Littleton Public Schools Regulation

Policy Code    IJJA-R-2 Policy Name     Electronic Instructional Materials Adoption             March 12, 2010 Revised               September 1, 2011

Approval for Non-LPS Online Courses

A non-LPS online course is a course of study offered for credit via accredited online services that are not associated with any District programs or services. Examples of non-LPS online course vendors include, but are not limited to, Stanford, BYU, American College, etc.

As a District, the Board of Education, administration, and staff members feel it is of the utmost importance to support academic achievement in more than the traditional manner. To this end, LPS has established a common practice for accepting non-LPS online courses to be included toward the graduation requirements at all high schools in the District.

Online courses offered by the LPS Center for Online Studies do not fall under this regulation.

Agreed upon common practices:

• Timelines for dropping non-LPS online courses shall follow established District procedures.
• Beginning with the graduating class of 2013, 1/16^th of the total high school graduation credit requirements can be fulfilled using non-LPS online courses. Specific credit allowances will be set by each high school based on their total graduation credit requirements.
• Prior approval by the high school administration is required for students to complete a non-LPS online course while enrolled in the District.
• The non-LPS online course will appear on the student schedule and transcript and shall be completed by the end of the semester that it appears on the student schedule. Courses taken during the summer will be transcripted as a summer course.
• A non-LPS online course approved for the District shall be valid in all schools in the District.
• Standards for non-LPS online courses shall meet the same expectations for rigor and quality that all other LPS course approvals must meet.
• The school must accept the financial responsibility for a non-LPS online course recommended to a student in lieu of a viable LPS course offered in the school. The school does not accept the financial responsibility if the non-LPS online course referral is for credit recovery for a class the student has already taken and failed to successfully complete. The school does not accept the financial responsibility for a non-LPS online course when the school has provided reasonable opportunity for the student to complete graduation requirements without taking a non-LPS online course.
• Principals will have the discretion to address special cases and extenuating circumstances. Discretionary actions taken by principals shall include timely notification to the Director of Secondary Education.
• The Learning Services Department will manage an approval process for institutions providing online courses.
• Schools must submit request for approval to the Learning Services Department for courses in the approved institution/providers catalog of courses.
• These requests must be made to the Learning Services Department prior to the student enrolling in the online course.
• The Learning Services Department will maintain an approved list of non-LPS online courses for review by school administrators.
• Beginning with the class of 2013, non-LPS online vendors/providers/institutions must be approved before course credits from them can be considered for graduation credit.
• Principals may require proficiency testing as a prerequisite for credit approval prior to new students entering the District.
• Non-LPS online courses already taken by students that are provided by an accredited high school will be accepted.

Revisions were brought in by Jeanne Hildreth and done by Kathy Heckman. New revisions on 08/18/11 were given done by Kerry Schaper.