Sunrise Pine

Dual Enrollment & Transfer of Credit Policy

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Applies to: all current and prospective high school students (grades 9-12).

1. Purpose

Sunrise Pine School students graduate with a fully accredited U.S. high school diploma after earning a minimum of 24 credits across required subjects and electives. This policy explains how credits earned outside Sunrise Pine School are recognized toward those 24 credits.

Residency requirement: a Sunrise Pine diploma is issued only to students who complete their high school program at Sunrise Pine. Concretely:

  • At least 12 of the 24 credits must be earned at Sunrise Pine, and these must be the concluding portion of the student’s program: the student must remain enrolled at Sunrise Pine through graduation and graduate from Sunrise Pine.
  • Approved dual enrollment and concurrent outside courses taken while enrolled at Sunrise Pine count toward the 24 and do not conflict with this requirement.
  • Coursework completed elsewhere after leaving Sunrise Pine cannot be applied toward a Sunrise Pine diploma. (Withdrawing students receive an official transcript of their Sunrise Pine coursework.)

This policy covers three situations:

  1. Transfer of credit - credits a student earned at a previous school before joining Sunrise Pine.
  2. Dual enrollment - college or university courses a student takes while enrolled at Sunrise Pine, earning high school and college credit at the same time.
  3. Concurrent outside coursework - high-school-level courses taken at another provider while enrolled at Sunrise Pine.

2. Definitions

  • Eligible college or university: a degree-granting institution accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), or a non-U.S. institution officially recognized by its national ministry of education.
  • Eligible school (high school level): a school accredited by a recognized regional or national accrediting body (e.g., ACS WASC, Cognia) or officially recognized by its national or state education authority.
  • Semester hour / credit hour: the standard unit of college course credit in the U.S. A typical one-semester college course carries 3 semester hours.
  • Sunrise Pine credit: one full-year high school course = 1.0 credit; one semester course = 0.5 credit.

3. Transfer of credit (previous schools)

Students may join Sunrise Pine partway through high school, sometimes from schools outside the United States. Sunrise Pine accepts credits earned at eligible schools and applies them toward the 24 credits required for graduation.

  • The family must provide an official transcript.
  • The transcript is reviewed during the admission process. Sunrise Pine maps which credits transfer, how they satisfy subject requirements, and exactly what remains to graduate.
  • Credits from non-accredited programs or homeschooling are evaluated case by case and may require a placement assessment or portfolio review before credit is awarded.

3.1 High-school-level courses completed before grade 9

Students sometimes complete high-school-level courses (e.g., Algebra I, Geometry, a world language) during middle school.

  • Placement is honored: the student continues in the next course in the sequence regardless of whether credit is awarded.
  • Credit toward the 24 required for graduation is granted only if the course is high-school-level in content and appears on an official transcript from an eligible school. The determination is made during the admission process.

4. Dual enrollment (college courses while enrolled)

Sunrise Pine encourages academically prepared students to take on college-level work. Dual enrollment allows a student to earn Sunrise Pine credit and college credit for the same course.

4.1 Eligibility

  • Open to students in grades 11 and 12. Grade 10 students may participate with approval from the school administration. Students in grade 9 are generally not eligible; exceptional cases require a demonstrated record of readiness and approval from the school administration.
  • The student must also meet the college’s own admission and placement requirements for its dual enrollment program.

4.2 Eligible courses and institutions

  • The institution must be an eligible college or university as defined in Section 2.
  • The course must be academic in nature, at the 100 level or above (or equivalent), and not remedial or developmental.
  • Courses intended to satisfy a core subject requirement (English, mathematics, science, social studies) require additional approval from the relevant Sunrise Pine subject teacher or administrator.

4.3 Credit conversion

  • One approved college course of 3 or more semester hours = 1.0 Sunrise Pine credit. A one-semester college course typically covers a full year of high school content.
  • College courses of 1-2 semester hours are evaluated case by case (typically 0.5 credit).
  • The exact credit value and the requirement each course satisfies are confirmed during pre-approval.

4.4 Limits

  • Maximum 3.0 Sunrise Pine credits earned through dual enrollment per academic year.
  • Maximum 6.0 Sunrise Pine credits earned through dual enrollment applied toward the 24 required for graduation.
  • Dual enrollment supplements, and does not replace, full-time enrollment: students must maintain the minimum Sunrise Pine course load for their grade level.
  • In all cases, the residency requirement in Section 1 applies: at least 12 of the 24 credits must be earned at Sunrise Pine.

4.5 Costs and logistics

  • College tuition, fees, and materials are the responsibility of the family unless a specific agreement states otherwise.
  • The college controls its own calendar, deadlines, instruction, and grading. Sunrise Pine advisors help students plan but cannot alter the college’s requirements.

4.6 Student athletes (NCAA)

College courses do not automatically count as NCAA-approved core courses. Student athletes pursuing NCAA eligibility should consult a Sunrise Pine faculty member before enrolling in any dual enrollment course, so the plan is verified against NCAA Eligibility Center rules.

5. Concurrent outside coursework (high-school-level)

A currently enrolled student who wishes to take a high-school-level course from another provider (for example, a state distance-education program or another accredited online school) must obtain prior written approval, following the same approval process as dual enrollment. Approved courses are treated under the transfer rules in Section 3: credit is applied toward graduation upon receipt of an official transcript from the provider, whose transcript remains the record of the course and grade. A maximum of 2.0 such credits may be applied per academic year.

6. Approval process

  1. The family submits a Dual Enrollment / Outside Course Approval request to their Sunrise Pine advisor, naming the institution, the course (with description or syllabus), and the term.
  2. Sunrise Pine verifies the institution’s accreditation, the course’s eligibility, and the student’s eligibility, checks that the course does not overlap coursework already credited, and confirms how much credit will be awarded and which requirement it will satisfy.
  3. The student registers with the institution and completes the course.
  4. The family arranges for an official transcript to be sent to Sunrise Pine; the credit is then applied toward graduation requirements.

Approval decisions are normally issued within 10 school days of a complete request.

7. Exceptions and appeals

The school administration may grant exceptions to any provision of this policy where the student’s academic record demonstrates readiness. Families may appeal a credit decision in writing to the school administration within 30 days of the decision.