Academic Leave (Extended Absence)

Purpose

• Provide waiver of attendance and assignments for extended illness, injury, surgery, bereavement (death in the immediate family), severe natural disasters, local regional wars, or other acute emergent humanitarian needs.
• Also provided for emergency humanitarian aid work and caregiving.
• Will be considered for organized extended service trips and projects where approval is requested at least 30 days prior to the start.
• Not provided for:
  • Travel and recreational vacations.
  • Conferences or internships.
  • Preparation for national, regional, or other testing or tournaments.
  • Sport or club training or tournaments.

Duration

• Greater than 5 days. (For shorter periods, the lateness penalty waivers above provide sufficient accommodation.)
• Not greater than two weeks (14 days) total for a full year course and one week (7 days) total for a semester course. (Greater total leave duration may require affected courses to be switched to No Credit status.)

Management

• In cases where the student must be away from classes and assignments for an extended period (greater than 5 days (120 hours)) for humanitarian reasons, it is cumbersome and counterproductive to negotiate individual assignment extensions, waivers, or accommodations for each assignment.
• TPS manages periods of prolonged absence from classes or assignments due to humanitarian reasons through an overall academic leave of absence rather than by individual class or assignment. In keeping with the humanitarian purpose, assignments are waived rather than extended. To further reduce the notification and negotiation burden, the leave period, including all assignments, is centrally coordinated by TPS Support rather than by individual teachers.
• Requesting Humanitarian Leave (Extended Absence)
  • Humanitarian Leave may be requested by the family in writing to TPS Support (it may not be provided by the teacher).
  • Any requests to the teacher for extensions due to humanitarian or compassion reasons will be referred to TPS Support and will not be processed by the teacher.
  • TPS Support will consider the request and notify family and teachers of the status and conditions of the Humanitarian Leave.
• Attendance and Assignment Processing During Humanitarian Leave (Extended Absence)
  • TPS does not want to evaluate or negotiate due dates, grades or penalties for students who are sick, injured, or in crisis.
  • Attendance is optional, and all Participation scores will be waived regardless of attendance.
  • Assignment submission is optional. Zeros will accumulate and be resolved by TPS Support through waivers or special accommodations at the end of the Humanitarian Leave. Assignments submitted after five days (120 hours) from due date will not be reviewed or evaluated.
  • During the leave period, the courses will be placed in Audit status to remove pressure of grades and deadlines.
• Terminating Humanitarian Leave (Extended Absence)
  • It is the sole responsibility of the family to notify TPS when the student is able to resume full workload and pace with timely submission of future assignments.
  • When notified, TPS Support will review the student’s overall progress in the course, consider the duration and academic impact of the leave period relative to the total course, and determine the recovery plan.
  • For short leave periods with clearly defined recovery points, the recovery plan will usually be to waive (no score) assignments due during the leave period, remove Audit status, and resume normal assignment timeliness immediately. The intent is to focus the student on moving forward without having to simultaneously recover the past.
  • If the leave period protracts or cannot be terminated cleanly to allow the student to resume full workload and pace with timely submission of future assignments, TPS will assess whether the course can be creditable for the student based on the total work that can be completed on time and evaluated to course standards. If it is determined that the course cannot be completed for credit, the Audit status will be continued through the end of the course. In this case, the family will be responsible for transcripting the course in accordance with their homeschool standards and priorities.