POLICIES & DISCLOSURES

Policies for Full-Time/Diploma students are incorporated by reference here. Also the SVHS Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference here.

Our mission is to provide quality, personalized, affordable and ever-improving educational paths for all students to pursue their ambitions.

SVHS is operated by Silicon Valley High School Inc., a Corporation incorporated in the state of Delaware with headquarters in Nevada. For the purposes of this Agreement, we refer to Silicon Valley High School Inc. as ‘SVHS’, ‘us’ or ‘we’. Similarly, this Agreement may refer to you as ‘you’, ‘member’, ‘student”, ‘user’, or ‘viewer’.

You must read, agree with and accept all of the terms and conditions contained in our Terms of Use Agreement and the Privacy Policy, which include those terms and conditions expressly set out below and those incorporated by reference, before you may become a student or access this Site.

SVHS had adopted various policies that guide how the school operates today and in the future.

College Board Code

Our college board code is 290023. Please note that the college board code changed when the school was moved from California to Nevada.

NCAA High School Code

The SVHS NCAA code is 851733.

Grading Policy

In order to pass an SVHS course, you need at least 60% for the course total. If you are unable to earn a passing score, you will be deemed to fail that particular course. The course total includes grades from lesson quizzes, unit tests, unit assignments and the final exam.

SVHS uses and reports an unweighted GPA calculation only.

Suggested Timelines and Grading Timescales

Credits

Each credit corresponds to 15 hours of study.

Types of Students

SVHS serves various types of students including:

• Full-Time/Diploma Students–SVHS is the primary high school for these students, who are working toward earning a high school diploma from SVHS.
• Supplemental Students–SVHS provides courses to students who are enrolled full-time in another high school, and are taking courses with SVHS to supplement their credits.  SVHS is not the primary school of record for these students.
• Adult Students–all youth between the ages of 8 and 18 are required to attend school every day. This is not the case for Adult Students who are over the age of 18.

Supplemental Students: Time to Complete a Course

You have up to 12 months to complete a course from the date that you enroll, so that’s the maximum time you have to take the course.  If you dedicate sufficient time and energy to completing a course, you can accelerate your way through the materials. However, the minimum time you should take to complete a course is thirty days. Should you have mitigating circumstances that require you to complete a course outside these minimum and maximum timeframes, please click the “Contact Us” form at the bottom of this page and discuss your circumstances with our customer support and administration staff.

All Students: Minimum Computer Skills & Digital Literacy

In order to effectively navigate the courses for SVHS online learning platform, students need a basic knowledge of tasks that involve uploading assignment submissions, downloading course documents, viewing recorded presentations, and communicating through the school account. Students need basic web literacy that may involve utilizing search engines, evaluating web resources and understanding copyright and plagiarism in a digital learning environment.

All Students: Communication Etiquette

Netiquette is a code of conduct or polite behavior that is expected in an online communication format that includes, but is not limited to, emails, social media, online chat, website comments, and other types of online communication. Below is a list of Do’s and Don’ts for SVHS Netiquette:

Do’s:

• Use a professional and respectful tone when communicating with your instructor via email or other electronic communication.
• Properly identify yourself and the course you are taking.
• Be specific and to the point in your communication and be specific as to what you are requesting.
• Be thorough and specific in all written assignments.
• Use respect with colleagues on discussion boards and collaborative assignments.
• Practice academic and intellectual integrity.
• Treat people the way you want to be treated when communicating in the online world.

Don’ts:

• Don’t expect an instant response on e-mails and grades. Our customer service staff will endeavor to respond as quickly as possible, and will refer questions to your instructor, but the response is not instantaneous. We have customer service staff every day of the week, but the instructors often take time off at the weekend.
• Don’t WRITE IN ALL CAPS, as this is considered to be shouting in the online world.
• Don’t use texting language in the academic world.

Offensive Language:

• Communication from a student containing profanity, offensive, disrespectful or insulting language is inappropriate and SVHS will suspend a student, unenroll the student from all SVHS courses and will not provide a transcript for a student that exhibits such offensive behavior.  The same applies to students who threaten or insult SVHS teachers, members of staff or other students.

Supplemental Students: Sequential Courses

We recommend, when taking sequential courses, such as Algebra 1 Part 1 and Algebra 1 Part 2, that you complete the first course before you take the subsequent course. This is a recommendation, not a requirement. As a supplemental student, you can take part 1 with your home school, or with another school and take part 2 with SVHS.

