Today every state requires by law that children attend grade school. Some set the enrollment age as early as five, while others as high as eight, and all require reaching a minimum age or grade level before the children can legally withdraw. Such has been the law since the tenure of Horace Mann, the first secretary of the State Board of Education for Massachusetts, who advocated the founding of common (i.e. public) schools and compulsory education for children.

On this day, May 18, in 1852, the Massachusetts legislature enacted The Compulsory Attendance Act of 1852, the first general law regarding the welfare of children. The law mandated attendance for children between the ages of eight and fourteen for at least twelve weeks out of each year, of which at least six had to be consecutive.

The compulsory public-school movement taken up by Mann cited the elitism and exclusivity of private schools. As only the rich could afford to pay private school tuition, the schools served to perpetuate the division between the social and economic classes. Mann and supporters argued that an all-inclusive public school system, funded through taxes, would help to level the playing field, institute a true democracy, and provide lasting economic benefits.