Grade placement & acceleration

Who decides your grade

Grade placement is decided by the school, not by a national rule. Private and boarding schools set their own admission and placement policies, so ask each admission office how it will place your child and what it needs to see (typically age, transcripts, test scores and an interview). In public schools, state education agencies leave the evaluation of foreign transcripts and transfer credit to the school or district (Pennsylvania and Louisiana departments of education).

Which visa, which school

On an F-1 visa a student may attend a private, SEVP-certified school in any grade from kindergarten to 12; a public school only in grades 9–12 and for no more than 12 months in total (Study in the States). J-1 secondary-school exchange students must be 15 to 18 years and 6 months old at the start of the program, or have completed no more than 11 years of schooling (22 CFR 62.25).

Age and the school year

Most states require a child to be 5 by a cutoff date — often September 1 or August 31 — to start kindergarten, so grade 1 usually starts at 6 and students finish grade 12 by about 18 (NCES). Korea, China, Vietnam and Mexico also have 12 years of school before university, but the year starts at a different time: March in Korea, September in China and Vietnam, late August in Mexico. A Korean student who has just finished a school year in February is therefore about half-way through the matching U.S. year.

Repeating a grade or reclassifying

Families sometimes ask to join one grade lower than the student's age suggests — for example to catch up in English, to align a March-start school year, or to have more time before college applications. Others ask to move up. Each school decides, case by case; ask the admission office early, and ask how its choice affects the graduation year, sports eligibility and the dates on the I-20 or DS-2019.

Transcripts, translation and credential evaluation

Send official transcripts for recent years with a complete English translation. State guidance asks schools to use a competent translator, and translations made by family members should not be accepted as official (Pennsylvania Department of Education). Some schools also ask for an evaluation by a professional credential evaluation service; ask which service and which format the school accepts before you pay for one.