School in America: free from five, compulsory from six, and your state's vaccination list

Can your children go to school in America, and what does it cost? Yes, and public education is free. But unlike the Netherlands there is no national compulsory education act: each state decides for itself from what age a child must attend school, until what age, and from when a free place must be available. The find at the source is that those ages really differ, from compulsory attendance until sixteen in New York to nineteen in Texas. The pitfall is not in the costs but in the file: the school may only enrol once the vaccinations are in order that the law of that state prescribes, and that list is not the Dutch one.

From what age must, and may, my child go to school?

The American system runs from kindergarten (comparable to the second year of Dutch primary school) via grade 1 through grade 12, divided over elementary, middle and high school. For most states compulsory attendance starts at six, but the duty to offer free education starts earlier. The federal statistics agency NCES keeps track per state:

State	Compulsory attendance	Free education must be available from	Up to and including
California	6 to 18 years	5 years	21 years
New York	6 to 16 years	5 years	21 years
Texas	6 to 19 years	5 years	26 years
Florida	6 to 16 years	4 years	not laid down
Washington	8 to 18 years	5 years	21 years
Massachusetts	6 to 16 years	3 years	22 years

For a family with a young child this means that in most states there must be a free kindergarten place from age five; in Florida already from four, in Massachusetts from three. A seventeen-year-old is no longer of compulsory school age in New York and Florida, but in those states still has a right to a free place until 21. So look at both columns, not only at compulsory attendance.

Which vaccinations does the school ask for?

This is the step that holds up enrolment. Vaccination requirements for school and daycare are laid down by law per state, and in many states apply not only to public schools but also to private schools and daycare facilities. All states provide a medical exemption; some states also an exemption on religious or philosophical grounds. The state also lays down how the school enforces the requirements.

Bring the Dutch vaccination booklet, in English. The American list per state differs from the Dutch national vaccination programme, and the school judges by the state's list, not the Dutch one. Look up your state's list before departure, have the missing shots given in the Netherlands or plan them right after arrival with an American doctor, and make sure every date and every vaccine is legibly on paper in English.

How does the school deal with a child who speaks no English?

Better than you fear. Pupils identified as English learners can take part in language assistance programmes that bring them to English proficiency and to the same level as other pupils. It is a large group: in the autumn of 2021, 10.6 percent of all public school pupils were English learners, 5.3 million children. In Texas that is 20.2 percent, in California 18.9 percent. A Dutch child coming in is therefore no exception for the school but a familiar case, with an existing programme behind it.

What that programme involves exactly differs per district: extra language lessons alongside the regular class, or temporarily a separate language class. Ask about it at enrolment, and ask how the school measures progress, because the subject matter simply continues in the meantime. For a teenager in high school that weighs more heavily than for a young child.

What does it cost, then?

Public education is free; private schools charge tuition. The ratio says something about how normal the public school is: in the autumn of 2021 about 5.5 million pupils attended a private elementary or secondary school, against 32.5 million children at public schools from kindergarten through grade 8. For a family staying a few years and returning later, the question whether the child keeps reading and writing Dutch matters more than the choice between public and private; that you arrange yourself, the American school does nothing about it.

Choosing a home is choosing a school

Public education is organised per state and per district, and your child's school is tied to where you live. Whoever first rents a house and only then looks at schools has already made the choice. So look at the schools of a neighbourhood before you sign a lease. How this step falls in the first weeks next to the social security number and the health insurance is in your first weeks in America; the full step-by-step plan is at /amerika.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.6: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to United States or go straight to step 5.6 in the open plan.