Are you a few high school classes short? Wake may still let you graduate this spring
The Wake County school system is helping high school seniors graduate this year who may be a few classes short of meeting normal graduation requirements.
Most Wake County high school students need to complete 26 course credits to graduate instead of the 22 credits required by North Carolina. But Wake says it recognizes how issues such as the coronavirus pandemic may have impacted students’ lives, so it will let some seniors graduate who have between 22 and 25 credits.
“All students must meet the state’s graduation requirements,” Brian Pittman, Wake’s senior director of high school programs, told school board members last week. “We do not have the ability to waive or adjust that.
“But we do have the ability and the desire to take into account things that are outside the students’ ability to control.”
Pittman gave examples such as seniors who’ve had to work to support their family or who haven’t been able to connect regularly to their online classes. He said it could also include students who’ve been unable to take a full course load “due to the impact of mental or physical health or well-being.”
The graduation flexibility comes at a time when Wake high school students haven’t had in-person classes since March.
Last year, the State Board of Education said school districts couldn’t require the Class of 2020 to have more than 22 credits to graduate. But that change isn’t expected to be made again this year.
The state board will discuss Wednesday waiving the CPR requirement for the Class of 2021.
Principals decide who can graduate
At some smaller Wake high schools, such as alternative schools and the early colleges, students need 22 credits to graduate. But at Wake’s comprehensive high schools, 26 credits are traditionally needed.
Wake principals have always had the power to waive the 26-credit requirement, Pittman said. But he said the district is now trying to standardize the process.
Pittman said seniors who make a request have it reviewed by a district team that lets the principal “know whether the student’s situation aligns to the intended purpose of this option.” But Pittman said the principal decides whether the student has met graduation requirements.
In addition to receiving requests, Pittman said the district is reviewing records of students to see who might be eligible. He said counselors would typically let students know about this option.
Pittman said this option isn’t meant to help students graduate early. But he said it would help students avoid having to return for the summer or even a fifth year to take some electives to get their remaining credits.
“This is not an attempt to make it easier to get to graduation, but an attempt to recognize that not what all of our students learn in high schools happens in the classroom or results in a credit toward graduation,” Pittman said at the school board’s policy committee meeting.
“For some of our students the path to the graduation stage is much more difficult. As a district we recognize that and choose to be a partner with that student.”
Board member Karen Carter asked if struggles with remote learning could qualify as a situation that would allow students to use this graduation option. Pittman answered yes, but said it would be more appropriate to call it an issue related to the pandemic than with remote learning.
“I would just characterize it beyond probably the remote learning,” Pittman said. “I think I would say there will be things related to pandemic and COVID that would certainly fall outside the student’s control and impact their ability to fully engage in the way they may want to in finishing high school as strongly as they may want to.”
