K–12 (education)

K–12 (pronounced just "kay twelve", "kay through twelve", or "kay to twelve") is a designation for the sum of primary and secondary education. It is used in the United States, Canada, and some parts of Australia.

The expression is a shortening of Kindergarten (4-6-year-old) through 12th grade or grade 12 (16-19 years old), the first and last grades of free education in the United States, Australia and English Canada. It is often used in school website URLs, generally appearing before the country code top-level domain (or in the United States, the state top-level domain).

By contrast, K–14 education also includes community colleges (first two years of university) and K–16 education adds a four-year undergraduate university degree.

In Australia, P–12 is used in place of "K–12". P–12 schools serve children from preschool until Year 12.