Re-Entering School

Becca_H · Apr 11, 2011

I have a sixteen-year-old protagonist who has never been to high school. She stopped attending middle school a couple of years before (there's some flexibility on how long specifically).

But now, at 16, she's been persuaded to go back to school. What would happen if she tried to enroll? Would she have problems due to long-term truancy?

What would it take for a school to accept her? If one did, what would they do about the missing years? Would she start her freshman year at sixteen?

She is relatively intelligent, and dropped out of school due to family issues. The authorities couldn't do anything as she had no fixed address, and nobody knew where she was.

The setting for this is California.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

icerose · Apr 11, 2011

I know they would certainly be doing everything they could to help her catch up. It would be a lot of catching up to do, she'd probably have to go to summer school and possibly even adult ed after she hit 18. If it was only one year, they'd probably just have her repeat the grade she was missing. There was a girl in my school who got pregnant at 11. She missed that entire year because her mom kicked her out, and then the full next one as she got used to having a baby and finally got off the streets as her aunt took her in. So she came back two years later. She was still in my grade but I do believe she had a lot of making up to do. However the school was very compassionate and they worked with her.

They cut out her electives and put in core to help her catch up quickly without too much time. She took a math, history, and english test to bypass some of those requirements. But this was before Highschool too.

Beyond that I don't have any experience. If you can't find your answer here, is there any way you could contact a school board with your questions and ask?

Maryn · Apr 11, 2011

Sometime sort of like this occurred with Jess, a boy in our daughter's social group in high school. Jess had a health problem (a coma, although I don't know its cause) which lasted for a number of years, then he recovered. He'd missed four years, I think it was. Maybe five. He looked like the young man he was at nineteen, but thought and acted like the immature fifteen-year-old he'd been when he went into the coma.

What I understand happened is that the school did a fair amount of academic testing to determine the best placement for him. (This is a good school district; a poorer one might act differently.) In high school there's less stigma about what grade you're in than in middle school, so he entered as a sophomore. His grades were okay--about what they'd been before--and he graduated.

He did face some social issues, people expecting him to act like he looked, and parents of girls uneasy about letting this man date their fifteen-year-old. Our daughter's social group was one which accepted some of the outcasts, and did things as a group rather than as couples, so Jess had social experiences without dating.

Your character is probably going to enter high school as a freshman, possibly in remedial classes even though she's smart, picking up the education she missed after leaving middle school. She will probably be frustrated with the pace and with her classmates' slowness to learn. She might well self-teach and advance far more quickly, possibly testing out (passing what would have been the final exam) well before the end of the semester or school year. Socially, she'd probably be in a better situation than Jess was, because there are still boys old enough to go out with, even if meeting them in class is not possible. Kids who are interested in one another find a way.

Was she living on the streets, by her own wits, or what? She might be somewhat hardened by her experiences. She might also be more sexually active and open about it than her classmates approve.

Maryn, thinking this sets up some very interesting conflicts

WriteKnight · Apr 11, 2011

School will want records from last school. She'll undergo placement testing to determine her proficiency at different skills. Then they'll place her in a skill appropriate grade level. There is some flexibility in High school. It's possible to be a sophomore, and take freshman level math - perhaps advanced English if she places highly enough. Summer school to catch up where she's behind. But she'll need a certain amount of credits to simply graduate.

PinkAmy · Apr 11, 2011

In the USA kids aren't supposed to be allowed to drop out of school in middle school. They have to be home schooled or attend classes or their parents get in trouble. l She'll need a certain amount of credits to graduate, so they might have her only take classes like math, science and not electives, because they generally need so many credits of math, science, english, foreign language etc.

Chase · Apr 11, 2011

I taught in a Catholic high school in the '70s. Part of its private curricula included an "alternative" school for dropouts. I didn't have the need-to-know all details, but I did handle placement tests and evaluations for the English department.

I recall one bright student had moved a great deal during grade school and hadn't attended more than a month of any grade from 12 to 16, I believe. I recall she had tutoring before and after school and took sophomore and junior English at the same time. She attended summer sessions and did quite well in my senior English class. She graduated following a last summer session after senior year.

Your scenario is possible.

Williebee · Apr 11, 2011

Not California, but a few years ago we had a kid who stopped going to school. He managed a year and a half before he got caught. Bottom line was, he was bored. We put him in our Alternative Education system, and crammed the "must haves" down his throat. He did two and a half years in that year. (Meanwhile, helping me troubleshoot the school's content filtering and access management.) We got him a partial scholarship to the local Junior College.

Becca_H · Apr 12, 2011

Some really helpful information here guys - thanks very much. This definitely helps me out.

Re-Entering School

Becca_H

Where am I again?

icerose

Lost in School Work

Maryn

At Sea

WriteKnight

Arranger Of Disorder

PinkAmy

New kid, be gentle!

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

Becca_H

Where am I again?