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; they frequently cause a student to receive a lower grade, even though the absences or tardiness were unavoidable.
North America Technical Institute requires all instructors to take attendance during each class period and to record it accurately on their permanent roster. A student who is late to class may be marked absent. A student who is absent from four consecutive class meetings, excluding holidays and emergency cancellation of classes from that course, will be withdrawn automatically from that course. A student who does not attend any of the classes for which he/she is registered in a term will be administratively withdrawn from the Institute. A student who has been absent due to mitigating circumstances should contact the Campus Director for additional time to complete coursework. The Institute 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 on mitigating circum-stances, the student must provide the Institute with documentation supporting the student’s claim of mitigating circumstances. If the request is granted based on the documentation provided, the Campus Director will so 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 for a tuition adjustment and/or waiver of the withdrawal fee. The same documentation cited above must be provided to the applicable Campus Director.