Parent Agreement Form

This form is designed as an outline of the roles and responsibilities of the student, parent, and school for our online classes participants. It provides basic guidelines of best practices for a student’s success. The parent(s) must read, sign and date this agreement in the signature section below, which indicates parental agreement to with and adherence with these policies and regulations. There is also a student agreement, of similar nature and information, that he or she must also read, sign and date. Within 24-48 hours of submission of both documents, you will receive an email titled "Welcome to NHAT Online Classes." It will include a list of your student's classes, parent and student usernames and logins, and handbooks.

NHAT’s online classes are clearly Christian-based, with a Biblical and moral foundation.

The following six factors that have a tremendous impact of student success in this program, and if any of these factors fail in their integral roles, the outcome is likely to be less than optimal.

Academic integrity
Student attendance and motivation
Parental oversight and attention to student’s educational activities
Thoroughness of the online program
School’s academic standing
School administration’s assistance to parents and students

Academic Integrity: Academic integrity is vital to the online learning process. It is expected that students do their own work, write their own essays, lab reports and essay question responses. Students may not use the answers of others, either written or expressed. Using the work of others as one’s own is cheating, and it represses the student’s progress of learning foundational subject matter, upon which a secondary education is built. Thus, academic integrity is a vital part of this program, is scripturally sound, and is expected of all students.

Student: The number one individual in this equation is the student. He or she is dependent upon all of us to do our best to help him or her thrive in educational activities. For his/her part, the student has to login and do the daily assignments, study the material, and focus on learning the information and concepts presented online. It is important for the student to maintain academic integrity, doing his or her own work. We are rooting for you and want to see you excel.

Parents: You are the primary factor in your child’s success. Homeschooling parents take on the responsibility for their child(ren)’s education, which can be a weighty but very rewarding endeavor. You are not alone in this, however; there are some valuable tools that may be of great help to you. A good school with a well-prepared staff will provide assistance and information and can be extremely helpful in compliance with educational laws, requirements, and guidelines. Also, good educational materials, which align with state standards and help the child advance academically, are crucial in the learning process. Still, you are at the forefront of your child’s education, and no school and curriculum can fulfill the vital role you hold.

New Hope Academy of Tennessee (NHAT): NHAT is a private, Christian school whose goal is to “help you homeschool successfully”. We have worked diligently to create a program that meets state requirements, provides quality transcripts and diplomas, assists parents, and has a reputation for a high standard of excellence, which bodes well for our student body. Accordingly, we follow Tennessee’s attendance and graduation requirements, expect academic integrity, and validate attendance and progress. We want you to have a wonderful homeschooling experience and hope to be of assistance by supporting you in these endeavors.

NHAT’s Online Program: Our online program is an excellent resource, supplying the curriculum, teaching aids, 90% of the grading, reports and much more. It is a substantial part of the educational process and provides the opportunity for a successful school year when all parties give due diligence to do their part.

Parent or Guardian:

1) Parent’s Login, Password and Teacher Tools: The "Welcome to NHAT Online Classes will contain:

Parent’s username and password
Student’s username and password
Parent handbook (Do not share teacher handbook with a student)
Student handbook

2. Password Requirements and Guidelines:

The parent must protect his or her password from student access.
Do not save your password on any device.
Create a new password your student does not know.
Never allow a student access to the teacher’s account.
Never leave your computer open to the teacher’s account.
Students are never to grade their own or another student’s work.
Students are never to have access to the teacher grading tools or teacher keys
If you think your password has been compromised, you must change it immediately or contact our staff who will reset it for you. (NHAOnlineClasses@gmail.com)

3. Online Class Calendar:

The online classes calendar will be emailed to you.
It is set up to accommodate the 180-day requirement.
Classes begin in August and conclude in May, as reflected on the calendar.
The system does NOT send assignments on weekends or holidays.
There are five (5) Fall Break days and five (5) Spring Break days built into the calendar.
1. You choose the dates of these breaks, to align with your plans.
2. Email NHAT staff at NHAOnlineClasses@gmail.com to inform us of the days you plan to schedule these breaks. (Minimum of one (1) week in advance)
3. We will make the schedule change to your student’s calendar on the first day of the break.

4. Good Student Discount: The bullets below outline the criteria for maintaining the “Good Student Discount”, which gives parents a $25 per month discount off the monthly online classes fee of $150. Revocation of the discount will be in effect for the remainder of the year.

Payment must be made on time; they are due on the 1st day of each month. (Payments after the 4th of the month are considered late and the discount will be revoked after the 2nd late payment.)
Students must be in proper attendance. (Information under the “Attendance” heading)
Students may have no more than 5 overdue assignments at any time.
Parent must keep grading current (Weekly grading is required – a minimum of one hour per week.)
Parents must protect their passwords. If a student is found to have had use of the parent password, the discount will be revoked.)
Escalation Process: If Warning #2 is issued, the discount is revoked.

5. Assignments:

4-Online/1-FLEX Day Schedule: We have adopted an alternate schedule for the upcoming year. It includes four (4) Online days and one (1) FLEX day per week.
Online assignments are sent to students Mondays – Thursdays. (Exceptions: Monday holiday weeks and other holiday changes.)
FLEX Days are defined as Flexible Learning Experience Days. They are set aside for parent-directed, educational activities, such as field trips, reading, science labs, hands-on learning activities, field trips, review, story time, art, music, theatre, current events, life skills, home economics, PE, volunteerism, work-related education, vocational training, agriscience, agriculture, 4-H, co-op classes/activities, culinary arts, computer skills, typing, IT classes and skills, educational club activities, etc.
Makeup Days: Friday FLEX days may be used to catch up on any incomplete assignments from earlier in the week, ensuring all academic work is completed by the close of the school week.
Weekends and Holidays: No assignments are sent to students on weekends or holidays.

