History Main / CompulsorySchoolAge

* Averted  in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' fanfic ''Fanfic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown'',  Ed mentions that he, Al and Winry stopped going to school as the subject was beneath their intellect.

* Subverted in ''Manga/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 ''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. {{Justified|Trope}}, as he needs to get close to Sakura and Co.

* Several times in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi''.

* 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.]] Nobody seems to notice this, except when Karen gives the addresses for both the graduating senior class ''and'' the incipient senior class, one after the other.

* Variation: In ''Anime/MagicalDoReMi'', ''Dokkan'' has two-year-old Hana-chan undergo a PlotRelevantAgeUp. Off to the sixth grade for her! (Justified in that it was what she wanted in the first place -- to be with her moms.)

* ''Manga/AstroBoy'':
** Astro is sent to grade school with human children of his apparent age despite being a robot with a super-advanced AI. Sometimes this is explicitly said to be for the purpose of socialization, sometimes not.
** Subverted with Astro's robot "parents", who are also sent to school in a lower grade because they're actually younger than him.
* ''Anime/BurstAngel'' has Meg and Jo infiltrating a boarding school looking for {{Body Horror}}s.
* Subverted in ''Manga/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.]]

* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
** ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'': Averted in the first [[AudioAdaptation Sound Stage]], where Hayate asks [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Vita]] if she would like to go to school, but Vita says she's not interested.
** Downplayed with Lutecia in ''[[Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid ViVid Life]]'' when she's caught sneaking around St. Hilde Academy while wearing a middle school uniform and claims to be a transfer student in order to save face. She actually is middle school age, but she ends up being placed in the same class as Einhart (who is 2 years her junior).
* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
** Shin'ichi Kudo is already a teenager. Then he gets turned into a little kid and ends up having to go back to ''elementary school''. Justified by him needing to hide from the Black Organization that turned him that way in the first place by giving a poison intended to kill him.
** This is also the case for Ai Haibara, 18 years old, and [[TeenGenius the developer of the]] aforementioned FountainOfYouth.
* Averted in the manga ''Manga/BlackJack'' with Black Jack's assistant/adopted daughter Pinoko, who is [[OlderThanTheyLook technically eighteen, but has the body of a girl no older than five or six]]. In the chapter "Pinoko's Challenge", her attempts to get into high school (she suffers nasty psychosomatic illness from the stress of entrance exams) and kindergarten (she gets kicked out after throwing a violent tantrum) both end in disaster.
* Elsie from ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'' goes to school with Keima despite being a demon girl who's over 100 years old.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has this mixed. Touma and Tsuchimikado both still attend school despite all their adventures, but many teenaged or child characters do not due to various circumstances, such as Index, Accelerator, or ITEM's members. One scene in New Testament has Yoshikawa and Accelerator discussing enrolling Last Order in school (to which she strongly objects) in order to give her a somewhat more normal life.
* 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. {{Justified|Trope}}, as he needs to get close to Sakura and Co.
* In ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'' not only have Nyarko, Cuuko, and Hasta already graduated from [[SpaceX Space College]] by the time they show up on Earth (and have regular jobs as SpacePolice), 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]].
* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Asuka claims to have already completed her college education, but still attends school with Shinji and Rei. Judging by how effortlessly she helps Shinji with some of his homework, she may not be lying about this. When Shinji questions how she can possibly be getting bad grades, she replies that she is still a beginner at kanji reading, so she can't actually ''read'' most of the questions on their tests.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'', Zeheart Gallette, a teenaged Vagan spy, enrolls in high school during the second arc. ''Memory of Eden'' explains why in greater detail: he missed his chance at extraction by Vagan, and wouldn't have another chance for close to a year. He entered school both because it is something a person of his age would be expected to do, and because he needed ''something'' to occupy so much time with.
* In ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'', both the titular angels and their demonic rivals are old enough to get multiple jobs, engage in lots of casual sex and star in movies and public events without adult authorization. And yet, all of them attended and briefly ruled the Daten City High School during different episodes. [[spoiler:At least until they destroyed it during a confrontation.]]
* 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 is anyone's guess.
* In the ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' manga, Sasami ends up entering grade school partway through the initial 12-volume run. It's Justified in that, despite being the TropeNamer for ReallySevenHundredYearsOld, she's still physically and mentally 9. It's also used to show off extra plots that don't involve smacking aliens around. It should be noted, though, that this trope ''isn't'' in play in any of the alien-based ''Tenchi'' anime.
* 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.]] Nobody seems to notice this, except when Karen gives the addresses for both the graduating senior class ''and'' the incipient senior class, one after the other.
* ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'':
** Played with regarding Kanna. She is a dragon, but besides taking the form of an elementary school-age girl, it's also said that she's a child by dragon standards. So she goes to school both to get a better grasp of the human world and because [[IJustWantToHaveFriends she wants friends]].
** Subverted regarding Ilulu, who is the dragon equivalent of 16 and therefore old enough that school would be optional for her. Saikawa briefly wonders why she doesn't go to school, and she shows brief interest in going to elementary school with Kanna (not understanding the concept of grade levels), but she never actually enrolls.