Revised Transcript Policy

Once issued, transcripts cannot be revised unless evidence is provided to indicate that the transcript is materially inaccurate. A student with such evidence can petition for a transcript revision. The teacher of the course and school registrar will then review the transcript to determine its accuracy, consulting with the school principal where necessary. The registrar will be responsible for issuing a revised transcript where it is deemed appropriate.

Repeat Courses Policy

Consistent with the schools’ strategy of encouraging repetition and mastery of the materials, students are not prevented from repeating courses.  When a course has been repeated, the original course and grade stay on the transcript, but the credits for that course are indicated to be zero and the original grade for that course is excluded from the GPA calculation.  The repeated course is shown on the transcript with an “R” to indicate it was a repeat. The credits earned from the repeated course were assigned to that course and that grade factored into the GPA calculation.

Supplemental Students: Attendance Policy

The courses are online and self-paced, so you are not required to attend any particular session at any particular time. However, you are required to complete each section of each course and pass each of the quiz tests in order to qualify for graduation.

Supplemental Students: Leave-of-Absence Policy

If you complete part of a course, but are unable to continue with the course, you can withdraw from the course and trigger the Refund Procedures.

Supplemental Students: Payment Terms

Students are required to pay for each course upon enrollment. Payment is tendered online via Paypal or students can be enrolled manually by our staff. In many cases, we will accept purchase orders from schools and other institutions.

Supplemental Students: Refund Procedures

Upon timely notice and cancellation of a course, depending on how much of the course has been completed you are possibly eligible for a pro-rata refund from SVHS. Notice is considered timely when received by SVHS within 30 days of your initial enrollment in the course. If you provide notice of cancellation of the course and a request for refund within 30 days of enrollment, depending on how far you have progressed through the course, you may be eligible for a refund. Your right to cancel and claim a refund expires 30 days after the initial course enrollment.

If you wish to withdraw from a course, please submit a request using the Contact Us form on our website informing SVHS that you request immediate withdrawal from such course. Your notice of cancellation and withdrawal from such course will be effective when you successfully submit the request. SVHS administration staff will unenroll you from such course and you will no longer have access to the course materials online.

Supplemental Students: Refund Calculations—Self-Paced Courses

A course comprises a number of sections. A section comprises a heading, videos and other learning materials, quizzes, a unit tests and assignment. Your progress through the course, and each section of the course, is tracked in the SVHS online learning management system and this data will be used to determine which sections of the course you have accessed. If you have accessed less than 10% of the sections of a course, you will be eligible for a full (100%) refund. If you have accessed between 10% and 60% of the sections of a course, you will be eligible for a pro-rata refund. So, by way of illustration, if you have accessed 30% of the sections of a course, you will be eligible for a 70% refund. Once you have accessed more than 60% of the sections in a course, you are no longer eligible for a refund on that course.

Supplemental Students: Dropped Courses

You can drop a course at any time before you have completed the final and your grade has been issued. Dropped courses do not appear on your transcript from SVHS.  Refunds are not available for dropped courses.

Student-to-Teacher Ratio Policy

The ratio of teachers to students shall be sufficient for teachers to respond promptly to student submissions and for teachers to provide meaningful feedback to students throughout all stages of the course and learning process. It is recognized that SVHS courses are self-paced and students are never required to attend a class at any particular point in time, student participation is spread throughout the day and throughout the semester–some students like to work in the mornings, others in the afternoons and evenings. Teachers are never required to address all students of a class at the same time, and the ratio of students to teachers in this learning environment is very different from that of a traditional brick-and-mortar school.

All Students: Academic Dishonesty Policy

A student found beyond reasonable doubt to be responsible for one or more acts of Academic Dishonesty will be dismissed and unenrolled from the course or entire program. Dismissal will act as notice of cancellation and withdrawal from such course and will trigger the SVHS Refund Procedures.

All Students: Disruption Policy

A student that disrupts a class, to the extent that other students are prevented from pursuing their studies, will be placed on probation, and a subsequent repeat of such disruption will lead to the student being unenrolled from the course or the entire program. Dismissal will act as notice of cancellation and withdrawal from such course and will trigger the SVHS Refund Procedures.

Identity Authentication & Login Credentials

In order to access all SVHS course materials you will create a log-in account with your own unique username and a secure password containing special characters. Each time you log in to the SVHS learning management system, you will be required to use these username/password login credentials.

