Instructor Census and Attendance Policies

Clear Roster

According to Title 5 Ed Code 58004, instructors are required to drop students who have not shown up for class or who are no longer attending. This must be done no later than the day prior to the census date. The policy also applies to online classes regardless of whether they have waitlists or not. Online and Hybrid sections open to students for check-in at 8AM on the class start date. The students have 48 hours to check into the discussion area of the Canvas class shell. If students have not checked-in during this timeframe, the instructor may drop the student in order to make room for those on the waitlist. All instructors must drop students who do not check in by the day prior to census date. Instructors can view their census date online.

Attendance and Drops

Students may be dropped for failure to attend the second class meeting if they have not made prior arrangements with the instructor. Classes with extensive waitlists and have students present on the waitlist the first day of class may find it necessary to drop no-show students at the end of the first class meeting to make seats available.

Throughout the semester, students may also be dropped from a full-term class for continuous or cumulative absences that total the number of hours the class is scheduled to meet in a two-week period. For short-term courses, students may be dropped after missing 11% of the total class hours. In online courses, logging into the course does not constitute attendance but, rather, an online student must actively engage in an academically related course activity, such as contributing to an online discussion or initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a course-related question.

Last Date of Attendance

By law, instructors are required to document the date that students stop attending class (last date of attendance or active engagement in an online class). U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (34 CFR 668.164) requires us to track student attendance in order to identify how Financial Aid calculates the disbursement and all Title IV funds earned.

Therefore, the last date of attendance or participation must be documented.

Student Initiated Drops

A student who decides to voluntarily withdraw from a class has the responsibility to go through the online drop procedure to ensure that they do not receive an “F” in the course.

Instructor Guidelines for Dropping Students

Instructors who mistakenly drop a student and want to add them back to the class will need to contact Enrollment Services to reinstate them.
The waitlist is generated on a first-registered basis. Students on the waitlist should be considered in the order they are presented on the list. Instructors should not arbitrarily distribute add codes out of the waitlist order or to students who are not on the waitlist until after waitlisted students have been presented with an opportunity to enroll.
Students who actively engage in the academic activities of an online class or continue to attend a campus class have the right to earn their “F” by completing sub-standard work. Students have the right to fail. If they stop attending a campus class or stop participating in an online class, an instructor may choose to officially drop the student. Instructors must document the last day of attendance.
It is not the instructor's responsibility to determine why students are not attending the course or participating in the online course.

Note: As long as the students are attending the course, they have the right to earn substandard grades without being dropped from the course.