Compulsory Attendance

Historical Background

In 1852, Massachusetts became the first jurisdiction in the United States to adopt a compulsory attendance law. The Massachusetts School Attendance Act of 1852 specified that children between the ages of 8 and 14 were required to attend school for a minimum of 12 weeks per year; 6 weeks of a student's attendance was required to be consecutive if the school was open for that period of time. By 1918, all states had formally adopted compulsory attendance laws requiring school-aged children to attend school. While all jurisdictions currently require children to attend school, the mechanisms for their doing so vary.

A 2000 study by the Education Commission of the States indicated that the youngest age for compulsory attendance in the United States is 5, and the upper age limit ranges from 16 to 18. The legal authority for compulsory attendance laws in the United States is firmly rooted in the courts as a valid use of state power under the U.S. Constitution. In Meyer v. Nebraska (1923), for example, the Supreme Court ruled “that the state may do much, go very far, indeed, in order to improve the quality of its citizens, physically, mentally, and morally. …” (p. 627).

Court Support

The bulk of legal arguments relating to compulsory attendance laws involve issues surrounding the balancing of the state's interest in ensuring that students receive an appropriate education against the right of parents to decide when and where their children attend school. The U.S. Supreme Court specifically addressed whether compulsory education laws could be satisfied by sending children to nonpublic, including private or religiously affiliated schools, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (1925).

In Pierce, the Court struck down Oregon's Compulsory Education Act, a law that required students between the ages of 8 and 16 to attend public schools. In finding that parents could satisfy the compulsory attendance law by sending their school-aged children to nonpublic schools, the Court formally recognized the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their children, namely the freedom of choice to decide whether to send their child to a public school or a private school or to homeschool the child. At the same time, in Pierce, the Court [Page 195]acknowledged the importance of the states' need to ensure that students receive an appropriate education. To this end, the Court noted that states can “reasonably regulate” all schools, including private schools, in areas such as accreditation, curriculum approval, health, and safety.

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