Your progress through the SVHS courses, and your scores in the course tests, are tracked to your login credentials. Keep your password under strict security. Under no circumstances, should you share your login credentials with another student or anyone else.

Because we are providing you with a certificate of completion when you complete this course, we need to authenticate that you are taking the course yourself. Our courses are online, and we don’t see you face to face, but we still we need to check that you are who you say you are. The way you type is unique. You may be required to authenticate via our Typed Signature biometric authentication system which studies your typing pattern to verify your identity before you take quizzes, tests and finals.

Financial Aid Policy

SVHS does not provide or arrange financial aid for students. SVHS programs are priced at such a point that students are expected to arrange their own financing.

Policy Supporting Students with Disabilities

SVHS is committed to supporting students with disabilities. Visually impaired students can use screen readers with text-to-speech software to read written text out loud. Closed captioning is usually available to the hearing impaired when watching the course videos. SVHS self-paced courses are designed to accommodate students needing more time to master the materials and complete the course successfully. SVHS will do what it  can to accommodate students with disabilities, within the constraints of the SVHS learning management system.

For further information and accessibility statements, please see this page explaining how we support students with disabilities.

Individualized Education Program (IEP) Policy

You will see that our courses and programs are self-paced and flexible to adapt to a variety of learning styles, but we are a private school, not part of any public school system, and SVHS does not formulate or implement IEP’s.

Policy for the Retention of Student Records

Student records are kept in digital format and are retained by SVHS for a period of at least ten years. Transcripts are issued by SVHS upon the student’s request when submitted on the Request a Transcript web page. SVHS can provide oral or written confirmation of registration, enrollment, or graduation status.

In the unlikely event that SVHS were to discontinue operations, the digital student records will be transferred to another school or organization that is capable of holding them and releasing them to authenticated students. The school or organization that takes over this responsibility may charge the student a fee for its services.

Policy for Disclosure of Student Records

SVHS is committed to the privacy and security of our students. Generally, SVHS will not disclose personally identifiable information from your education records unless you request a transcript. The most common exceptions to these disclosure restrictions are disclosures to university faculty or staff–school officials with a legitimate educational interest.

Academic Integrity Policy

All students must do their own work. It is okay to study with other students, but students must answer their own quizzes/tests/final and create their own assignments and labs.

• Doing research is highly encouraged and often required, but students must digest the information and then write it in their own words. Students must not copy text from another author, unless they’re quoting them for only 1-4 sentences, then credit all authors using in-text citations and a Work’s Cited page in MLA format.
• In foreign language courses, using an online translator is not permitted for the assignments. Students must write in the language using vocabulary they learned in the course.

It is considered a violation of our Academic Integrity Policy to submit someone else’s work, give another student work or answers, copy or cheat in any way, or engage in any other type of plagiarism. All students must perform and create all their own coursework.

All assignment submissions go through the UniCheck Plagiarism Checker to ensure that the student is submitting original work. The teacher will review the UniCheck Report to see where any similarities come from. If the similarity comes from another student’s work, then the SVHS administrator, and the supervising teacher/counselor at the students’ school will be notified. If the similarity comes from the Internet, the teacher will review the Work’s Cited page of the assignment. Depending on the percent of similarity and the completeness of the Work’s Cited page, the student and their supervising teacher will be informed and clear directions will be given as to the steps the student must take to receive credit for the assignment. Consequences for the violation of our academic integrity policy include: removal from SVHS courses without credit, as well as any ramifications from the policies of the student’s own school of record.

Lost Work Investigation Policy

Any student claims that he/she has submitted work that was lost by the SVHS system will be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated. The following facts should be considered before initiating a Lost Work Investigation:

