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A genius New York teen was denied the opportunity to graduate high school early and earn his diploma to attend his dream college due to his age — despite being a full-time community college student.
Michael Sweeney, a 14-year-old homeschooler, is on the verge of applying to Arizona State University to study mechanical engineering, but his dreams were dashed when Bethlehem Central School District denied his request to enter his senior year, the Times Union reported.
The teen, who turns 15 in December, tried multiple times to get approval to graduate early but school officials claimed his homeschool plan didn’t meet the requirements needed for the credits.
Sweeney has outpaced all of his courses offered to him and is currently taking advanced classes, including Calculus III and Physics II at the local college where he’s been enrolled full-time for the last two years.
“He’s moving on to 12th grade,” his mother Nicole Sweeney told the outlet. “He’s testing out of every high school category at this point.”
He is bound by New York State’s compulsory education law that requires all kids between 6 and 16 to attend full-time instruction, meaning Sweeney would have to wait until the 2027-2028 school year to graduate.
The brilliant youngster has taken the California Achievement Test, a standardized exam common among homeschool students to ensure they are learning and not being left behind.
The CAT scores determine the grade level the students are equal to.
Sweeney scored a 13.5 equaling him to a sophomore in college, confirming his grade level is beyond that of a being a high schooler.
Sweeney could get permission from the school when he turns 15, but every request he has made has been denied because his homeschooling course load doesn’t match the requirements for someone his age.
“With no compliant homeschool program your student must enroll in school, either here at Bethlehem Central or elsewhere, such as a private school,” Bethlehem Superintendent Jody Monroe wrote in a rejection letter to Sweeney’s parents, the outlet reported.
The school district didn’t accept Sweeney’s individualized home instruction plan (IHIP) last year because it stated he was only taking college courses and not credits to cover his requirements for grades eight through 11.
During what should’ve been his eighth-grade year, Sweeney took 26 college credits while also completing high school credits to cover his ninth to 11th grade requirements, according to the outlet.
The teen also got government credit when he applied for his hometown’s tree advisory committee, becoming the youngest applicant to interview for a position.
Facing prospects of having to essentially repeat high school, possibly in person, Sweeney fears he will have to stop taking college classes.
“Michael’s reached his point where he needs to start taking 300-level courses and you can’t transfer in 300-level courses, so he needs to enroll in ASU full time to continue his degree path,” Nicole Sweeney said.
A meeting in front of the school board where Sweeney’s parents and lawyer could contest the district’s decision was scheduled but was ultimately pushed back a month to allow for lawyers to work out a solution in private, the outlet said.
Meanwhile, Long Island pint-sized prodigy Joe Petraro-Hyppolite was accepted into NYU’s master’s program as a 13-year-old earlier this year after overcoming cancer and Tourette’s syndrome.
Petraro-Hyppolite, who has an Einstein-level IQ, will begin his studies in sports medicine at the New York City school starting next fall.
“My IQ is 168,” Joe Petraro-Hyppolite, of East Rockaway, told CBS. “Whenever I tell people, it’s like, ‘Oh, Young Sheldon, Doogie Howser.’”