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New Hampshire law dictates that it shall be the duty of the school board to provide, at district expense, elementary and secondary education to all pupils who reside in the district until such time as the pupil has acquired a high school diploma or has reached age 21, whichever occurs first; provided, that the board may exclude specific pupils for gross misconduct or for neglect or refusal to conform to the reasonable rules of the school, and further provided that this section shall not apply to pupils who have been exempted from school attendance in accordance with RSA 193:5.  The state also requires all public schools to have a policy outlining a procedure for determining at which grade level to place students.  This process is known as “grade placement.”

Grade placement is most challenging when a student transfers to a given high school from a non-traditional setting, such as an alternative school, a non-public school, or a school in a foreign country.  Transfer students from homeless or migrant families also pose unique grade placement challenges.

Students seeking to transfer into a high school administered by the Manchester School District must provide any of the following documentation or a combination thereof for the purposes of grade placement:

• A transcript from an approved school

• Test scores indicating competence

• A portfolio of student work

For most transfer applicants, documentation of credit earned from institutions of equal status, such as accredited public high schools, approved non-public schools, and accredited correspondence schools, shall be sufficient to determine grade placement.

Absent the aforementioned documentation, the receiving school shall determine grade placement through an evaluation that applies equally to all students.  All transfer students, including home schooled students and students from other countries, shall be placed and a plan for graduation shall be developed.  The following guidelines shall be followed in determining proper grade placement:

• Prior study and credits received from other institutions shall be reviewed to determine proper grade placement and to plan for graduation.

• When placement has been determined, the number and distribution of credits required for graduation from the receiving school shall be established in accordance with state and local requirements.

• State and local graduation requirements for a diploma shall be met as a result of an initial proper placement and a plan toward graduation as described above.

• The graduation plan to fulfill state and local credit and distribution requirements should be designed with participation from the district, the student, and parent(s).

• Prior work/accomplishment/credit shall not be evaluated with the intention of transferring credit on a one-to-one basis from sending school to receiving school.

For purposes of determining class rank, all students (including home-schooled students) must have a minimum of three (3) cumulative semesters at the receiving high school to be eligible for and included in the Manchester School District’s senior and final class ranking system. 

Students who have attended more than one high school within the Manchester School District are not subject to the three semester provision regarding class rank and shall be included in the senior and final ranking system.

References:

RSA 189:1-a (Duty To Provide Education)

ED 306.18(a) (Basic Instruction Standards)

Revised from 5/14/01, 6/14/04

First Reading Coordination:  6/12/12

Second Reading and BOSC Approval:  7/9/12