BHS has an Attendance Policy that grants credit for time spent in quarter, semester, and full year courses. Students must also earn a passing grade in a course to earn credit. The policy is designed to maintain the integrity of a course as well as to encourage a student’s responsibility for personal choices and efforts. All schedule changes require parental approval. Course changes and level changes are dependent upon available seating in the desired courses.
FULL YEAR COURSE
Changes for electives are acceptable up to Day 18 of a full year course for credit. The student’s attendance and grades will be carried over into the new class. No full year course changes can take place after the 18th day of classes. Special circumstances will be reviewed on an individual basis by administrators.
Level changes (e.g. honors to CP) are possible through the end of the first marking period, and are considered on an availability basis. Level changes can only be accommodated when seats are available in the desired level. Students are not guaranteed to be able to make a level change, however, every effort is made to accommodate requests.
SEMESTER COURSE
Enrollment is acceptable up to Day 10 of the semester course for credit. No semester course changes can take place after the 10th day of classes. For changes prior to the 10th day, the student’s attendance and grades will be carried over to the new class.
QUARTER COURSE – HEALTH ONLY
Enrollment is acceptable up to Day 7 of a quarter course for credit. Attendance will be carried over to the new class. Health/Driver’s Ed. is required and may not be dropped.
AUDITS
Students who encounter unexpected illness or other drastic life changes and whose course or level cannot be changed may apply for Audit Status, which means that students continue to attend class, but will receive no grade or credit. However, unlike a failure, the course does not factor into the student’s GPA. The requirements of Audit Status are:
Students can only make requests between January 1 and the last day of the third marking period.
Students must initially make the request to their school counselors, who then must secure approvals from the following people (in this order):
Counselor (themselves)
Parent
Teacher
Supervisor
School administrator (principal or assistant principal)
Students must follow all teacher requirements for auditing the class and meet the standards for behavior. Each teacher may have his or her own requirements, therefore it is the student’s responsibility to discuss these requirements with the teacher prior to applying. For example, a teacher may require a student to maintain a 65 average for a marking period.
Students will receive an “AUD” for the course on their report cards and transcripts. Students who fail to meet the requirements will receive a “0” and the course will count in the GPA.
Since no credit is earned when auditing, required courses cannot be audited.
Auditing students do not take final exams.
Note that students cannot ask to audit on the basis they no longer wish to do the required coursework. There must be a mitigating reason to request the audit, or else the request will be denied.
NEW STUDENTS
New students will be placed in courses per their transcript upon enrollment at BHS. Students will be monitored by their counselors and teachers and adjustments will be made if necessary.
SCHEDULE CHANGE REQUESTS
In a school the size of Bloomfield High School, it is inevitable that conflicts will arise between students, and, less often, between students and faculty members. BHS maintains the healthy attitude that problems are best solved by addressing them, rather than avoiding them. As such, we will not change schedules on the basis of personality conflicts. Students need to learn how to resolve conflicts and address problems that occur in a mature and responsible matter.
To that end, we ask that the following series of steps be taken to address conflicts, rather than immediately going to the counselor and asking for a schedule change.
1. Students should always advocate for themselves first by meeting with the teacher directly to address the problem, whether it’s with other students or the teacher. In the vast majority of instances, this simple step resolves the problem.
2. If a teacher-student meeting is unproductive or not feasible, students should go to their school counselors and request a meeting with the counselor and teacher. Counselors are able to moderate the meetings and provide a balanced perspective to most problems.
3. If the problem remains after meeting with the counselor, the parent should request a meeting with the teacher and subject supervisor (or school administrator if the supervisor is not available), and counselor. Preferably the student should attend the meeting, as well.
4. If the parent meeting fails to resolve the problem and the issue continues to disrupt normal student learning, the school counselor should refer the case to the crisis counselor to determine the next level of action. The crisis counselor can recommend a range of solutions, starting at simply continuing the dialogue with the teacher and student, up through the most drastic solution of changing a schedule. If a schedule change is recommended, the crisis counselor will make this recommendation to a school administrator to approve.
Please note: if the situation presents itself as bullying or harassment, the school’s procedure for reporting bullying should be initiated right away, rather than continuing to follow the steps above. If in the initial teacher meeting the teacher believes that the student is a victim of bullying or harassment, the teacher has an obligation to immediately report it to the Dean of Discipline or a school administrator. The above procedure is for addressing isolated incidents or any incident that doesn’t rise to the level of bullying or harassment, as defined in New Jersey’s HIB laws.
Requests for the following schedule changes cannot be accommodated:
Lunch period (unless a doctor’s note is provided with a valid reason)
Teacher changes
Period of a class