Policies & Procedures

Studies in K-12 e-learning programs have revealed the following best practices for success:

• Consistency: Logging in to all courses within the first day following orientation and logging in frequently, with no more than a day or two between log ins.

• Time: Spending adequate time learning the material, engaging in course activities and assignment completion, and interacting with teachers.  Full-Time students should spend a minimum of 25-28 hours a week on their online coursework. Concurrent and Part-Time students should be spending a minimum of 5-6 hours each week working on each course.  

• Progress: Turning in sufficient work each week to be on pace to finish by the course end-date.  Staying on top of assignments that are due each week is the most important indicator of success for online students.

Based on these success indicators and combined with our commitment to excellence and integrity in educational delivery, Chandler Online Academy has established requirements for attendance and progress to support a successful online learning experience for our students. 

1. Get started: Log in and begin working in all classes within 1-2 days of the course start date

2. Attend Class Consistently: Log in a minimum of 5 days per week

3. Attend Class Adequately: Full-time students should be spending a minimum of 25-28 hours each week working in courses (as reported through the Infinite Campus Student Portal). Concurrent and Part-Time students should be spending a minimum of 5-6 hours each week working on each course.

4. Meet Due Dates: Complete all assignments on or before the due date.
5. Attendance submission: 

   Students must submit the total amount of time they spent working on a course through the student’s Infinite Campus Portal each week no later than Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Weekly submission of accurate attendance is required to maintain enrollment in the program. If attendance is not submitted for 14 consecutive days or only submitting zeros will result in classes being inactivated.

6. Attendance must be current before final exam can be taken or final grade will not post to transcript

Parents are encouraged to monitor student progress by viewing their student's activity in BUZZ.  Observer accounts are available for parents. The first time a student enrolls in a COA course the parent will receive an email to set up the observer account (to the email on file in Infinite Campus). Students and guardians will receive weekly attendance email updates. Students who have not been consistently logging their attendance (14 days of no attendance submitted) will receive an email notifying them that their account will be inactivated and it will include the steps that need to be taken to resolve the issue.

Refer to the Student Handbook for additional information about our academic, attendance and progress policies.

All schoolwork submitted for the purpose of meeting course requirements must represent the efforts of the individual student. To help maintain an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence among students and faculty and to ensure that each student’s learning is evaluated solely according to his or her own merits, any form of academic dishonesty is prohibited. Academic dishonestly includes, but is not limited to:

Misrepresentation

• Allowing another person to take a quiz, exam, or similar evaluation for you.
• Unauthorized collaboration in providing or requesting assistance, such as sharing information on an academic exercise.

Plagiarism

• Submitting, as your own, through purchase or otherwise, part of or an entire work produced verbatim by someone else.
• Paraphrasing ideas, data, or writing from another source without properly acknowledging the source.
• Unauthorized transfer of documents or use of someone else’s computer file or electronic material, as your own.
• All work students produce should be their own authentic work. COA does not consider any work generated from an artificial intelligence (AI) website or generator (such as ChatGPT) to be a student’s own authentic work. Like any other outside sources used in a student’s work, any use  of an AI generator included in student work should be properly cited. Please note that COA utilizes software to aid in the detection of AI generated work. Evidence of AI usage in student work submissions without proper citation may result in the student being required to resubmit the assignment according to the policy outlined below, and/or meet live with his/her teacher to demonstrate mastery of the content suspected of AI usage.

Facilitating Academic Dishonesty

• Taking a quiz, exam, or similar evaluation in place of another person.
• Allowing another student to copy from you. Providing material or other information to another student with the knowledge that such assistance could be used in any of the violations stated above.
• Participating in any action that compromises the integrity of the academic standards of the school; assisting another to commit an act of academic dishonesty.

Offenses/Consequences

• Incidents of cheating/plagiarism will be handled as follows:
  • 1st offense = student redo assignment for partial credit
  • 2nd offense = no credit for assignment + referral
  • 3rd offense = removal from course + F on student transcript + referral 
  • * In an incident where a student turns in more than three assignments at one time that have been cheated or plagiarized, 3rd offense rules apply.
• Students found cheating on a final exam will receive an automatic zero for the final, which will result in an F on their transcript. Infractions include:
  • Operating any electronic device once the exam has started.
  • Accessing any website away from their exam module.
  • Using any notes other than their hand-written 3x5 notecard.
  • Any other action used to gain an unfair advantage.

Prevention

• Cheating / plagiarism policy will be posted on the Chandler Online Academy website and included in the student handbook and the orientation course
• Teachers will include cheating / plagiarism policy on their introduction pages, as well as on class correspondence throughout the course.

Policy

Late work submission will be deducted as follows:

• 1 – 5 days = 10% deduction

• 6 – 10 days = 20% deduction

• 11 – 15 days = 30% deduction

• >15 days = permanent zero - no credit

Students must have 4 or fewer permanent zeroes in their course to take the final exam. A permanent zero means a student can no longer complete the assignment. Students who do not take and pass their final exam will receive a failing grade in that course. 

Prevention

• Late work policy will be posted on the Chandler Online Academy website and included in the student handbook and the orientation course 

• Teachers will include late work policy on their introduction pages, as well as on class correspondence throughout the course.

Escalation

• Teachers will email student/parents to inform them of the grade ramifications and encourage the student to submit all assignments as quickly as possible.

• After teacher communication and continued inactivity, teachers will communicate the situation to administration and administration will contact parent to inform parent of grade ramifications and/or likelihood of student success in the class.

Up to 10 days after the course start-date:

Students may withdraw or change their schedule with no penalty/transcript reporting. Please note that schedule change requests must be sent to your Chandler Online Academy counselor and must be approved by the counselor. Schedule changes will only be made for approved reasons such as enrollment in the wrong course.  

11-20 days after the course start-date:

Students may withdraw and receive a W for the class. There are no schedule changes permitted more than 10 days after the course start date.

21 or more days after the course start-date:

• Students who withdraw or who do not complete all coursework including the proctored exam will receive an F for the class.  There are no refunds at this point.

• Involuntary Withdrawal:
  Students who engage in behavior that is considered misconduct (i.e. plagiarism, see the Student Handbook, Student Code of Conduct section) may be withdrawn and receive an F and will not be eligible for a refund. 

Refunds

There are no refunds 3 days after the course start-date.  It is strongly advised that students log in regularly (at least 5 days a week) to finish work that is due each week.  A $25 processing fee will be deducted from your refund when it is credited back to your original form of payment.