6. Overdue Assignments:

Students have the entire 24-hour day to complete assignments on the assignment date.
Assignments are counted as overdue when not completed on the assignment date.
1. Occasionally, a lab or project may appear as overdue because it has a longer completion date. (There should be no more than 5 total at any time.)
If the student accumulates 8+ overdue assignments, NHAT Staff will likely notify the parent.
It is important for parents to monitor those alerts and ensure students stay caught up.

7. Attendance - 180, 6.5-hour school days: Tennessee now recognizes 6.5-hour educational, school days for a total of 180 days per school year.

Keeping an Educational Journal: It is very important for parents to keep an educational journal, especially with the changes that Tennessee has made. A journal is proof of the offline educational activities your student does daily.
Qualifying Attendance: 6.5 hours of educational time for each school day (180 per year)
1. For full-course study in NHAT’s online classes, it should take the student a minimum of 4+ hours per online day to complete all online assignments.
2. Fulfill the remaining hours with intentional, educationally-minded activities, which might include any combination of the activities listed above in the FLEX Days description.

8. Absences: If your student is absent, email address at NHAOnlineClasses@gmail.com

Medical Excuses: Email any medical excused absence to us.
Parent Excuses: Email NHAT staff if your student is absent without a medical excuse. (5 maximum per semester)
Other Absences: Email staff if there is any other reason for an absence.
Unexcused Absences: These are skipped school days or ones with inadequate attendance time.

9. Grading:

This should take the parent about 1-2 hours per week
Parents must login weekly and keep the 10% of grading up to date.
Ungraded assignments make the student’s grades lower than they should be.
Do not let grading “pile up”; it makes finishing the semester very difficult and is discouraging to the student.
Reassigning Work: Parents should not reassign lessons, quizzes or tests.
1. Students receive a second attempt at a lesson if the first score is less than 90%..
2. Students receive a second attempt at quizzes if the first score is less than 90%.
3. Students receive only one attempt at each test.
4. If you have a problem and feel a reassignment is in order, please email NHAT Staff at NHAOnlineClasses@gmail.com and we will assist you with the issue.

10. Notification of Changes: Notify the school of any of the following changes:

Address
Phone number
Email address
Custody changes
Illnesses or other factors that affect the student’s education. (This gives us a better understanding of any issues and helps us help you.)

11. Warning and Escalation Process: The following are the process and procedures for dealing with overdue assignments, absences, cheating and password violations.

Absences and Overdue Assignments: Students are required to be in attendance for 180, 6.5- hour school days per year, according to Tennessee guidelines. Our Hybrid Online/FLEX Schedule is designed to meet that requirement. To be in compliance, your student must
1. Complete all daily and weekly assignments. (Occasional overdue assignments, such as long lab assignments or research paper/essay assignments, are understandable, but there should be no more than 5 overdue assignments at any given time.)
2. Be in daily and weekly attendance, with no more than 5 unexcused absences in a semester iii. Be in proper online and offline attendance.
  1. Online Days: 4 days per week, minimum of 3-4 online hours each online day + offline time to meet the 6.5 hour requirement. (Less than 3 online hours are counted as an absence.)
  2. FLEX Days: FLEX days account for one (1) school day per week, unless otherwise noted on the Hybrid Online/FLEX Calendar. They must be full school days of 6.5 hours of educational activity, which must be noted and detailed on the FLEX Journal.
Cheating: Cheating is any activity used to give a student an unfair advantage. It may include copying the work of others, using internet sites to gain answers, use of teacher materials, copying and slightly rewording the answers of another as if it is one’s own, entering questions into search engines and copying response, using online translators of foreign language assignments, and so forth.
1. The consequences of cheating can range from failing grades for affected each assignment, reset of classes to the very beginning without credit for work to date, to a complete drop from our program, etc.
2. The consequences take severity of the situation and other contributing factors into consideration
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is using someone else’s published or unpublished writings, words, works, ideas, documents, responses, labs, essays, etc., as one’s own, without giving credit to the true owner of such. It includes copying someone else’s work and making minimal changes in order to pass it off as one’s own.
1. The consequences of plagiarism can range from failing grades for affected each assignment, reset of classes to the very beginning without credit for work to date, requirement to go onto the Advantage Program, to a complete drop from our program, etc.
2. The consequences take severity of the situation and other contributing factors into consideration.
Escalation Process: (If plagiarism or cheating is discovered, a minimum of a full Warning is issued, but based on the severity of the situation, the student may be dropped from our program without following the escalation process.)
1. Pre-Warning: We send an email to notify parent for non-compliance of the rules.
2. Warning 1: We send an email and issue Warning #1 for non-compliance of the rules.
3. Warning 2: We send an email and issue Warning #2 for continued or additional noncompliance of the rules. a. Parent loses the $25 “Good Standing Discount” for remainder of the year.
4. Warning 3: We send an email with notification of a drop from our program, which is a permanent drop without re-enrollment or refund.

12. End of Semester Reports: Parents must submit FLEX Journals and Off-line Class Reports

Online Grades: NHAT staff will pull and record final grades for the student.
FLEX Day Reports: We will provide the document on which you will log FLEX Day activities.
1. The log will be due on the last day of each semester.
2. Information for access to the FLEX Journal will be emailed to you.
Attendance days: At the close of each semester, NHAT staff will combine the online days with the FLEX days to account for attendance.