Boston Public Schools To Kick Out Older Students From High School

BOSTON, MA — In a bit of an about-face, Boston School district officials are planning to take a strict approach to enforcing an age-cutoff policy in schools this year, the Boston Globe reported. The Commonwealth is one of a handful of states leaves the cutoff age for a diploma up to local school systems to decide.

Boston's rules say as soon as a student turns 22 they are no longer welcome in school, no matter if they're on track to graduate. However, the rule - in place since 1999 - has been ignored during the past few years, the Globe reported, in an effort to help students on track to graduate.

Since the Boston School Committee passed its policy nearly two decades ago, when the district was figuring out what to do with some 1,000 students over the age of 20, many of them immigrants or students with language barriers, and now teachers, students and community members are asking the district to reconsider.

Most states allow students to be in high school until they turn 22. Texas allows for students up to the age of 26, according to an Education Commission of the States analysis.

Read the full Boston Globe article here: BPS To Boot Older Students

Never miss another local news story: Get free local news alerts right to your inbox.

Sign up for the free newsletter and get more breaking Boston news and news alerts like this direct to your inbox. Did we mention it was free?

Got something to add?
Sign up to post to Patch and tell your neighbors what's going on in and around Boston. Post anything from calendar events to a column about a need in your neighborhood to a public meeting folks should know about. Our philosophy is the more neighborhood watchers the better.

Photo by Jenna Fisher/ Patch Staff. Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).