History Main / CompulsorySchoolAge

* Shin'ichi Kudo from ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' is already a teenager. Then he gets turned into a little kid and ends up having to go back to ''elementary school''.
** This is also the case for Ai Haibara, 18 years old, and [[ChildProdigy the developer of the ]] aforementioned FountainOfYouth.

* Starts out {{justified|Trope}} in ''Jinx High'' by Creator/MercedesLackey. The villain GrandTheftMe'd her daughter, who was already in public school. Then the justification falls apart when she thinks about how previously she'd been able to claim her current body was being educated at home by private tutors -- homeschooling is legal in Oklahoma.

This is, however, {{justified|Trope}} in many countries where homeschooling is not an allowed form of compulsory education. As a result, if a person needs to maintain that {{masquerade}}, they need to go to school. In some cases, parents in these countries will be served with a court order because they tried homeschooling their kids, and cases where such kids were taken away Elian-style ''is not unheard of''.

* Played straight in ''Anime/CodeGeass'' with Suzaku, who despite being in the military is ordered to by Princess Euphemia to go to school at the same time.

* ''[[WhateleyUniverse Whateley Academy]]'' has a few students who were originally well beyond high school or even college age: Sara Waite was once a best-selling author and Caitlin used to be an instructor at the school and a former Marine.

* Lampshaded in ''YoungDracula'', where the Count has no intention of sending his children to school until a social worker comes by to insist.

This probably plays into certain insecurities ("back in school" is quite a frequent nightmare from empiric evidence). It may also have to do with children who are visibly ''not'' in school being seen by MoralGuardians as a "bad example". Apparently it hasn't crossed their minds to make up a story about being home-schooled. Probably because if [[TVNeverLies you believe everything you see on TV,]] HomeschooledKids are weird, socially-inept freaks.

* In ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', Eriol is several centuries old because he is [[spoiler: a reincarnation of Clow Reed.]] However, he stopped his aging process, so he still has the body of a boy about 11 years old, and enters Tomoeda Elementary as a new transfer student. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as he needs to get close to Sakura and Co.

* Both ComicBook/{{Raven}} and Miss Martian from ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' wound up in high school at one point. In both cases, it was a deliberate decision on their part: Raven wanted a taste of the "normal" teenage life she never got to experience, and Miss [[MeaningfulName Martian]] wanted to learn how to fit in with humanity better.
* ComicBook/{{Superboy}} was removed from the accelerated growth chamber he was grown in at the apparent age of 16. He had to take a test to see if he needed education or could just rely on his implanted knowledge, and then skipped it to save Hawaii from the Silicon Dragons. High school it is. Then a few incidents convince the people involved that public schooling and superheroes without [[SecretIdentity secret identities]] don't mix, so he starts getting home-schooled. When he later gets a proper secret identity, he starts attending high school, but it's never mentioned whether he get a G.E.D or the like in the time between.

* Starts out [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in ''Jinx High'' by Creator/MercedesLackey. The villain GrandTheftMe'd her daughter, who was already in public school. Then the justification falls apart when she thinks about how previously she'd been able to claim her current body was being educated at home by private tutors -- homeschooling is legal in Oklahoma.

** Not that she learned much from her former caretakers besides how to control genetically-engineered monsters and [[ScrappyLevel stand perfectly still in the wake of poison gas]].
* Aigis from ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' goes to the same high school as the rest of the main cast (minus grade schooler Ken) despite being a RobotGirl created for the sole purpose of fighting [[TheHeartless Shadows]]. [[PaperThinDisguise Wearing the long-sleeved winter outfit year round is enough to pass for human, apparently]]. It is, admittedly, partly her own idea, as it allows her to be near the protagonist at all times. And given her below-average test scores, she may well benefit from her attendance.

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' "Torg Potter" stories, in which full-grown twenty-something Torg gets dragged to a school that awfully resembles Hogwarts. He isn't turned into a child, and promptly finds himself able to do whatever the hell he wants due to being both larger and [[strike:smarter]] more experienced than all the students. His greatest foe winds up being the devious headmaster.

