Student & Course Policies

VLACS Student Policies

Pace and Welcome Experience

A 1.0 credit course is normally completed in 36 weeks; a 0.5 credit course in 18 weeks. At your welcome meeting, you, your teacher, and your parent or guardian will discuss your goals for each course that you take and determine your goal completion date and a pace that can help you reach that goal. Throughout your time in your course, you completion goal and pace may change as needed to align with new goals or circumstances. You may proceed through a course or learning experience at a faster or slower rate, but in any case you must remain in contact with your instructor and submit work on a regular basis.

The first 28 days that you are in a VLACS course is called the “Welcome Experience”. If during this time, you decide that the course is not the right fit for you, you may contact your instructor to drop the course with no penalty. In fact, at VLACS any time a student withdraws from a course, there is no penalty. The student’s VLACS transcript will show only the competency credit that they have earned. If, at the end of the “Welcome Experience,” you have not remained in contact with your instructor or submitted work in accordance with your pacing goals, you may be removed from the course. When this happens, your transcript will display only the competencies that you completed in the course. At VLACS, you may re-enroll if withdrawn.

Reach Competency By Showing What You’ve Learned

We follow a competency-based learning model where all students are required to master course competencies to earn credit. You can find more information about our competency-based learning model here.

Check Your Monthly Progress

You will receive a progress report monthly.

Each month, you, your guardian, and your VLACS instructor must meet via zoom to discuss your progress, celebrate your successes and plan for the month to come. These monthly meetings have proven to improve communication, strengthen relationships, and ultimately, support your efforts to reach your goals.

If you are an elementary student taking all four-core courses at VLACS, your instructors will do the same but on a weekly basis. Elementary students taking fewer than all four-core courses will meet with their instructor on a monthly basis or as needed.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is very important; therefore, you must agree to create and submit authentic work that is not copied from another student or from another source (including AI) without citing that source.

If you have any questions about academic integrity, please contact your instructor.

Also, we suggest that you view our animations on the topic of academic integrity.

Experience a Safe and Supportive Education

It is our policy that students have an educational experience that is safe, secure, peaceful, and free from harassment, such as bullying or cyberbullying. As such, we will not tolerate unlawful harassment of any type. Conduct that constitutes bullying or cyberbullying even if it occurs outside of your academic interaction with VLACS is prohibited.  To read the complete policy click here.

Email Communication

When sending an email, please include:

• A specific topic within the subject line
• Your full name (First, Last)

You will receive a response within 24-48 hours

Lesson Completion Order

You are strongly encouraged to do all of your assessments in the order they are presented to you; completing them out of order will make your course more difficult and may give you a false impression of your overall progress in completing your course. Assessments that are not completed will negatively affect your final course grade.

Maintain a Consistent Pace

To help you stay on pace, you will develop a pace chart for your course. Your instructor will discuss this with you during your Welcome Call.

Parents play an important role in the VLACS online community. We rely on parents to check their student’s pace regularly to see that their student is on track to meet their completion goals.