Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal

The Department of Education requires the college to return all of Title IV funds that were disbursed to a student who does not begin attendance at that institution. The Secretary considers that a student has not begun attendance if the institution is unable to document the student’s attendance at any class during the payment period or period of enrollment.

The Department of Education does not specifically require attendance to be taken in the traditional sense of calling out names in class from a roster. Rather, schools are required to have some type of mechanism to know whether or not the student began attending classes.

The Department of Education states that a school must demonstrate that a student participated in class or was otherwise engaged in an academically related activity, such as by contributing to an online discussion or initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a course-related question (Volume 5, Chapter 2, page 5-63, November 2018).

Examples of acceptable evidence of academic attendance and attendance at an academically-related activity in a distance education program include:

• Student submission of an academic assignment
• Student submission of an exam
• Documented student participation in an interactive tutorial or computer-assisted instruction
• A posting by the student showing the student’s participation in an online study group that is assigned by the institution
• A posting by the student in a discussion forum showing the student’s participation in an online discussion about academic matters
• An e-mail from the student or other documentation showing that the student initiated contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course
• A non-graded acknowledgment of the syllabus or a plagiarism statement from each student or a group discussion requiring students to introduce themselves in the first five days.

**Logging into Canvas without performing one of the actions above does not constitute attendance

An instructor must initiate an administrative withdraw for a non-attending student at any point during the first five instructional days of the quarter if the student does not contact the instructor to indicate their intention to remain enrolled.

Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal must be officially processed through the Registrar no later than the fifth academic calendar day of the quarter and prior to 8:00 pm. Use the online form to submit Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal requests.

**All Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal requests must be submitted using the online form; email will not be accepted.

The Department of Education specifies that an institution must return funds for which it is responsible as soon as possible but not later than 30 days after the date the institution becomes aware that the student will not or has not begun attendance.

LCC’s legacy system is configured to calculate a 100% refund within the first five days of the term. After that point (up until the 20th calendar day of the term) the system is configured to refund 50% of tuition paid. Because our policy is to give a 100% refund for the Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal, a manual override would need to be completed for each Instructor-Initiated withdrawal that is submitted after the fifth day.

We no longer have the option to report a grade for non-attendance at the end of the quarter. All students who do not begin attending in the first five days are to be reported via the Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal procedure.

If you missed the five-day deadline, you should still report to the Registration Office that the student never began attending. The student will be removed from your class roster. Please note, if the instructor briefcase has been opened for the grading period, the student will appear on your grading roster. Leave the grade field blank for that student. You will not see the check mark next to your class because of the missing grade, but the other grades entered will be submitted to the Registration Office.

The Department of Education still requires the financial aid office to calculate a repayment and return funds, even if we exceed the required time frame for reporting.

The student would not be eligible for the Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal. Grade the student at the end of the quarter based on their performance in the course.

Students should:

1. Attend scheduled class sessions.
2. Non-attending students should contact their instructor in person, by phone, or by email and notify them of their intention to remain enrolled or they will be administratively withdrawn by the instructor during the first five instructional days of the quarter.
3. Students who are withdrawn through the Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal process and who wish to be reinstated in class must complete normal procedures for re-enrollment, including securing the instructor’s written permission to re-enroll.

1. Initiate an Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal by completing online form located in instructors briefcase.
2. Submit the online form no later than the fifth academic calendar day of the quarter and prior to 8:00 pm.

The Registrar will:

1. Process the Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal form.
2. Send the student a revised student schedule indicating that the instructor has withdrawn the student.
3. Inform the Financial Aid Office of the Instructor-Initiated Withdrawal.

Please contact the Registration Office at (360) 442-2370 or email registration@lowercolumbia.edu.