How to drop high school class if child was sick and couldn’t attend?
Did anyone had similar experience with your children or any HS counselors here who could advise?
What would you do?
My HS Sophomore daughter had always been an A student, rare Bs. Last semester she got sick and condition worsened significantly so she no longer was able to attend school and missed plenty of classes especially during her last period (Chemistry). Her doctor recommended to stay home on Home Hospital but since all of her classes were college prep, honors or AP, school couldn’t provide the instructor for Home Hospital and instead gave her Incomplete in 4 subjects and she was supposed to submit the missing assignments until Feb 16 which she did with a lot of difficulty in 3 subjects.
The exception is Chemistry class where she has time until May to submit everything and take the final exam.
In Spring Semester she changed to online program, so will not continue Chemistry because it is not available online. I hired tutor but she is still too sick to do extra work, has difficulty keeping up even with her current online assignments, so trying to self-teach chemistry after mussing almost half of the semester is an impossible task.
Principal has no empathy and does not allow her to drop last semester’s chemistry because when she got sick it was past the due date for dropping. They allow to drop only during the first 2 weeks of the semester but she got sick after that. I spoke with counselor, teacher, VP and Principal multiple times and they have her medical documentation.
Principal told he will not allow to drop the class after the due date because “dropping classes doesn’t look good on school statistics, and that she should submit all work and take final exam otherwice her grade will turn into F”. She is too sick to do it now and needs to focus on healing rather then extra pressure of that.
I feel it is unfair to punish the hardworking child for getting sick on the wrong week of the semester by giving her failing grade and ruining her GPA and college opportunities. Principal mentioned initially an option for “No mark grade” in the transcript but then declined it.
What would you do?
Parent Replies
Sounds like your child currently has a disability and she is not being granted appropriate accommodations. There are organizations which help disabled students. Dredf , Disability Rights and Education Fund might help guide you. If she is too sick to do the work and they are giving her an F, then it sounds like discrimination. You might call the special ed department of the school or district, the superintendent, or seek legal counsel. My child had a concussion which caused such headaches if he tried to concentrate, he would vomit but he looked and seemed alright otherwise, and it was hard to convince the school it was real. Using disability rights language, plus lots of documentation helped us. You might have to go further. Start with DREDF.
First, I wish you and your daughter the best in her recovery. Sadly, her school is adding idiotic red tape to your otherwise enormous load in caring for your hardworking child & it's unacceptable. I'd waste no time in going to the District & School Board representatives armed with a lawyer. It sounds like the VP & P are behaving like they are bound by the old fallback "if we do it for your kid we will have to do it for everyone" protocol. Read through your parent handbook they give out each year. There's a lot of information there that gets overlooked. Know your rights & find an advocate. You are being treated unfairly. Good luck to you both.
This is ridiculous. Escalate this to the principal's supervisor and contact the District Ombudsman. (That said, I don't think her performance that semester will impact her college opportunities because you can easily write a letter to explain why she was unable to attend school that semester.) But still, they should allow her to drop the classes given the circumstances.
I will just add some additional input:
If you can not get the class dropped and the school winds up giving her an F, it is not the end of her academic life.
It is an opportunity to write one heck of a great essay to colleges about a challenge she met which was beyond her control and would show how amazing she is as a student.!
I am an original poster. Thank you very much for everyone who replied. I really appreciate all tge advice.
Can anyone recommend a parent advocate or an educational attorney you personally worked with?