Compulsory School Attendance
From YRN
Throughout the United States, despite them varying state-to-state, compulsory school attendance laws are in every state and have been in all states for over 70 years, and always include the 7-16 age range, though can stretch slightly to 5-18.
Passing Year
Year in which each state passed compulsory attendance, in chronological order. The southern states generally passed their school attendance laws last, while New England and the northern part of the "Frontier" generally passed their laws first.
- 1852- Massachusetts
- 1864- District of Columbia
- 1867- Vermont
- 1871- Michigan, New Hampshire, Washington
- 1872- Connecticut
- 1873- Nevada
- 1874- California, Kansas, New York
- 1875- Maine, New Jersey
- 1876- Wyoming
- 1877- Ohio
- 1879- Wisconsin
- 1883- Illinois, Montana, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota
- 1885- Minnesota
- 1887- Idaho, Nebraska
- 1889- Colorado, Oregon
- 1890- Utah
- 1891- New Mexico
- 1895- Pennsylvania
- 1896- Hawaii, Kentucky
- 1897- Indiana, West Virginia
- 1899- Arizona
- 1902- Iowa, Maryland
- 1905- Missouri, Tennessee
- 1907- Delaware, North Carolina, Oklahoma
- 1908- Virginia
- 1909- Arkansas
- 1910- Louisiana
- 1915- Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Texas
- 1916- Georgia
- 1918- Mississippi
- 1929- Alaska
Laws by state
A map of the maximum age of compulsory 'schooling' in the different states can be seen here: http://www.youthrights.net/index.php?title=Image:Map-usa-yr-scage.png
