At our family of schools, we go by the clock-hour system, and this has a more stringent attendance requirement than when we were a credit-hour school. As a credit-hour school we maintained 80% attendance requirement. Now that we have switched back to clock-hours, our requirement has gone back up to 90%.
I do believe this may be the difference - clock-hour or credit-hour. As a clock-hour school, our graduates receive a certificate with the number of hours completed on it. In order for them to have completed a clock-hour program, they have to be in-seat for at least 90% of those hours.
One of the things we do is have a requirement of maintaining 90% attendance in each class so that the overall program attendance will be guaranteed to be over 90%.
We do have opportunities for students to make up time if they have missed more than 10% - students can attend another meeting of the class (we have a day program and an evening program so students can make up the time by attending the other class). Students can also receive tutoring with the instructor on the information missed.
But mostly, we encourage them to just be here all the time. :)
Apparently there is not a set standard but is up to the individual schools because the Education Group that I work for just raised the attendance level to 90%.
Mallik,
Again, I would defer to your institution's regulatory authorities as the criteria can be applied various ways to ensure compliance and it is important you follow your school's rules accordingly.
Traci Lee
We are at this time ready to re-evaluating and ready yo change the current attendance policy. I wanted to verify form other school administrators what is the department of education standard? For some reason we thought it was 90%? Am i right.
Mallik,
Given variances between programs, there is not a specific answer or policy that works for all schools. Each school defines their protocol and it is important to follow your school's guidelines which have been established to ensure compliance.
Traci Lee
