Summer school

[kellifer]

So, any and all assistance appreciated from my US counterparts... I have some specific questions about Summer School for a story that's been rolling around in my head for a little while. Since I'm is Aus and we don't really have it here... there's some things I don't know...

1. When does it run? Is it a specific time or is it up to the region/school (both the months and the hours - is it a 9-3 thing?).

2. Do you go for one subject/multiple/only the ones you need to make up (and on that...)

3. Is it likely to go if you've missed enough school through the year that you would fail otherwise?

4. Can you go to any summer school (not just the one run by the school you've just attended)?

Comments

[lunardreamed.livejournal.com]

It all depends. In my hometown, one of the most popular summer school classes was trig. This was because trig was the only math class that was a semester rather than a whole year. Instead of taking trig during the school year and having the second semester go to a free or fun class, you took trig in the summer were able to fill up your school year with other math classes, usually meaning you had room for calculus your senior year. That was if you weren't advanced enough to take the advanced Trig/Algebra 2 combo class that finished three semesters worth of work in 2. Welcome to PhDville.

Usually summer programs are offered on an as needed basis. For example, offerings would be based on how many kids failed the class or expected enrollment (trig always had enough people to justify giving it). If enough people sign up, it would actually be held. However, if not enough people signed up, you were either out of luck or found another place to get the necessary class in.

If the kid missed enough classes in the semester, he would fail the class. Summer classes can be taken so that you can get credit and a decent grade, but the fail already exists and is not removable unless you can offer a good enough reason that you failed to attend. I had a severe depression my senior year and my grades were held until I was able to finish the work.

It would be hard to make up an entire semester during summer school. A) Not all the classes failed will be offered. B) Classes offered are likely to be at similar times or overlap. C) Summer classes are fast. It's sixteen weeks of work in 6-8 weeks. It would be hard to do that for 7 classes (that was the typical semester load in my school, depending on the school, you take them all in one day or in alternating days), especially for someone who is already having attendance problems. D) It's important to keep in mind that children and parents are not going to school in a vacuum. Children have advisers, school counselors, teachers, and the principal. If a student was having that hard a time in school, missed that much, all these people would get together in a meeting with the kid and his parents to discuss how best to handle it. I doubt they would recommend talking the entire semester in summer school. In fact, they'd probably discourage it. The assumption would be that he can't handle the normal school load and summer school would be even more intense. A couple of summer courses and repeating the semester with a lighter load would be my guess.

A big problem is which semester he missed. Odds are this high school doesn't offer the second half of the semester in the fall, so he won't be able to take them until the spring. If he missed the first half, he probably wouldn't be able to handle the second half and then he's failed the entire year. However, depending on the teachers and the student, other options may be available. I missed a lot of the second semester of my senior year. Instead of failing me or making me retake the classes, I was allowed to do a lot of the work outside of school, and turn that in to pass.

[kellifer-fic.livejournal.com]

Thankyou for taking the time to answer... :) This is really helpful.