[Counselors] Virtual Student Questions

Mon Dec 14 10:42:42 CST 2020

Fellow Counselors,
We are hoping that your school board has met before this time and have addressed policy regarding the unusual circumstances that Covid has created.
I created this counselor discussion board to ask questions and to help you create a professional learning community with other counselors. I know the issues addressed in this email are complicated, please remember these are just examples of what other schools are doing. You must follow your Local Policy.
Hang in there and don’t forget breathe!
Lisa 😊

Question for counselors:
Would be willing to share how your district is handling any or all of these situations it would be appreciated.  Thanks!!
We have a lot of kids who decided to go virtual but have not completed their courses on Edginuity.  They are at various stages from only logging in a few times, to part way through the courses.  We are trying to decide if we should give them all an "F" for that class as their final semester grade, or if we should give them an "incomplete"? We don't use "incomplete" for our in person classes.  Also, we are trying to figure out what to do with them next semester.  Should we leave them in the first semester of the class until they finish, or go ahead and enroll them in the next semester, even though they have done very little in the first semester.  If they were in person, they would move on and then repeat it next year, but the virtual seems to be a different situation.  Also, I'm curious at what point are other schools dropping students?  We have some who enrolled but we are struggling to get them to do anything and some we can't even make contact with them.

We are keeping ours as close to the in person policy as possible.  So, if they don't complete the course we are looking at the "Course Grade" (we use Edmentum) which factors in zeros and putting that grade on the transcript. We are also continuing them on to 2nd semester courses, we may drop some of their electives and put them in a 1st semester credit recovery if needed.
We are also struggling with when to drop students as well, we do not have a set policy on that.  We are suggesting those students come back face to face in January, some have agreed and some are still going to remain virtual.

All of our students are virtual and we are having the same issue.  We are bringing kids back to campus if they have "F"s in any class.  We have called all parents and offered this option to them.  If they do not take advantage of this opportunity and do not get in to complete the work, then they will get the F.   We are, of course, looking case by case.   Example: we have a student that has lost both parents, or any students that have become homeless or other extenuating circumstances.

If they have not logged in in ten days we drop them. It's like being absent ten days in a row. We give them an F for the semester.  Then allow them to stay at their current progress for next semester. Then if they get caught up and get complete we will drop the F and give them the new grade.  Like they redid a class.  It gives them incentive to go ahead and complete it and solves the problem of enrolling them in a second semester class that they have no idea what is going on.

It would be an F in our system.

Sometimes the students don't understand the difference between their Overall grade (completed work only) and Actual grade (includes pacing). They may be looking at their Overall grade thinking they are okay. We have always used the Actual grade for reporting purposes. There have been times that I have given an extension, but only an extra week or two. I think if you allow them to complete the course at their own pace, there will need to be a discussion with the student, parents, and admin regarding the students’ progress toward their graduation timeline.

We have a lot of kids who decided to go virtual but have not completed their courses on Edginuity.  They are at various stages from only logging in a few times, to part way through the courses.  We are trying to decide if we should give them all an "F" for that class as their final semester grade, or if we should give them an "incomplete"? We don't use "incomplete" for our in person classes.  Also, we are trying to figure out what to do with them next semester.  Should we leave them in the first semester of the class until they finish, or go ahead and enroll them in the next semester, even though they have done very little in the first semester.  If they were in person, they would move on and then repeat it next year, but the virtual seems to be a different situation.  Also, I'm
curious at what point are other schools dropping students?  We have some who enrolled but we are struggling to get them to do anything and some we can't even make contact with them.

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