How do I handle late work?

This week's #flashblog for #flipclass asked a question that is always something that causes debates among teachers.  That question is "How do you handle late work? How does your school handle it? How has that changed?"  In my own department, we vary so greatly on how to handle late work, so across the school there is even more variance.  While sitting at the table at lunch, I have overheard many arguments about how one accepts (or doesn't accept) late homework, and how they also don't agree (or agree) with the policy set forth in the handbook.  There are definitely two different situations that have to be addressed.  The first being a student's work is late due to not being in school and the other because the student just simply did not meet the deadline.

The high school that I teach at has a universal (or so it says) policy on how late work from students not present is handled.  The policy states that for every excused day a student is absent, he/she has that many days to make up the missed work.  This includes if a student is absent due to an educational travel or a field trip.  The later two reasons has caused much debate among the teachers, since the student is required to get work before going on the trip, and should be expected to have the work done when he/she returns.  However, the policy clearly states that the student has as many days absent to turn in that work.  I used to think that a student should hand in the work upon return since I took my time to get him the work ahead of time.  However, after having my son participate in many different musical endeavors where the students are literally running from 7 in the morning to bedtime each night.  There simply is no time for the student to work on and complete these assignments.  Having chaperoned some of these trips, I understand how exhausted the kids become, and do agree that they should be allowed extended time to make this work complete.

Students can surprise you though.  Last December, I had a student visit Germany for the who month of December.  She asked for her work before she left.  I gave her the links to the videos and all in class activities she would miss.  Each day, when I read my email before school, her assignment for that day would be complete, scanned in for me.  She had no problem returning after the new year and fitting right back into class.  I even emailed her mother the quiz/test the day before we were taking an assessment and her mother administered the quiz/test to her.  She was a student getting high marks prior to leaving and her high marks continued while in Germany. Not the norm though, I am sure.

As for the student that simply doesn't meet deadline, having been in school all days, the policy is left to the individual teacher.  This can cause some issues among teachers, for the student might say, "Well, Mrs. X accepts the work, without penalty, why won't you?"  However, I believe enacting a full blown policy where every teacher is to follow a set rule can remove the individuality from the situation.  I do accept late homework, although it happens so rarely.  When my students ask to hand in something late, either because they left it at home, left it in their mother's car, was too busy to do it the night before, etc, the student must write me a note as to why I should accept the work late, why it was late, and how they may change the situation to make sure it isn't late the next time.  This letter is expected to be hand written and addressed to me.  That way, I have a folder for every time a student asks to have late work accepted.  If ever an issue were to be raised by a parent, I also have the proper documentation to show them.  If I get more than 2 letters a year from the same student that would be a surprise to me.  If I get 5 of these a marking period, that would be a lot.  I don't know why I don't get a lot of requests for late acceptance due to deadlines.

This type of question usually leads to, "Do you allow students extra time to finish tests?" or "Do you allow students to retake Summative Assessments?"  Again, very touchy and debatable issues.  My attitude is that I want to see what my students know.  Everyone has the opportunity to take their driver's test how ever many times they need to until they pass.  Why do we often want to judge a student on one test result at one moment in time?  This leads to, why not just get rid of grades all together.  Okay, I digress.  Maybe topics for another time.

To summarize, my students are permitted one day for every day they are excused absent, and if the assignment is tardy but student was present, it may handed in without penalty, but with a handwritten letter addressing the following three questions.

1. Why should I accept it late?
2. Why was it late?
3. How can the situation change so that it isn't late the next time?