• The SVHS system deploys the Moodle learning management system, which has so far experienced more than 995 million course enrollments by more than 197 million students in more than 150,000 schools. Moodle does not have a track record of losing student work and any such “bug” would have a widespread impact on the Moodle community. The Moodle community consists of thousands of software developers, each with a keen interest in the integrity of the Moodle system.
• After serving thousands of students with tens of thousands of courses, no student work has ever found to have been lost by the SVHS system.
• When a student submits an assignment on the SVHS system, an email is sent to the teacher and to the student. This email trail represents a separate and independent record from the Moodle system.
• When a student submits an assignment on the SVHS system, it is processed by a third-party plagiarism company that checks if the assignment, or if any part of it, have been seen before. If an assignment has been submitted to the SVHS system once, when it is submitted for a second time, it will show a 100% plagiarism score.  This third-party plagiarism system acts as an independent confirmation that an assignment has been submitted.
• The SVHS system logs all the activity of the student, recording the date and time the student performs any action in the system, together with the IP address and other information.  This log file tracks when students take quizzes, submit assignments, take finals, and records this data against the student’s account.
• The SVHS system is backed up daily, and backups are retained indefinitely. The backups represent snapshots of all activity to date in the SVHS system, including logs and records of all student’s progress through all their courses.
• Video conference sessions, such as those used in the conversational language courses, are recorded and archived. We are able to review video sessions.

If you would like to initiate a Lost Work Investigation, please complete this form and please submit the copies of the email messages the student received when submitting the lost assignment.  Also, please provide us with copies of the lost assignments.

A Lost Work Investigation involves the following activities:

• Checking the student logs and grade books in the SVHS system.
• Checking the independent email records confirming the assignment was submitted.
• Checking the independent plagiarism system to verify that the assignment has been submitted previously. A 100% plagiarism score would indicate that the assignment has indeed been submitted previously, and will show which student originally submitted such assignment.
• Where necessary, reviewing the video conference session video recordings.
• Checking backup copies of the SVHS system to investigate if there are any differences or discrepancies that would indicate that data has been lost.
• Investigating the evidence provided by the student that work was submitted and subsequently lost and corroborating this evidence with the various records and systems.

If it is discovered that the student’s claim of lost work is unfounded, and the claim was made as a result of the student failing to complete the work, the filing of the Lost Work Investigation will be deemed unethical conduct triggering the unethical conduct policy.

Unethical Conduct Policy

SVHS will suspend a student that has been found, by a preponderance of the evidence, to have acted unethically and SVHS will not provide a transcript or course credits for such a student.

Examples of unethical conduct include, but are not limited to the following:

• Making false claims to have completed coursework that was never completed.
• Making false claims to have attended video conference sessions when video recordings of the sessions and or other evidence proves otherwise.
• Making false claims about teachers, staff or other students.
• Submitting work that was copied from another student, or elsewhere, and falsely claiming it as your own.

Refund Payments

Should you be eligible for a refund, SVHS will pay or credit the refund to you within 30 days.

Technical Requirements

As SVHS courses are delivered online, you will require an Internet-connected PC, Mac or another device providing Internet access (“PC”). As the materials contain a number of videos, your PC and Internet connection should be of sufficient speed to play streaming videos.

The SVHS platform supports the current version and the 2 previous major releases of the browsers listed below on a rolling basis:

Google Chrome.
Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE).
Microsoft Edge.
Mozilla Firefox.
Safari.

The SVHS platform supports the current version and the 2 previous major releases of the operating systems listed below on a rolling basis:

Apple Mac OS.
Microsoft Windows.
Google Chrome.

Processor Minimum Requirements: Any 2 GHz dual core processor or greater.

Internet Connection Bandwidth: At least 2 mbps upload and at least 4 mbps download speed.

Method of Instruction

SVHS adopts a method of instruction involving self-paced courses comprising video and audio recordings, online readings and online quizzes, chapter tests and finals.

Notice Concerning Transferability Of Credits And Credentials Earned

The transferability of credits you earn at SVHS is at the complete discretion of an institution to which you may seek to transfer. If the credits that you earn at SVHS is not accepted at the institution to which you seek to transfer, you may be required to repeat some or all of your coursework at that institution. For this reason you should make certain that your attendance at this institution will meet your educational goals. This may include contacting an institution to which you may seek to transfer after taking SVHS courses to determine if your SVHS credits will transfer.

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

Many of the SVHS courses have been approved by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Those approved courses are available on the SVHS course catalog page and on the NCAA website. NCAA has a policy of approving only certain types of core academic courses, so some electives and other courses are not eligible for NCAA approval.

Recording & Archiving of Video Conference Sessions

For security purposes, all video conference sessions held with students are automatically recorded, date stamped and archived.  This applies to tutoring sessions, conversational Spanish and all other sessions on SVHS’s Zoom videoconferencing platform.

Suicide Prevention Link

If any student, or anyone, is at risk of suicide, please refer them as soon as possible to this link:

• http://suicideprevention.nv.gov/Suicide-Prevention/

Safe Sun Exposure

Students should possess and self-administer sunscreen and wear clothing outdoors that helps protect them from exposure to the sun.

