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.