Chadron High School teachers and administrators are trying to flesh out a new policy aimed at making sure that transfers to the school…especially those that have been home-schooled…don’t find that their path toward graduation has been complicated because they didn’t take the same 9th-grade courses as their classmates.

High School Principal Jerry Mack says the bare-bones outline of the policy that received its first reading by the school board this week allows some graduation credits to be waived, but that the actual intent is to make sure new students are placed in classes that reflect their ability level.

Mack says home-school students coming to Chadron High after the 9th grade run the risk of having to repeat classes they’ve already taken because Nebraska state law and regulations don’t recognized home-school courses when it come to high school graduation requirements.

Mack says it’s not just an abstract issue; it’s one he’s already had to deal with. In that case, it was an out-of-state home-school student who clearly had learned the subject matter covered in several Chadron High freshman classes, but couldn’t get credit for them

The goal of the policy being developed, according to Mack, is to start such students at the level shown by their abilities…possibly in sophomore classes…then simply waive the missing credits at graduation time. The result could be a student graduating with 24 or 26 credits instead of the 28 normally required.

Two teachers expressed concerns at Monday’s school board meeting that the waiver process might open the door for all students to starting opting-out of classes by some type of test or challenge procedure.

Mack shares those concerns, but emphasizes that work on drafting the actual policy and how it would operate is just beginning. He says the final language will have to make it clear that the waiver is just for special circumstances and not open to all students or to earning graduation credits by challenge or tests.