** In both of those cases, part of the in-world justification is the need for a safe hiding place (it seems that the word 'safe' has a different meaning in the this world...) where their apparent age wouldn't be a problem. However, this same logic applies to Samantha Everhart, except that she appears to be over school age, so she became a member of the Security force instead; why Carmilla and Eldritch needed to be students instead of, say, instructors, was always a bit shaky, especially in Sara's case (she's [[ShapeShifting perfectly capable of taking on an adult form]]). Added justification does come from the need to master their new abilities (and hormones), however.

* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''. Zim is older than any human alive, probably hundreds of years old, yet he attends the local [[strike: School]] Skool, in his efforts to learn about humans by observing their human worm babies.

* In ''LightNovel/HaiyoreNyarkoSan'' not only have Nyarko, Cuuko, and Hasta already graduated from [[SpaceX Space College]] by the time they show up on Earth, they're also [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian]] {{Cosmic Horror}}s of uncertain age[[note]]As in, when Mahiro tried to learn Nyarko and Cuuko's ages, the girls physically restrained and threatened him into dropping the subject[[/note]] -- but since their human forms are teenagers, they go to high school along with [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Mahiro]].

* Exaggerated and PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'', with StudentCouncilPresident Shirogane Karen having to attend high school ''for more than 20 years'' despite being at least 100 years old. Akane, the principal, decided it [[{{Jerkass}} because she didn't have to pay Karen for her help if she was a student.]]

** Of course, the constant lies regarding [[OurVampiresAreDifferent sunny days]] and [[strike:feeding]] field trips make it seem like it would be easier to say they were being homeschooled.
*** It would also let them stay in one place longer, as they would be monitored less and therefore the fact they weren't ageing would be less obvious. Less interaction with others would also both lower the chance of their secret being discovered and mean they wouldn't have to work so hard to avoid biting people.

* Jack [[spoiler:or at least his 16 year old clone]] from ''Series/StargateSG1'' '''chooses''' to go to school, prompting an exchange like this:

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims 2'', if your Sim's age is reduced, either by cheating or legitimate means, to the point that they regress back to the "teenager" life stage, they'll have to go back to school--even if they were gainfully employed as an adult.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Jimmy is most obviously a scientific genuis, with an IQ well over 300, and ''still'' goes to school to learn about things he most likely already knows. In one episode, he is offered a college scholarship (and later a teaching job), but goes back to fifth grade at the end because he would rather be with his friends than with his intellectual equals.

* The ''Bunty'' strip "My School Chum, Mum" was about a woman who used an anti-aging cream that worked too well, and had to attend school as the "cousin" of her daughter.

* [[RobotGirl Cameron]] attends school during the first season of ''Series/TheSarahConnorChronicles'', although this was justified by her need to be close to John as much as possible.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims 2'', if your Sim's age is reduced, either by cheating or legitimate means, to the point that they regress back to the "teenager" life stage, they'll have to go back to school-even if they were gainfully employed as an adult.

* Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, and Edward from ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' all go to school, though Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper eventually graduate. Over the years, however, all of them have done this repeatedly--A few of them even went to college and medical school, multiple times. This is supposedly necessary because the younger they claim to be at the beginning, the longer they can live in one place without arousing suspicion because they don't age. Plus, it just looks weird to have a couple move in with their 5 barely-adult kids. But if the kids are still minors? Not odd at all.

* Played straight in ''CodeGeass'' with Suzaku, who despite being in the military is ordered to by Princess Euphemia to go to school at the same time.

* Subverted in ''{{xxxHolic}}'' with [[spoiler:Watanuki. Doumeki tries telling him he can't just stay in the shop, he has to go to school. Actually, no Doumeki. Cause I've made an agreement to run this shop and live without aging until Yuuko returns, and I can't leave until that happens.]]

* In ''{{The Saga of Darren Shan}}'', when Darren attends school to avoid drawing undue attention to himself.

* Ami Mizuno of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' has the highest test scores ''in the country'', yet she not only attends the same grade as students her age, she spends most of her time out of class in cram school. What in the world she would actually learn from it or which high school's entrance exam she couldn't already pass [[FridgeLogic is anyone's guess]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Jimmy is most obviously a scientific genuis, with an IQ well over 300, and ''still'' goes to school to [[FridgeLogic learn about things he most likely already knows]]. In one episode, he is offered a college scholarship (and later a teaching job), but goes back to fifth grade at the end because he would rather be with his friends than with his intellectual equals.

