Q: Do high school students from refugee camps with transcripts have to graduate in less than four years to be "on time"?
It is the school district's policy to start a student's high school "graduation clock" based on when they started high school anywhere in the world. When students from refugee camps bring in transcripts showing they have completed any coursework, those credits are honored but the student is started as a sophomore or junior and is expected to learn English, earn credits and pass graduation test in less than four years. The school and the district are then penalized on the state report card because the student was unable to fulfill the state requirements for graduation in the prescribed four or even five years. It is a huge disadvantage for students entering our country from refugee camps that were trying to give the students a leg up. Instead it has given them less time to fulfill the state's rigorous graduation requirements.
A: It's unclear what your stake in this is. Are you a student? A parent? A taxpayer? A teacher? An administrator? I'm not aware of any provision which would make an otherwise untimely graduation timely, or discount it, simply because the student arrived from a foreign country or refugee camp. The school's policy may be the root of the problem. After all, if the school determines the student is prepared for sophomore level work, the school will be expected to graduate the student in accordance with that determination.
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