Appeals
What is an academic appeal?
An academic appeal is a procedure, which allows a scholar, in certain circumstances, to ask for a review of a decision relating to the academic progress or award. The appeal gives the scholar an opportunity to put their grades into context, explain what went wrong, and that they have a plan for future success.
No one has ever entered college with the goal of being dismissed. Unfortunately, life happens. Perhaps the scholar simply was not quite ready for the challenges of college or maybe they encountered factors outside of their control, i.e. illness, injury, a family crisis etc. or some other distraction that made college a lower priority than it needed to be. Please review the "extenuating circumstances" guideline for information about submission of an appeal: documents required, acceptable file types, contacts, etc.
If the scholar decides that they have eligible grounds for appeal, they should complete and submit an appeals form. The scholar must ensure that they complete the form completely and
submit evidence to support the appeal. All information supplied to the committee is considered confidential and will only be available to committee members.
What happens after an appeal is submitted?
On receipt of the appeal, the Parent Promise Office will check whether the appeal has eligible grounds. If it does, the scholar will receive an email of receipt; if it does not, the scholar will be notified via email and either advised that the appeal cannot be accepted or offered the opportunity to supply more information or evidence within a stated timescale.
Once the appeal has been accepted, the appeal form and documents will be submitted to the Appeals Panel for consideration.
Appeal Decision
The scholar will receive an email notification of the outcome of the panel's consideration of the case within 10 business days of the reviewing of the case. The outcome letter will explain the reasons for the Panel's decision and any conditional or probationary status. If the appeal is successful, you will be expected to raise your GPA and meet required credit hours with the academic year.
The decision of the committee is final. If a scholar is dismissed, it has been determined by the committee that the academic deficiency is such that the student will not be able to reinstate as a Parent Promise Scholar.
Stop-Out
If a scholar experiences any of the following events and anticipates not being able to complete the requirements for that academic year, he/she may submit a Stop Out form with his/her Success Coach:
- Serious illness (i.e., cancer diagnosis)
- Personal accident or injury of a significant nature
- Bereavement due to the loss of a close family member - a parent, grandparent, guardian, sibling, son, daughter or a close personal friend. Claims relating to extended family members will not normally be accepted.
- Victim of crime
- Unforeseen work commitments, not applicable to full-time students
- Unexpected pregnancy complications
- Jury Service, only if your attendance is compulsory and cannot be deferred
In addition to checking the reason for the request, the scholar will need to submit supporting documentation from the following list:
- Doctor's letter or certificate which confirms your illness and clearly identifies that the time period for which you were unwell corresponds to the assessment period in which you are claiming
- Hospital admission and discharge letter, to confirm your time spent in hospital
- Death certificate / Order of Service / Funeral Director's Letter
- Any supporting statements issued by Dallas College Campus Personnel i.e. Counselor, tutor must be provided on letterhead paper as a PDF; not a Word document or come directly from the author's e-mail address.
- Police report, a crime reference number on its own will not be sufficient
- A supporting statement from your employer if your circumstances relate to an unexpected increase in workload or unexpected employment circumstances i.e. deployment. A supporting statement issued by your employer must be provided on letterhead paper as a PDF; not a Word document or come directly from the author's e-mail address
- News report to confirm unforeseen transport difficulties
The scholar should also be prepared to provide additional details regarding the reason for the request and/or supporting documents. The request form should be completed in person with a Success Coach who will either approve or deny the request at that time.
View an Example of a Stop-Out Form
Reinstatement
If a scholar is suspended from or becomes ineligible to receive the DCPP scholarship because of a qualifying special circumstance, the scholar may appeal to their Dallas College Promise success coach to consider mitigating circumstances that resulted in his or her loss of eligibility. The appeal must be typed and include supporting documentation regarding the circumstances. The scholar will be notified by the Parent Promise Team within 10 business days after a decision has been made regarding the appeal. The following guidelines will be used to determine approval or denial of DCPP appeals due to extenuating circumstances:
Student Guide: Extenuating Circumstances
Extenuating means "making forgivable." The adjective
extenuating is unusual because it's almost always used with the word
circumstances; the phrase
extenuating circumstances describes the specific reasons that excuse or justify someone's actions.
