Participating in SVL is a privilege. Washington state ALE rules govern how students must perform in online courses. Students are required to maintain weekly contact and weekly progress to remain in good standing. If a student has 20 days of no contact and progress, intervention and/or a drop from the student's online course is required.

Weekly Contact: According to Washington state law, students must have weekly personal contact with their instructors. Direct personal contact shall be for the purposes of instruction, review of assignments, testing, reporting of student progress, or other learning activities.

Students are required to maintain contact a minimum of once a week. That means:

An assignment/test/activity posted to Blackboard that an instructor grades and/or provides feedback on
Email exchange with teacher
Phone call with teacher
Face-to-Face with teacher
Electronic exchange with teacher: Discussion Board, Blog, Instant Message

Regular Progress: One of the advantages of SVL is that it allows for a flexible learning environment. Students may work on their assignments when and where they would like. At the same time though, Washington state law requires students to make academic progress in their online courses.

Student progress will be evaluated against progress benchmarks which are clearly defined in the course for each month.

THE SVL EXPERIENCE

SVL has a dynamic support structure which involves students, teachers, support staff, and parents/guardians.