obviously he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, lucky for me he’s only an uncle by marriage not blood.
I knew someone who didn’t graduate until he was 21. He was a very nice guy but a slow learner. Don’t know if there’s any laws in Washington state that would have prevented him from going another year or two if he and his parents so wished.
Nope, at least not in [small town] New Hampshire - I turned 18 the August before my senior year.
In California, they wouldn’t let me enroll as a junior at age 18.
This may have been an exception that the school administration decided to overlook, but when my grandmother was well into her 70s, she inquired about adult ed Spanish classes at the local high school. There weren’t any, so the school let her enroll in a regular daytime class. She was in the same class as some of my cousin’s friends, and it was an endless source of amusement. (She had graduated high school in Canada in 1930-ish.)
ETA: this was in New Jersey in the 1980s.
Generally speaking, a school counselor or administrator will review school records, current age of prospective student, and credits earned. You can be a 20 yo with the only need to take one section of the TAKS. Or, you could be a 17 yo with a credits of a Freshman. In both general cases, the 20 yo would be allowed to return just to finalize his TAKS, but in the case of the 17 yo, s/he would probably be told to go to a GED program. Age plays a part in your OP, but not all of it.
Now. Based on your statement above, in Texas, in my experience working in GED programs, I would say that the great likely hood that s/he would be asked to attend a GED program.
FWIW, in Texas, once you are 18, you don’t have to be attending a school program. You can voluntarily attend from 18 and up.