Policies & Procedures
FlexPoint Virtual School Instructional Policies
Enrollment
It is the policy of FlexPoint Virtual School that students and parents/guardians complete a Welcome Call with the instructor of every enrolled course in the first several days of enrollment. Teachers will call and email, using the information provided by students and parent/guardian at registration, to attempt to complete this communication.
Teachers will also contact students and parents at least once per month to provide an update on student course progress and grade. A student’s enrollment will not be permitted to remain active if the student and parent do not return an instructor’s contact attempts.
Teachers will provide assignment feedback and assignment grades within 48 hours of an assignment’s submission. Teachers will return written and phone contact from students and parents within 24 hours.
Any student who does not make progress in the course for a period of 14 days and has not made prior arrangements with their teacher will be contacted by their instructor in an attempt to communicate the urgency of recommitting to the course.
When attempts to contact the family are successful, the instructor will work with students and parents to design a plan for success in the course. The plan will include work and contact commitments from the student. This process ensures that everyone involved with the student’s education – FlexPoint Virtual School, student, parent, and school stakeholders – acknowledges that consistent work and continuous communication with his/her teacher are what will lead the student to success.
Failure to respond to the teacher’s attempts to contact the student, or failure to adhere to the Success Plan created by the student and family, may result in administrative removal from the course.
Most FlexPoint Virtual School courses are designed for a semester to be completed in 18 weeks. To support the best interests of students, the maximum time to complete a half-credit course is 27 weeks. For students who do not complete a course in 27 weeks, we reserve the right to impose an extension fee for an additional month of access or to re-enroll the student and invoice for the full amount of the half-credit course. (For detailed pricing information, please review our tuition page.) Credit recovery courses are designed for each semester to be completed in 6-8 weeks. The maximum time to complete a half-credit is 10 weeks. For students who do not complete a credit recovery course in 10 weeks, we reserve the right to impose an extension fee for an additional month of access or to re-enroll the student and invoice for the full amount of the half-credit credit recovery course.
In order to receive a partial refund, a parent or guardian must send a written request of withdrawal to FlexPoint Virtual School at [email protected] within the grace period. The grace period is defined as 14 days active or less than 15% complete, whichever occurs first. Upon receipt of notification, FlexPoint Virtual School will process a refund. A $75 administrative fee is non-refundable for any active course(s). If the student is not active in a course at the time of withdrawal, FlexPoint Virtual School will process a full refund for that course.
Refunds will be processed within ten business days of receipt. The refund will be applied to the original form of payment. It can take several days for the refunded amount to appear in your account.
Academics
Academic Integrity is one of our core values and one of the most important areas of focus as a learning organization. Students with academic integrity make decisions based on ethics and values that will prepare them to be productive and ethical citizens.
Another aspect of FlexPoint Virtual School’s commitment to student learning is the seat time policy for each semester of every course. To ensure adequate time for comprehension and mastery, students must work in a course semester consistently for a minimum 14 days starting from the date of first submission (not including pretests). 28 days of work is required, at minimum, for a two-semester course. Based on content, some courses have longer seat time policies. Consistent submission of assessments will ensure the student is engaged and learning.
This policy provides students the opportunity to receive ongoing feedback and remediation while demonstrating their learning through several required checkpoints. DBAs (Discussion-Based Assessments) are limited to no more than 1 per day. The Instructional Leadership Team reserves the right to evaluate a student’s gradebook to determine when the work habits show consistent progress, thus beginning the count toward the 14-day minimum, and may require a student to take a proctored exam in order to complete the class. Students/Parents with questions about a specific course’s seat time policy are encouraged to contact the instructor for data.
FlexPoint Virtual School courses require a time and learning commitment throughout a student’s enrollment. As such, students are limited to six simultaneous FlexPoint Virtual School course enrollments.
Standard semester pace in most FlexPoint Virtual School courses is 18 weeks to complete; while some courses may have a different standard pace, every course has its own unique pace chart to guide students and parents to success in the course. Students whose enrollment in their course semester exceeds an appropriate and agreed upon pace for learning and retaining course material (as determined by the course pace chart and instructor) will be contacted and offered help. Students who do not respond to teacher-led interventions by regularly submitting course assessments, as indicated through those interventions, will be withdrawn. Instructional Leadership may exercise discretion in varying from this policy in certain student situations and as needed in courses associated with state or AP® assessments.
Withdrawals during the first 14 days of a course enrollment will result in a grade of W on a student’s record. Thereafter, withdrawals are processed as WP for students who are earning a passing grade (59.5% or above, overall) at the time of withdrawal and as WF for students who are earning a failing grade (59.4% or below, overall) at the time of withdrawal.
Students entering high school grades 9-12 have access to Advanced Placement® courses that may result in earning college credit for high school coursework. These courses are used to calculate overall Grade Point Average (GPA) and typically count extra in the calculation.
Students enrolled in a traditional school while taking an AP® course with FlexPoint Virtual School should reference their school district’s policies related to credit weighting and exam requirements to determine how their grade will be weighted by their school district.
Postsecondary institutions determine college credit awarded based on the AP Exam score earned. FlexPoint Virtual School strongly encourages students who take AP courses to sit for the course AP Exam in May. FlexPoint Virtual School students should visit the College Board website to determine the location and cost of the AP Exam in their area.
Students are encouraged to register for AP courses between June and December. Due to the proximity of the AP exams in May, it is in a student’s best interest to register during that window. Here are the recommended registration dates for AP courses, although students can register year-round:
- 1 credit courses
Register between April 15 – November 15 - 1/2 credit courses
Register between April 15 – January 15
Although course credits from FlexPoint Virtual School are widely accepted at institutions around the world, it is important that you check with your educational institution, or school of record, to confirm that FlexPoint Virtual School course credits will be accepted before you register for classes.
Assessments & Exams
As a means of ensuring comprehension and integrity, each course contains built-in assignments that are designated to be completed verbally, during a discussion between a teacher and student. A student who does not complete and pass the discussion-based assessments in their course is ineligible for course credit.
To foster 21st century skills and build real-world competencies, FlexPoint Virtual School courses contain opportunities for collaboration in learning with peers. While completing a collaboration assessment is not a requirement for earning completion credit for a FlexPoint Virtual School course, it is highly recommended that all students complete these assessments.
As part of FlexPoint Virtual School’s commitment to mastery learning as a process, students who choose to remediate material to gain additional understanding will have the option to re-attempt a formative assessment in their course. Formative assessments in a course may include: worksheets, written compositions, lab reports, short answer paragraphs, essays, book responses, graded discussion board posts, and other assessments that require teacher evaluation of the student’s work. While infrequent situational deviation may occur at an Instructional Leader’s discretion, FlexPoint Virtual School limits the number of total attempts to three on the formative assessments mentioned above. Summative assessment submissions will be limited to one. Exceptions may be made in certain situations if determined appropriate by the instructional team.
The purpose of the final exam in 6th through 12th-grade courses is to assist in validating that students have demonstrated mastery of key course concepts and standards. The final exam, unto itself, is not the sole determiner of student achievement; however, students are required to take a final exam in all FlexPoint Virtual School courses in order to be eligible for course credit.
The FlexPoint Virtual School Academic Integrity department may, at its discretion, require a proctored segment exam for any student on a situational basis. Academic Integrity proctored exams must be successfully passed (grade of 59.5% or higher) in order for a student to be eligible for course credit.