In addition to raising the age of compulsory education, many States have taken other measures to discourage students from dropping out of school. For example, 29 states link driver`s licenses to school attendance and performance. In Texas, a student may drop out of public school if they are enrolled in a high school equivalency exam preparation course and meet one of the following criteria: The January 2011 NCSL Task Force on Preventing and Restoring Early School Leaving refers to the mandatory school age. In the report, the working group recommends that states „conduct policy audits, eliminate counterproductive policies and encourage cooperation.“ The report deals with mandatory school age as follows: Students drop out of school age before reaching the Texas high school age limit for many different reasons, including, but not limited to: Just like other age-related rights and requirements, the legal age to drop out of school varies by state. In many states, students can drop out of high school at age 16. This is not the case in Texas. Texas law requires students to stay in high school until graduation or until age 19, whichever comes first. However, there are some notable exceptions to this requirement. According to the Texas Compulsory Education Act, the age limit for high school in Texas is 19 years of age or until the student graduates. Under this Act, a student can graduate from high school as early as age 17, 18 or 19, without being required to remain enrolled in school. But what about students who drop out – or start dropping out – before reaching the minimum age? These efforts to keep children in school seem to have had an effect. Studies have shown that over the past 18 years, dropout rates in the United States have dropped by nearly two-thirds. In 2000, about 1.6 million young people aged 16-19 were not in school or had no school-leaving certificate.

Today, there are about 669,000. While statistics show that dropping out of school is usually a bad idea, the motivation to drop out of school can be overwhelming. However, if students want to do so, state laws are a barrier until they reach a certain age — 16, 17 or 18, depending on the state. Of course, students miss school without permission for a variety of reasons. But as absence becomes more chronic, most states refer to the student as „absenteeist“ when they reach a certain point. In Connecticut, for example, an absentee is a student who has four unjustified absences in a month or 10 in a school year; In Illinois, when a student has unjustified absences for 10% of the 180 consecutive days, they jump. When a student is labeled as truancy, many states at least have the leeway to lay criminal charges against parents. According to the Urban Institute, 24 states plus the District of Columbia allow punitive measures in juvenile or family courts against absentee parents.

States have studied their school age limits as a strategy to prevent early school leaving, coupled with policies that impose attendance requirements and require students to be informed of the economic consequences and opportunities to drop out of the baccalaureate. Lindsay Kramer is a freelance writer and writer working in the legal niche since 2012. She focuses in this niche on family law and personal injury law. Lindsay works closely with several legal marketing agencies and provides blog posts, website content, and marketing materials to law firms in the United States. All these reasons for dropping out of school are not legally valid reasons for leaving school. For example, a pregnant student who needs to work to support her family cannot simply leave school because she is pregnant or working. However, she can go through the legal process to drop out of high school if she meets Texas requirements. If the principal or school board refuses your request to allow your child to leave public school and enroll in another work or study program, you have the right to contact the commissioner of the Maine Department of Education. Any Texas student 18 years of age or older can receive a high school equivalency certificate if they pass one of the three approved equivalency exams offered in Texas. If the student is 17 years old and unmarried or has enlisted in the U.S. military, they can take the exam if they have parental permission to do so. At age 16, a student may write this exam if the court orders them to do so instead of attending high school, or if they are enrolled in a Job Corps training program.

The student must have at least one of these circumstances in addition to registering for the course. If she is enrolled in the course but does not meet any of these other criteria, she cannot leave school early. „There is evidence that raising the maximum age of compulsory education above 16 reduces drop-out rates and leads to other positive outcomes. Until recently, most states allowed students to drop out of high school at age 16; Today, 32 states have set the age of compulsory education at 17 or 18. States can make maximum compulsory education more meaningful by revoking work permits and driving privileges for students who drop out before the minimum school age set by the government. States may also require that students who drop out of school before graduation receive information not only about the economic consequences of dropping out of school, but also about how to complete their baccalaureate afterwards. „If you`re the parent of a high school student thinking about dropping out, it can be hard to dissuade them. They may hate school and see dropping out of school as a ticket to freedom and an opportunity to earn a paycheck now rather than later. In recent years, in the United States, the trend has been towards the expansion of compulsory schooling in order to reduce drop-out rates. According to the latest figures from the National Center for Education Statistics, the majority of states now require students to be 17 or 18 years old before they can drop out of college.

Since 2000, the number of countries setting the 16-year limit has been reduced from 29 to 15. Since August 2013, 16 states and the Virgin Islands have set the age of compulsory education at 16; 11 States for 17 years; and 23 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa and Puerto Rico at age 18. A student may be able to drop out at the age of 16 or 17 if certain conditions are met.