CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County Schools is asking for public comments regarding a proposal to reduce the number of credits required to graduate high school.
The proposed policy change would cut the number of credits needed from 24 to 22. This comes after the state Board of Education voted in January to allow counties drop the minimum required number.
Melissa Ruddle, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at KCS, said she believes the change would provide students with more options.
“That’s our goal is that it does provide more flexibility for students and allows them to take more electives in areas that they’d like to take,” Ruddle said.
Dropping the two credits would also allow more leeway for students to make up classes they fail, Ruddle said.
“Sometimes kids have jobs. It’s hard for them to stay after school for them to make up some of these credits because they have a lot going on in their life, so it would be a period where we could devote that they could have to try to do some of this credit recovery to try and graduate on time,” she said.
The policy change, if approved, would not impact students graduating this year or in the next three years. It would only affect students entering 9th grade this coming fall.
“It would start July 1 for any students entering the 9th grade, so our 10th, 11th and 12th graders next year will still have to have their 24 credits, but with the 9th graders — they would go to the 22 credits,” Ruddle said.
The public comment period is for 30 days. After that, the county school board will vote on the proposal.
To make a comment, log on to the Kanawha County Schools website.