Course Request and Scheduling Process

Each eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh grade student will have access to the Program of Studies via the EHS website. Paper copies will be made available upon request. The POS is the result of meetings with teachers, school counselors, department chairpersons, administrators, parents/guardians, the Superintendent and the Board of School Directors. The Program of Studies describes each course offered in the high school. Please take some time to become familiar with our course offerings. Course selection is regarded as an important function and should be given very serious consideration by students and parents. In February, students will discuss next year’s course selections with their subject teachers. All teachers will use the knowledge they have gained having your student in class to assist them in choosing an appropriate course for next year which best suits their abilities and aspirations. Students will then have the opportunity to discuss their teachers’ recommendations with their families prior to course registration.


Occasionally, a teacher’s recommendation will not match your or your student’s selection. You are encouraged to contact the teacher(s) if you have questions regarding your student’s course recommendations for that subject area or your student’s school counselor for general questions regarding course registration. Please note that students must register for a minimum of 5.25 credits each year and fulfill the high school’s graduation requirements by the end of their senior year.

Students are encouraged to select courses with the following objectives in mind:

  1. Complete all graduation requirements.
  2. Select courses which will prepare the student for entrance into post-secondary education, the military, technical schools or the workforce. College bound students should familiarize themselves with admission requirements for individual colleges and choose courses accordingly.
  3. Select courses that are taught at the highest academic level possible for student success.

Please Note: Selecting courses should involve careful consideration by the student and their family and should be made on the basis of student interests, abilities, and vocational goals. It is advisable to work closely with the school counselors in the selection of a program of studies. It is strongly recommended that a student planning to take the second year of a continuing type course follow recommended prerequisites.


Course requests will be entered in February. Students, teachers, and families will have the opportunity to verify course requests as part of the scheduling process. Once verifications are completed, all the course requests are tallied. The number of sections of a particular course and teachers’ assignments are determined by the students’ course requests. All course selection changes must be made before June 30th. A course may not be offered because an insufficient number of students selected the course, a certified teacher is not available, or budgetary funds are not available. Although every effort is made to accommodate students’ requests, some cannot be honored. Because of the implications a few changes can have on the entire schedule, it is very important that each student’s selections be made very carefully.

Two videos from our YouTube channel, created by our School Counselors, that help to explain the scheduling timeline and process at EHS are linked below.

Scheduling process and timeline

Entering course requests

Recommendations and Override Requests

Students and families are expected to review and consider recommended prerequisites before registering for any course. Students who have not satisfied the prerequisite and/or who are not recommended by their current teacher to take the desired course should first discuss the recommendation with their teacher. If the prerequisite has not been met, students should see their school counselor for more information or to request the Prerequisite Override Request Form after March 30th. The request will be reviewed and approved or denied by a committee based on the information presented.

Class Transfers and Withdrawals

Students requesting a class transfer and/or withdrawal from a course must meet specific criteria and follow the process for requesting a course change. Once the posted deadline for schedule changes has passed, transfers and/or withdrawals from scheduled classes will only be considered in very unusual situations.

The process for requesting a change is as follows:

  1. Family and/or student contacts school counselor to request a change.
  2. If the presented reason qualifies as a special circumstance, school counselor provides the form to the family, student, and teacher to complete. All three parties must complete the form.
  3. The committee comprised of school counselors and administrator(s) reviews the request. The outcome is determined by the committee after analyzing the student’s record and the information provided in the aforementioned form.

A withdrawal that does not result in a transfer to another course in the same academic content area will receive a W as the final grade on a student’s transcript after a marking period grade has been issued.
The deadline for a student to request a course change is September 30th for year long and first semester courses. For courses scheduled during the second semester only, the deadline for such a request is February 28th.

Course Withdrawal Criteria

Once schedules are developed (in May the year prior), a student can make any changes until the end of June (prior to the school year starting). Once a class has started in August, transfers and/or withdrawals from scheduled classes are only considered in “Special Circumstances.” A change request is highly unlikely to be implemented after June 30th due to the explicit and complex nature of our master schedule of which is solely built using student course requests from our entire student body. We cannot stress enough the importance of the course selection process during our Course Registration time frame for this reason. With that said, we still review cases if they meet the Special Circumstance criteria.


If a student wants to add/drop a class after June 30th, the student must speak with their school counselor to determine if the request meets the criteria. In order for the change request to be considered, the reason for wanting the change must fall in one of six predetermined categories.

  1. A student wishes to challenge themself by adding an additional course to their schedule.
  2. The student wishes to challenge themself by moving up to a more rigorous course level.
  3. The student requested to take a course that is beyond their ability and wishes to drop the course. Student historical & current data would need to support this request.
  4. The student requested to take a course that was beyond their ability and wishes to move to a less rigorous course level of the same content area. Student historical & current data would need to support this request.
  5. The student wishes to drop a course or change a course level for medical reasons. **Medical documentation is required for this request.
  6. The student has greater than 7.0 credits in their schedule for the year.

If the school counselor assesses the request and determines the student meets one or more of these criteria, a student may proceed through the process of add/drop where a committee reviews the required submissions and the student’s historical data. Once the data is reviewed, the committee makes a determination if the request meets the criteria for a change/approval.


Please note: A student must sit through and experience a class prior to seeking to drop a course with their school counselor if a request is made after June 30th.

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