In the United States , all children must go to school until the age of sixteen . However , in some states ,like Hawaii , Utah , and Washington , children must attend school until the age of eighteen ! A child cannot miss school without an acceptable excuse . There are laws about this . Illness , a death in the family , or an emergency is an acceptable excuse for missing a class or a whole day . Schools are very serious about school attendance . There are laws that make the parents accountable if their children miss school . Parents can go to jail or pay a fine . In Colorado , a fifteen-year-old girl went to jail for a month because she missed forty-three days of school and was late nineteen times . Her parents also went to jail for ten days and paid a fine of $300 .