Fire Procedures

As all students, teachers and staff work online from their own homes, the American Red Cross advice for families is adopted by the School:

• Acquire a fire extinguisher. Learn how to safely operate the fire extinguisher.
• Remember to GET OUT, STAY OUT and CALL 9-1-1 or your local emergency phone number.
• Yell “Fire!” several times and go outside right away. If you live in a building with elevators, use the stairs. Leave all your things where they are and save yourself.
• If closed doors or handles are warm or smoke blocks your primary escape route, use your second way out. Never open doors that are warm to the touch.
• If you must escape through smoke, get low and go under the smoke to your exit. Close doors behind you.
• If smoke, heat or flames block your exit routes, stay in the room with doors closed. Place a wet towel under the door and call the fire department or 9-1-1 or your local emergency phone number. Open a window and wave a brightly colored cloth or flashlight to signal for help.
• Once you are outside, go to your meeting place and then send one person to call the fire department. If you cannot get to your meeting place, follow your family emergency communication plan.

NOTICE NRS 394.170 ~ AS REQUIRED BY NEVADA LAW

NRS 394.170  Drills to instruct pupils in appropriate procedures to be followed in event of lockdown or emergency; regulations of State Fire Marshal; posting of section; enforcement; penalty.

1.  The authorities in charge of every private school within this State shall provide drills for the pupils in the schools at least once in each month during the school year to instruct those pupils in the appropriate procedures to be followed in the event of a lockdown, fire or other emergency. Not more than two of the drills provided pursuant to this subsection may include instruction in the appropriate procedures to be followed in the event of a chemical explosion, related emergencies and other natural disasters. At least one-half of the drills provided pursuant to this subsection must include instruction in the appropriate procedures to be followed in the event of a lockdown.

2.  In all cities or towns, the drills required by subsection 1 must be approved by the chief of the fire department of the city or town, if the city or town has a regularly organized, paid fire department or voluntary fire department.

3.  The State Fire Marshal shall prescribe general regulations governing the drills required by subsection 1 and shall, with the cooperation of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, arrange for the supervision of drills in schools.

4.  A copy of this section must be kept posted in every classroom of every private school by the principal or teacher in charge thereof.

5.  The principal, teacher or other person in charge of each school building shall cause the provisions of this section to be enforced.

6.  Any violation of the provisions of this section is a misdemeanor.

7.  As used in this section, “lockdown” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 388.2343.

[463:32:1956]—(NRS A 1967, 1097; 1993, 113; 2001, 1334; 2007, 190; 2017, 2732)

Website Terms of Use Policies

You agree to abide by all the SVHS Website Terms of Use policies.

Silicon Valley High School, Inc.

Silicon Valley High School, Inc. does not have a pending petition in bankruptcy, is not operating as a debtor in possession, has not filed a petition within the preceding five years, and has never had a petition in bankruptcy filed against it within the preceding five years that resulted in reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (11 U.S.C. Sec. 1101 et seq.).

Definitions

If you are unsure of any of the terms used to describe our programs, please contact us. We will be happy to clarify.
“$”—Unless otherwise stated, all prices are in US dollars.
“Credit”—refers to an SVHS academic unit. The credits for a course are calculated by estimating the number of hours of self-paced study.
“Academic Dishonesty”—refers to any immoral way of achieving a goal associated with an SVHS course or program. Examples of academic dishonesty include: Plagiarism: The adoption or reproduction of original creations of another author (person, collective, organization, community or other type of author, including anonymous authors) without due acknowledgment; Fabrication: The falsification of data, information, or citations in any formal academic exercise; Deception: Providing false information to an instructor concerning a formal academic exercise—e.g., giving a false excuse for missing a deadline or falsely claiming to have submitted work; Cheating: Any attempt to give or obtain assistance in a formal academic exercise (like an examination) without due acknowledgment; Bribery: or paid services; Giving assignment answers or test answers for money; Sabotage: Acting to prevent others from completing their work; Professorial misconduct: Professorial acts that are academically fraudulent equate to academic fraud and/or grade fraud; Impersonation: assuming a student’s identity with intent to provide an advantage for the student.
“Education records”—refers to records directly related to a student maintained by SVHS or by a party acting for SVHS.

Version: 170822.

Questions

If you have any questions on these policies, please contact us.1