Registration script only partially working

[shortybookit]

this is the one that is messing me up--when i fill out the registration page completely it tells me this field is required

so i tried everything including something that works which is below

 

<tr>
        <td>
            <label for="related_information">related information</label>
        </td>
        <td>
            <input type="text" name="related_information" value="{$User->related_information}" id="related_information" class="input" />
            {if isset( $related_information_error ) }
            <div id="required">{$related_information_error}</div>
            {/if}
        </td>
    </tr>  

 

after copying and pasting the following portion where the php from above was the reg form worked the required no longer showed up

<tr>
        <td>
            <label for="sstate">School State:</label>
        </td>
        <td>
            <input type="text" name="sstate" value="{$User->sstate}" id="sstate" class="input" />
            {if isset( $sstate_error ) }
            <div id="required">{$sstate_error}</div>
            {/if}
        </td>
    </tr>  

why does the bottom one work but the top one does not?

work=does not show required field that is it

this second one does not go to the database because the field  id is different on this example than the table

 

but if i replace sstate with related_information why does the required part go away?