Students are expected to attend and be on time for all regularly scheduled classes. Should absences or tardiness be necessary, students are responsible for the material covered during the absences. Instructors cannot grant requests for excessive amounts of make-up material, and they may request written documentation detailing the reason for absences or tardiness. Excessive absences or tardiness make it almost impossible for a student to meet the learning objectives of a course; these frequently cause a student to receive a lower grade, even though the absences or tardiness were unavoidable. NATI ESL requires all instructors to take attendance during each class period and to record it accurately on the permanent roster.
Students absent from four consecutive class meetings, excluding holidays and emergency cancellation of classes from that course, will be withdrawn automatically. A student who does not attend any of the classes for which he/she is registered in a term will be administratively withdrawn from the school.
A student who has been absent due to mitigating circumstances should contact the Campus Director of Operations and Admissions or a designated staff member for additional time to complete coursework.
NATI ESL has defined the following as mitigating circumstances:
- serious illness of the student, serious illness of a member of the student’s immediate family for whom the student is the primary caregiver, or death of member of student’s immediate family
- military deployment
- unforeseen travel requirements or relocation related to the student’s employment.
To request accommodation or waiver based upon mitigating circumstances, the student must provide NATI ESL with documentation supporting the student’s claim of mitigating circumstances. If the request is granted based upon the documentation provided, the Campus Director of Operations and Admissions or a designated staff member will notify the instructor(s) to work with the student to satisfactorily complete the coursework within a reasonable amount of time. Students may also be required to submit additional documentation before enrolling in subsequent quarters to demonstrate that the mitigating circumstance no longer applies. If circumstances are such that, due to the length of the class absences or the length of the anticipated absence, the preferable course of action is class withdrawal. The student may petition the Campus Director or Operations and Admissions or a designated staff member for a tuition adjustment and/or waiver of the withdrawal fee. The same documentation cited above must be provided to the Campus Director of Operations and Admissions or a designed staff member.
Online Attendance Policy
Students enrolled in the online program adhere to the same attendance policies as on campus. However, logging into the online class without active participation will not constitute official attendance. To be marked present, students enrolled in an online program at North America Technical Institute ESL (NATI ESL) will demonstrate daily and weekly attendance by completing one or more of the following actions as directed by the instructor:
- Actively participate in a scheduled synchronous class session.
- Submit a course assignment during class
- Take a quiz or an exam during class
These activities will be tracked automatically in Microsoft Teams.