Graduation Requirements

A Carnegie unit is awarded upon the successful completion of a course. One (1) Carnegie unit is equivalent to 120 hours to 150 hours of instruction earned over a period of 36 weeks in the District of Columbia Public Schools.

Academic and other electives may be applied towards courses designed to prepare students for requisite exams like PARCC and SAT.  UPDATED NEEDED 2023

Course Withdrawal

If a student plans to withdraw from Bell or Lincoln, he/she must: 

Inform his/her counselor.

Have an exit interview with the Principal of the school, or the SLC Administrator. If the student is under 18, his/her parent must also meet with the Principal/designee.

Return all books and other materials belonging to the school (e.g. athletic equipment).

Placement and Scheduling

Each student's schedule of classes is based upon:

Transcripts from previous schools.

Results of English, Math, Reading Diagnostics, and ACCESS Placement test results.

Courses needed for promotion or Graduation.

Courses requested by students or parents 

Interest in Career clusters.

PARCC Test Results.

Reading Inventory Results.

I-Ready performance.

Counselors, teachers, and administrators spend many hours creating the right schedule for each student.  Once a schedule is issued to the student, it may only be corrected under the following conditions:

The student or parent fills out a Request for Course Correction form, and obtains the approval of his/her Counselor, Parent, Teacher(s), SLC administrator, and the Principal.

The request meets one of the accepted criteria for a course correction: 1) The course has already been taken and passed; 2) the course is out of sequence 3) the course level and requirements are not in line with the student’s academic needs and progress; 4)the student needs another course in order to stay on target with promotion and/or graduation; 5) the course pre requisite for this course was failed; 6) the course was passed in summer school; 6)an employer or college partner recommends (in writing) a course that is required for success on the job or in college

A Teacher or Counselor can recommend a schedule correction, and must follow the same procedures described above. The SLC administrator and Principal also must approve this change.