Examples of Acceptable Claims for Extenuating Circumstances
The following are commonly accepted grounds for extenuation:
- Serious illness (i.e., cancer diagnosis)
- Personal accident or injury of a significant nature
- Bereavement due to the loss of a close family member - a parent, grandparent, guardian, sibling, son, daughter or a close personal friend. Claims relating to extended family members will not normally be accepted.
- Victim of crime
- Unforeseen work commitments, not applicable to full-time students
- Unexpected pregnancy complications
- Jury Service, only if your attendance is compulsory and cannot be deferred
Examples of Non-Acceptable Claims for Extenuating Circumstances
The following is a non-exhaustive list of commonly rejected claims for Extenuating Circumstances:
- Minor illness i.e. cold
- Moving house
- Family events i.e. weddings and holidays
- Routine medical appointments
- Poor time-management
- Not allowing sufficient time to travel to school to undertake assessments or submit coursework
- Not allowing sufficient time to access lab facilities in order to complete assignments
- Not allowing sufficient time to complete and submit assignments
- Poor practice i.e. failure to back up work
- Personal computer or printer problems
- Financial issues
- Change of employment, where this was within your control
- Misreading of assessment due dates
- Normal exam stress or anxiety experienced during revision or during the assessment period
- Religious festival, this is not unforeseen and any matters should be discussed inadvance with proper personnel.
- Medical condition supported only by retrospective evidence (such as a Doctor's note stating that you were seen after the illness)
- Late enrolment on a course or module, where this was within your control
- Complaints against staff or in relation or module/course delivery.
Standard of Acceptable Evidence
Examples of acceptable evidence - the list is not exhaustive:
- Doctor's letter or certificate which confirms your illness and clearly identifies that the time period for which you were unwell corresponds to the assessment period in which you are claiming
- Hospital admission and discharge letter, to confirm your time spent in hospital
- Death certificate / Order of Service / Funeral Director's Letter
- Any supporting statements issued by a Dallas College Campus Personnel i.e. Counselor, tutor must be provided on letterhead paper as a PDF; not a Word document or come directly from the author's e-mail address.
- Police report, a crime reference number on its own will not be sufficient
- A supporting statement from your employer if your circumstances relate to an unexpected increase in workload or unexpected employment circumstances i.e. deployment. A supporting statement issued by your employer must be provided on letterhead paper as a PDF; not a Word document or come directly from the author's e-mail address
- News report to confirm unforeseen transport difficulties
Evidence which is Not Acceptable
Examples of evidence which is not acceptable:
- Self-certification of your own circumstances
- Evidence which is not supplied by an independent party
- Evidence of a medical condition for which a Doctor did not see or diagnose in person, please see paragraph below for further information relating to on-line medical diagnosis
- Hospital or Doctor appointment letter / card
- Medical condition supported by retrospective evidence
- A letter from a parent, partner, family member or fellow student verifying circumstances where there is no other independent supporting evidence
- Extracts of numerous emails merged into single documents
- Evidence in a language other than English
- Crime reference number without a supplementary police report
- Screenshots from mobile devices showing restricted information
- Illegible evidence i.e. faded wording, cropped, missing information, undated, poorly scanned evidence
Important to note:
- All evidence must be contemporaneous to the assessment period in which you are claiming
- Evidence to corroborate illness must be provided by a medical practitioner
- Supporting statements should be provided on letterhead paper as a PDF; not a Word document or come directly from the author's e-mail address Evidence in support of your claim must be legible and dated, poorly scanned, cropped (missing information), faded evidence will not be accepted.
- If you don't submit your evidence when you complete your extenuating circumstances appeal form, then you must e-mail your evidence
parentpromise@dcccd.edu.
- If you submit no supporting evidence, your claim will be rejected.
- If you submit some but not all of your evidence within the required timeframe, then your claim will be considered on the evidence provided.
- The Parent Promise Committee cannot obtain evidence on your behalf.