* 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 {{M|eaningfulName}}artian 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 {{secret identit|y}}ies 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.

* The ''ComicBook/{{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.

* 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. Of course, the constant lies regarding [[OurVampiresAreDifferent sunny days]] and "field trips" make it seem like it would be easier to say they were being homeschooled.
* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', Darren re-enters the human world after 6 years living in Vampire Mountain [[spoiler: and ruling as an all-powerful Vampire Prince]], and is surprised when a school inspector turns up at the door of his hotel room. Darren is 28 years old, but he looks 16, and the bad guys have gotten him enrolled in school. So between trying to hunt them down and stop them from murdering innocent civilians, he has to go out and buy a uniform and books, and then try to catch up on pre-calculus and modern history, not to mention dealing with bullies -- and his first girlfriend from when he was actually 12, who's now his English teacher.
* Despite being a supergenius (and an evil one at that), ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'''s parents insist he attend [[BoardingSchool St. Bartleby's something-or-other]]. 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 (his mother even forced him to ''wear a T-shirt''). He still found it annoying.

* Justified in ''Literature/AnnoDracula 1999: Daikaiju'': vampire schoolgirl Nezumi is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld over a thousand years old]], but she doesn't retain knowledge for more than a few decades, so periodically she re-enrolls at [[Literature/TheSecretsOfDrearcliffGrangeSchool Drearcliff Grange]] to learn it all over again.

* In ''Series/TwentyOneJumpStreet'', the cops are still adult age, but they look like high schoolers, so they have to go to high school to fight crime that happens in/around high school.

* The 2002 TV series ''That Was Then'' and ''Do Over'' both featured protagonists in their 30s who were [[MentalTimeTravel reliving their high school years]].
* Lampshaded in ''Series/YoungDracula'', where the Count has no intention of sending his children to school until a social worker comes by to insist. By Series Three and post-TimeSkip, the Count has come around to seeing the advantages of sending his children to school. He insists that Ingrid attends school so that he doesn't have to see her all day... despite her being twenty by this time.

* [[InsufferableGenius Kira Daidouji]] '''[=PhD=]''' from ''VideoGame/ArcanaHeart'' is obliged to attend elementary school upon her return to Japan due to being 12. It places a crimp in her plans for [[TakeOverTheWorld World Domination]] as well.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'': TeenGenius Kotomi Ichinose still attends high school despite having long since proven there's nothing more any of the teachers there could possibly teach her. For a given value of "attends" anyway, as she doesn't actually go to class, instead spending all her time in the school library studying up on much more advanced subjects.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'':
** Inverted in "I Was a Pre-School Dropout", where Jenny, despite being mentally and physically a teenager who happens to be made of metal, is assigned to a class matching her ''chronological'' age and has to survive a day in kindergarten. She gets to go back to high school when her 'mother' tells them "she was designed as a teenager"--the same thing Jenny said earlier, but without a diagram like Nora.
** 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 [[OlderThanTheyLook to bring him back to his original physical age]]]], yet still attends school afterward like nothing happened.
** Played with when [[HumanAliens Misty]] moves to Earth: she starts attending school, but only to hang out with Jenny. She ends up expelled from Jenny's high school and doesn't bother to attend any other one.

