This fall, the Upper School introduced a new late work policy to improve communication between students and teachers. Upper School Dean of Academics, Michelle Diaz, explained the reasoning behind the changes.

“Each department was allowed to create its own policy that should be consistently used within that department by all teachers and for all students,” Diaz said. “We created several task forces last year to address different aspects of the academic experience, including late work, revisions, absences, and assessments. The goal for having all of our academic policies is to promote alignment and ease of understanding for school policies.”

She added that communication was also a key part of the effort.

“I hope it also encourages communication between teachers and students and, most importantly, ensures that situations are handled fairly for all students.”

While the goal of the policy is to improve accountability and consistency, many students, particularly athletes balancing rigorous schedules, say the changes are creating new challenges.

Under the new system, each department has its own late work policy. In some courses, late assignments and quizzes due to unexcused absences can lose 15% of their total value. For homework and class work, a student who misses one class has two school days to make up the work, but if it is not made up within those two days, there is a 10% deduction applied each day that is missed. Additionally, the sick day policy has also been changed. Students are now granted only the day they missed plus one additional day to make up assignments, regardless of how much work was missed. Many feel this does not give enough time to catch up, especially after multiple absences.

For student-athletes, the policy has been particularly challenging. With games that are both home and away, turning in work on time has always been challenging for them. Now, with harsher late penalties, some athletes say that a single busy week can impact their grades drastically.

Junior Easton McCarthy-Levy said the late work policy has affected him and his schoolwork.

“Football has been really time-consuming, and it’s been a little tough managing sports and academics at the same time, which has led to me getting points off,” Levy said. “I’ve also fallen behind with some exams, and it gets complicated when you’re still needing to make up a test but have to learn a new lesson at the same time.”

Junior Manuela Silva-Kube shared a similar experience after being sick.

“I have missed a couple of days of school because I was sick, and it’s been hard to keep up with everything because teachers expect me to make up work really fast and it’s twice as hard when I miss the lesson that was being taught,” Silva-Kube said. “It’s definitely setting me behind.”

Teachers, however, said the changes are an important step in building responsibility. Physics teacher Mrs. Valdenegro shared her thoughts on the late work policy.

“The deduction that they have right now for the unexcused absences, I think, is great, but the 15% deduction they have for having an unexcused absence, unfortunately, is a hit. It becomes challenging for students who cannot make up the work within that time frame because we continue to deduct points for each day missed, which will negatively impact their grade. We are trying to make sure that our students are held accountable for all of their unexcused absences,” Valdenegro said.

She also shared her opinion regarding the student-athletes.

“Athletes already have their excused absences due to school business, so they get the two days provided to make up work; however, some athletes have a hard time keeping up with all of their missed assignments, and because of that, they lose 15% on assignments for not completing them when they should,” said Ms. Valdenegro.

The new late policy has been strict regarding late submission deadlines, but the goal is to enhance the relationship between teacher and student communication. If the students and their teachers communicate and put in the same effort, there should be no problems with working towards completing the late assignments.