Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in
Columbus, Ohio, the third of four siblings. Her birth mother, Shanon Biles, was unable to care for Simone or her other children. All four went in and out of
foster care. In 2000, Biles's maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, began caring temporarily for Shanon's children in the north
Houston suburb of
Spring, Texas, after learning his grandchildren were in foster care. In 2003, the couple formally adopted Simone and her younger sister Adria. Ron's sister, Shanon's aunt Harriet, adopted the two oldest children. Simone holds Belizean citizenship through her adoptive mother and considers Belize to be her second home. Biles and her family are
Catholic. Biles attended
Benfer Elementary School in
Harris County, Texas. In 2012, Biles switched from public school to
home schooling, allowing her to increase her training from about 20 to 32 hours a week. She earned her high-school diploma in mid-2015. Biles verbally committed to
UCLA on August 4, 2014, and signed a
National Letter of Intent in November 2014, planning to defer enrollment until after the
2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Instead, on July 29, 2015, she announced that she would turn professional and forfeit her
NCAA eligibility to compete for UCLA. ==Early gymnastics career==