* Occurs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'' when Juniper's grandmother Jasmine experiences FountainOfYouth syndrome. Note that this wasn't Jasmine's idea as much as she's enjoying her youth again, it was her ''son'' and Juniper's father that enrolled her at June's school since he was told she was a visiting relative from Hong Kong. Jasmine is not thrilled at this, especially when June's friend [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy Roger]] falls for her and she has to deal with some rather racist assumptions from a student that [[AllAsiansKnowKungFu she knows karate because she's Asian]] (she ''does'' know karate as well as over twenty forms of combat, it's the principle of the matter).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Carrie is a 327-year old ghost, but she is still attending middle school for unknown reasons.

* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', when Darren attends school to avoid drawing undue attention to himself.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'':

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''. Many countries also ban {{grade skipp|er}}ing in general, often resulting in TeenGenius attending schools with average students.

* Variation: In ''Anime/MagicalDoremi'', ''Dokkan'' has two-year-old Hana-chan undergo a PlotRelevantAgeUp. Off to the sixth grade for her! (Justified in that it was what she wanted in the first place -- to be with her moms.)

* Several times in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima''.

* Subverted in ''Manga/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.]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* Averted  in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' fanfic ''FanFic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown'',  Ed mentions that he, Al and Winry stopped going to school as the subject was beneath their intellect.

* 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.

* [[InsufferableGenius Kira Daidouji]] '''[=PhD=]''' from ''Videogame/ArcanaHeart'' is obliged to attend elementary school upon her return to Japan due to being 12. It places a crimp in her plans for [[TakeOverTheWorld World Domination]] as well.

* In ''LightNovel/HaiyoreNyarkoSan'' not only have Nyarko, Cuuko, and Hasta already graduated from [[SpaceX Space College]] by the time they show up on Earth (and have regular jobs as SpacePolice), 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]].

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' attempted to enforce this during the early days of the comic's DorkAge. It quietly forgotten after the TimeSkip and hasn't been brought up since.

** Suzaku also suggest to Euphemia she could join the school as well. [[spoiler:When she has a few seconds left to live.]]

** [[CuteGhostGirl Sayo]], a ghost who can barely wander to the nearby convenience store because she's bound to the school. Eventually Evangeline and Asakura give her a doll to possess that allows her to leave the campus.

* In the ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' manga, Sasami ends up entering grade school partway through the initial 12-volume run. It's Justified in that, despite being the TropeNamer for ReallySevenHundredYearsOld, she's still physically and mentally 9. It's also used to show off extra plots that doesn't involve smacking aliens around. It should be noted, though, that this trope ''isn't'' in play in any of the alien-based ''Tenchi'' anime.

* 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 {{secret identit|y}}ies 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.

* Despite being a supergenius (and an evil one at that), ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'''s parents insist he attend [[BoardingSchool St. Bartleby's something-or-other]]. 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.

* ''Literature/TheOneWhoEatsMonsters'': Ryn is a monster who is [[TimeAbyss older than time]], but she looks sixteen so the adults make her go to school. She skips on a constant basis, is eventually expelled for [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished saving a bully's life]], and at that point she is past the compulsory age so she doesn't bother finding a new school.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Lampshaded in ''Series/YoungDracula'', where the Count has no intention of sending his children to school until a social worker comes by to insist. By Series Three, and post-TimeSkip, the Count has come around to seeing the advantages of sending his children to school. He insists that Ingrid attends school so that he doesn't have to see her all day... despite her being twenty by this time.

* Eve from ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2''. [[spoiler: Clone of Aya]], looks like an 11 year old but is possibly younger, in the [[MultipleEndings good ending]] ends up going to school for children of her apparent age. Not that she learned much from her former caretakers besides how to control genetically-engineered monsters and [[ThatOneLevel 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 more experienced than all the students. His greatest foe winds up being the devious headmaster.

* ''[[Literature/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. 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/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Jimmy is most obviously a scientific genius, 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.

** Downplayed with Lutecia in ''[[Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid ViVid Life]]'' when she's caught sneaking around St. Hilde Academy while wearing a middle school uniform and claims to be an exchange student in order to save face. She actually is middle school age, but she ends up being placed in the same class as Einhart (who is 2 years her junior).

