Student Accommodations

From The Dean's Office:

There have been many questions in the past quarter about circumstances wherein faculty are obligated to adjust their classroom expectations to meet needs of students. This may include attendance rules, homework, and/or exams. I‘d like to share with you some of the circumstance when we are obligated to accommodate either missed classes or alternative exam dates. Note that this list includes only instance related to specific legal requirements, and is not exhaustive.

(1) Pregnancy/birth of a child- Title IX requires faculty to grant a leave of absence and work on developing an alternative path to completion of a class for leave deemed medically necessary for pregnancy or birth of a child. EWU Guideline 402-05 (Pregnancy and Parental Leave):https://sites.ewu.edu/policies/policies-and-procedures/ewug-402-05-pregnancy-and-parental-leave/

(2) Accommodations- if a student has a reasonable accommodation plan in place that requires alternative test dates, you would need to comply with the accommodation plan. For example, a student could have a plan permitting him to miss class if he has an epileptic seizure. If the student had a seizure and missed a test as a result, you would need to permit him to make up an exam. This is governed by EWU Policy 402-03 (Accommodating Persons with Disabilities):https://sites.ewu.edu/policies/policies-and-procedures/ewu-402-03-accommodating-persons-with-disabilities-2/. Some medical conditions also fall within these parameters, such as if a student needed to be hospitalized for a medical condition and needed an accommodation to finish his/her class. Note that accommodations may also include an expectation that students have advance notification of tests, more time to take tests, or other similar measures as spelled out in the accommodation plan.

(3) Religious Holidays- under state law, students are permitted to take two excused absences per academic year for reasons of faith or conscience. The law explicitly states a student's grade may not be adversely impacted by an authorized absence, so a faculty member would have to reschedule an exam date. There is a process for students requesting an excused absence in advance and having it approved by the Dean of Students Office. The process is included in EWU Policy 403-01 (Holidays):https://sites.ewu.edu/policies/policies-and-procedures/ewu-403-01-holidays/. If a student had an excused absence approved in advance by the Dean's Office, then you would need to permit him/her to take an exam or other assignment on an alternative date.

(4) Military Service- if a student is called up to military duty during a quarter and misses an exam, you must permit him/her to take an exam on an alternative date. This requirement is set forth in Academic Policy 303-30 (Registration), section 7-5.https://sites.ewu.edu/policies/policies-and-procedures/ap-303-30-registration/

(5) Title IX- in certain situations, EWU is required to provide interim measures for students who are involved in a circumstance involving sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, domestic violence, or stalking. Interim measures are determined and approved by the Dean of Students' Office and/or the Title IX Coordinator. If you had a student in one of these situations, you would need to abide by the interim measure determination.

In all of the situations above, the faculty member would need to arrange for alternative ways to make up missed work, including assignments and exams. There are a number of other situations where faculty might be encouraged to be flexible in terms of exams or assignments, but the ones identified above are the instances where a faculty member must grant a request for an alternative test date or other accommodation for missed work.