* Happens in an issue of ''HackSlash'', where Miss America On {{Phlebotinum}} GoneHorriblyWrong joins a boarding school with a secret LesYay club looking for human blood to keep her body young and beautiful.

* ComicBook/{{Superboy}} was removed from the accelerated growth chamber he was grown in at the apparent age of 16. He had to take a test to see if he needed education or could just rely on his implanted knowledge, and then skipped it to save Hawaii from the Silicon Dragons. High school it is.
** And then a few incidents convince the people involved that public schooling and superheroes without [[SecretIdentity secret identities]] don't mix, so he starts getting home-schooled. When he later gets a proper secret identity, he starts attending high school, but it's never mentioned whether he get a G.E.D or the like in the time between.
* Justified and subverted in ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius'', whose titular hero chooses to remain in junior high, because he's [[IfMyCalculationsAreCorrect calculated]] that the socialization he receives there reduces the probability of being driven wholly insane by his constantly-increasing intellect from Nearly Inevitable down to Merely Very Probable.

This is, however, {{justified|Trope}} in many countries where homeschooling is not an allowed form of compulsory education. As a result, if a person needs to maintain that {{masquerade}}, they need to go school. In some cases, parents in these countries will be served with a court order because they tried homeschooling their kids, and cases where such kids were taken away Elian-style ''is not unheard of''.

* ComicBook/{{Raven}} from ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' got placed in the body of a teenager. Back to high school you go!
** In this case it was intentional -- she wanted to get a taste of the "normal" teenage life she hadn't had originally.
** Miss Martian also from ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' inverts this in that she wanted to go to high school to learn how to fit in, but couldn't until she had forged the documentation.

* [[RobotGirl Cameron]] attends school during the first season of ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'', although this was justified by her need to be close to John as much as possible.

* Aigis from ''{{Persona 3}}'' goes to the same high school as the rest of the main cast (minus grade schooler Ken) despite being a RobotGirl created for the sole purpose of fighting [[TheHeartless Shadows]]. [[PaperThinDisguise Wearing the long-sleeved winter outfit year round is enough to pass for human, apparently]]. It is, admittedly, partly her own idea, as it allows her to be near the protagonist at all times. And given her below-average test scores, she may well benefit from her attendance.

* Sissy in ''UmlautHouse 2'' is 16, but is a brilliant (if [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder unstable]]) science prodigy. Just before finishing her doctorate, she becomes a MadScientist and has to be stopped by the protagonists (one of whom happens to be her mentor/grad adviser). Her father decides that she's spent too much time away from others her own age and enrolls her in high school to get her better acclimated to mainstream society (it doesn't work).

** He didn't go to school in the first book, when his mother was completely insane. Later on, he was made to go back, which makes sense from his parent's point of view as they probably want him to be normal (him mother even forced him to ''wear a T-shirt). He still found it annoying.

** Sheldon is a GadgeteerGenius almost as capable of Jenny's creator, but he's still in the same grade as a normal boy his age. He'd probably want to avoid graduating earlier [[{{Robosexual}} because it would give him less time to spend with Jenny]], but that doesn't explain why he was still in high school before they met. This is taken even further in the episode "Good Old Sheldon", where Sheldon [[spoiler:spent 75 years wandering space [[YearOutsideHourInside while one day passed on Earth]], [[FountainOfYouth was physically reduced to infancy]], and spent another fifteen years in space to bring him back to his original physical age]], yet still attends school afterward like nothing happened.

** Sheldon is a GadgteerGenius almost as capable of Jenny's creator, but he's still in the same grade as a normal boy his age. Arguably he'd want to avoid graduating earlier or skipping grades [[{{Robosexual}} because it would give him less time to spend with Jenny]], but that doesn't explain why he was still there before they met. This is taken even further in the episode "Good Old Sheldon", where Sheldon [[spoiler:spent 75 years wandering space [[YearOutsideHourInside while one day passed on Earth]], [[FountainOfYouth was physically reduced to infancy]], and spent another fifteen years in space to bring him back to his original physical age]], yet still attends school afterward like nothing happened.