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'': Averted in the first [[AudioAdaptation Sound Stage]], where Hayate asks [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Vita]] if she would like to go to school, but Vita says she's not interested.

** Ellen have to go through the high school right after living through it with her AlternateSelf in the Second Life. Though [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-01-15 history and some of biology]] are not the same.

* Variation: In ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'', ''Dokkan'' has two-year-old Hana-chan undergo a PlotRelevantAgeUp. Off to the sixth grade for her! (Justified in that it was what she wanted in the first place -- to be with her moms.)

* Occurs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'' when Jasmine experiences FountainOfYouth syndrome.

* [[InsufferableGenius Kira Daidouji]] '''[=PhD=]''' from ''Videogame/ArcanaHeart'' is obliged to attend elementary school upon her return to Japan due to being 12. It places a crimp in her plans for WorldDomination as well.

* Blossom in ''Fanfic/TheUtoniumTrials'' is annoyed that this applies to her. She's chronologically three, physically [[NotAllowedToGrowUp five]], and is in elementary. Yet, she's more intellectually advanced than most adults. Being stuck in third grade when it's ''far'' below her intellect level (to the point where she fact checks her textbooks herself) is insulting to her.

* Despite being a super-genius ChildProdigy, 4-year old Lisa from ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' goes to a normal kindergarten. This is despite previously being noted that she has a PhD already.

* Played with in ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'': Kanna is a dragon, but besides taking the form of an elementary school-age girl, it's also said that she's a child by dragon standards. So she goes to school both to get a better grasp of the human world and because [[IJustWantToHaveFriends she wants friends]].

* Subverted in ''Manga/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.]]

* Occurs in an episode of ''{{The Life and Times of Juniper Lee}}'' when Jasmine experiences FountainOfYouth syndrome.

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''. Many countries also ban grade skipping in general, often resulting in TeenGenius attending schools with average students.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has many of the {{shinigami}} show up at Ichigo's high school to check up on him, much to his horror. Their bizarre physical appearances (notably Ikkaku, who's bald and carries a ''bokken'' around with him because he can't have a regular katana), combined with their school uniforms, causes everyone to automatically assume that they're delinquents.

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

* Manga/AstroBoy is sent to grade school with human children of his apparent age despite being a robot with a super-advanced AI. Sometimes this is explicitly said to be for the purpose of socialization, sometimes not. Subverted with Astro's robot "parents", who are also sent to school in a lower grade because they're actually younger than him.

* 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''. Justified by him needing to hide from the Black Organization that turned him that way in the first place by giving a poison intended to kill him.

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' attempted to enforce this during the early days of the comic's DorkAge. It' quietly forgotten after the TimeSkip and hasn't been brought up since.

* 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.
** Of course, the constant lies regarding [[OurVampiresAreDifferent sunny days]] and "field trips" make it seem like it would be easier to say they were being homeschooled.

* Despite being a supergenius (and an evil one at that), ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'''s parents insist he attend [[BoardingSchool St. Bartleby's something-or-other]].
** 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.

* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'''s Tommy is ReallySevenHundredYearsOld, but he got the teenage body, so he has to go to HighSchool. In fact, he was specifically put into a teenage body ''to'' go to High School. (He was awfully ticked about that, though.)
** In fact, in an early (perhaps the first) episode, he explicitly states that he's older than Dick and wonders why ''he'' has to be the adolescent.

* Lampshaded in ''Series/YoungDracula'', where the Count has no intention of sending his children to school until a social worker comes by to insist.
** By Series Three, and post-TimeSkip, the Count has come around to seeing the advantages of sending his children to school. He insists that Ingrid attends school so that he doesn't have to see her all day... despite her being twenty by this time.

* Eve from ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2''. [[spoiler: Clone of Aya]], looks like an 11 year old but is possibly younger, in the [[MultipleEndings good ending]] ends up going to school for children of her apparent age.
** Not that she learned much from her former caretakers besides how to control genetically-engineered monsters and [[ThatOneLevel stand perfectly still in the wake of poison gas]].

* ''[[Literature/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.
** 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.