The deadline for students being able to drop a class is Friday, September 28th. However, with that deadline often comes confusion amongst students, parents, and teachers on what makes a student qualified to drop a class. Loudoun County Public Schools has a policy set up to describe the guidelines that a student must make to in order to drop a class:

A student who wishes to drop a subject may do so with the permission of the parents and principal/counselor at any time up to one week after the issuance of the report card for the course for the first marking period. Such approved dropped courses do not appear on the scholastic record and are not calculated in the grade point average.There is no assurance that a student who drops a course will be able to add another credit bearing course.”  

Jaclyn Smith, Director of School Counseling said, “We simply ask that a student go and talk to their teacher to express their concerns…why they are interested in dropping, what issues they may be having.”

Dominion High School Counselor Tracey Wood, said, “We don’t encourage students just dropping if they don’t like [the course].”  

Students are to develop a plan with their teacher if they are experiencing difficulties in the course. The counseling office advises students to come up with strategies for improvement, and to see overtime if those strategies will help to improve their experience in that class.

“If [students] continue to experience struggles, or maybe they just get off a little bit more than they could chew that year, we ask that they come to their counselor and ask their counselor to have a parent teacher conference,” said Smith. Here is where the student can express their reasons for wanting to drop a class to their counselor and teacher. The parents can also attend this meeting if they have opinions as well. An administrator has to be present in the meeting, however they do not tend to get involved unless for some reason agreement cannot be met.

Students may have consequences when dropping a class. They will most likely experience a schedule change. “We’re not going to make another class over full to accommodate that schedule change,”Smith said. Meaning that students who drop a class might have to take a class that is not their first choice, or they will have to completely rearrange the student’s schedule.

Smith also mentioned “Every school has its own ways of dealing with a course drop.” Dominion starts its course selection process in February and that lasts to June when the course deadline is. “We really allow it so that [students] have that full time to really solidify [their] course selections,” Smith said.