High School FAQ

• Summer at Saint Francis is open to all, thus, there are no academic requirements that you need to fulfill in order to be admitted to one of our High School classes. When registering online, all that you need to provide is information about your family and your student, such as your contact information, the name of your student’s school, his/her rising grade (school grade in the upcoming fall), etc.

Each high school has its own policies for advancement and remediation.  You should talk to a representative of your high school in order to determine if they will accept credit earned through Summer at Saint Francis.

When you register, you will have the option of having a transcript sent to your school.  If you would like them to incorporate the credit into your child's transcript, you should have one sent to them.

• Any high school student (including a rising 9th grader) can earn credit in almost all circumstances. This is because all of our summer high school courses are UC(a-g) / CSU and NCAA approved. Therefore, they are accepted by the vast majority of High Schools. Each semester course taken in one Term is worth 5 credits. In order to receive credit, students must do two primary things:

  • Complete and indicate the course is FOR CREDIT at the time of registration. Transcripts will be mailed to your home, your child's school or an alternative address based on the information you provided during registration.*

  • The student may be absent no more than 1 day per Term / Semester class, and must pass the final exam. (For more details, see our attendance policy below.)

•  We offer a great many of the standard core courses of a high school in the subjects of math & science. Please review our full course list.

•  Although homework can vary from course to course and day to day, survey results indicate that most of our students find homework takes around 1-3 hours per day (see the graph below).

• Because of the short time span of 2.5 weeks into which an entire semester of content is compressed, attendance is critical. Therefore, in order to receive credit for a semester course, a student may be absent (not showing or missing more than 30 minutes of class) no more than 1 day of class. Furthermore, a student may be tardy (late by 30 minutes or less) no more than 3 times, as 3 tardies constitutes an absence. Thus, if a student is late on 4 or more days, or absent for 1 day then absent or late on an additional day, the student cannot receive credit for the course.

• If you are unable to attend the full course, we offer the online  equivalent of a course where there is a planned absence, or unexpected circumstances, that preclude a student from attending as many class days as necessary.If you choose to take an online course, both semesters need to be taken online. We do not support one semester online and the other in person. For Saint Francis students seeking to advance in Geometry an in-person alternative is required.  Summer at Saint Francis offers online classes for all the classes that we offer in-person and more! See these program descriptions on our website for more information.

• Unfortunately, an individual student’s final exam cannot be rescheduled, even in instances of a planned absence for any reason. In order to maintain the integrity of the final exams, all students must take them at the same time. Furthermore, teachers grade the final exams and post scores on the same day. Therefore, a student cannot take a final exam earlier or later than the scheduled day, which is the last day of any Term.

• Summer high school courses are offered in the same format as they are during the regular school year: as 2 Semesters, where Semester 1 is the Fall curriculum, and Semester 2 is the Spring curriculum. Thus, when taking a class for credit to “jump” a grade level, both Semesters must be taken, as 2 Semesters is 1 full year of curriculum.  Please note that Saint Francis students may not take courses for advancement with the exception of Geometry and Trigonometry with approval from the math department.

• High School classes may not be taken to advance to the next level, except by special permission for Geometry and Trigonometry, or to reduce course load during the school year. All other classes can only be taken for Enrichment or Remediation.  While we encourage Saint Francis students to take our courses for enrichment, credit will not be granted except for approved Trigonometry and Geometry courses and courses taken for remediation or credit recovery.

A. Depending on a student’s needs, he/she can take as many as 2 semester classes per Summer because of our schedule. With approval of the Summer at Saint Francis High School Principal, students may take an online course in addition to an in person course. We recomment students remediating semester courses only take 2 max semester courses for credit recovery online.

• Absolutely, and you are not alone. Approximately 30% of our students take one semester without taking the complement semester, such as to preview the Fall semester of an upcoming course, or to remediate one semester of a previous class. We do not recommend taking Semester 2 only if you are taking a course for credit. Note:  if you plan to enroll in Semester 2 of a course without taking Semester 1, please be certain that you have mastered the Semester 1 material. Be advised that the second semester of these courses begins without review.

• Each year, our summer high school hosts almost 550 students in 17 course subjects. Despite the popularity of our high school classes, all classes are limited to 28 students. That being said, the average class has only 12 students, maximizing the personal attention that students receive. This is an important aspect of our program, as approx. 75% of students that attend Summer at Saint Francis take classes for credit.

• While Saint Francis students make up the largest number of students from any one school, non-Saint Francis students make up the majority of our summer high school students. Indeed, students from over 40 local high schools take classes yearly on our campus, including, Monta Vista, Los Altos, Homestead, Mountain View, Lynbrook, Leland, Palo Alto, Saratoga, Cupertino, Gunn, and many, many more!

• Yes, after the first week, we will send an email to the email address used during registration with instructions for logging in to the teacher’s online gradebook. Grades are updated in real time, so as a teacher enters them in his/her online gradebook, you can actively monitor your student’s progress.

• We use the same grading scale as Saint Francis High School does during the regular school year:

100-93-A 82-80-B- 69-67-D+

92-90-A- 79-77-C+ 66-63-D

89-87-B+ 76-73-C 62-60-D-

86-83-B 72-70-C- 59-00-F

• Yes, breakfast, lunch, and snacks are available for cash purchase in the Quad. (See our campus map published closer to the start of Summer School.)

• Typical classroom materials are recommended, including notebook / 3-ring binder with loose leaves, pens, pencils, and calculator (for math & science). Textbooks and other literature will be provided free of charge. (If you would like to know what texts are used, such as if you are interested in purchasing a copy in advance, please refer to our detailed https://www.sfhs.com/summer/programs/high-school).

• The majority of our high school teachers hold secondary / single subject teaching credentials. Additionally, some of our teachers have completed masters degrees. It’s also important to note that our teachers are not solely from Saint Francis, but are employed at schools around the Bay Area, including Los Altos HS, Mountain View HS, Willow Glen HS, Lynbrook HS, Mills HS, The King's Academy, and others.

•  Because Summer at Saint Francis is not a fully staffed school during the school year, many resources are unavailable to students as compared to the regular school year, such as special education teachers and a school psychologist. Therefore, we are unable to fulfill all accommodations called for by IEPs. That having been said, our teachers are professional educators with experience making reasonable accommodations, such as extended time assessments and preferential seating in the classroom.  Additionally, an important consideration is that, although students with accommodations are welcome to attend summer high school courses, students with accommodations have reported greater difficulty adequately performing in the fast-paced environment of our summer classes as compared to the regular school year. If the content of the summer course will be new to your student, please carefully consider whether the course in this format would pose a detrimental burden to him/her.  It is important to note that we do not grant modifications such as extended time to complete homework, test retakes, use of notes during tests etc.

• We are sorry to see you go! You may submit a cancellation request online by visiting SFHS.com/Cancellation. (Note: The last day to withdraw from all programs is June 1. After this date, refunds will not be provided. A 20% fee will be deducted if a refund is requested more than 24 hours after purchase.) After the withdrawal/refund is processed, one of two things will occur. If the refund is requested within approximately a month after purchase, a refund will be issued to the credit card or bank account used when paying online. Thank you for your patience.