Washington state juniors and seniors could get an extra year of high school

Students are trying to figure out what's next after a year of disruption to schooling, sports, and all the things that usually go along with high school.

Now, they could get a do-over.

The Washington State Senate has passed a bill that would offer students in the graduating classes of 2021 and 2022 an opportunity to defer their graduation and stay in school for a bridge year.

Former schoolteacher and Democratic state Senator Sam Hunt of Olympia is the bill sponsor. He told KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about the problem this bill is trying to solve.

Sam Hunt: It's trying to create a more normal high school experience for juniors and seniors. A lot of the sports have been canceled. A lot of activities have been canceled. I think a lot of the students are not taking a full class load this year. The real goal is to give them a more meaningful and realistic senior experience.

What I really hear is you can learn via computer, you can learn online, but the social interaction, the activities, actually seeing your friends, being with your friends and teachers, is something that's missing. What we're trying to do is give them an opportunity to recreate some of that as the pandemic lessens.

We've been hearing about scenarios where kids are having a hard time adjusting to remote online learning, and their grades slip. What would this bill do for them?

That student would have the option to retake one or more of the classes, and if he or she gets a better grade, to replace that bad grade with the better grade. The big difference in that is, currently on your school transcripts if you fail a class or you take a D and you retake the course, the bad grade still shows up. This would remove that grade.

I have a friend who has a son who is in AP History and just isn't getting along in the class and is probably going to get a D or an F because he just sort of folded up. Now he can come back and take that class next year and get a better grade. And he's a good student. So that would help his admission and other goals.

If I'm a high school athlete and my season was canceled last year, what would this bill mean for my playing eligibility, and how college recruiters and scouts might see me?

You look at high school football this year. I think the high schools in the Olympia area are playing four games or trying to. It’s really an incomplete season. We don't know if they're going to get in basketball or spring sports. So, give them a chance to have a full season next year. On the other hand, if a student is a good student and a good athlete and gets recruited, he or she can go on to college if they've got the diploma.

On the other end of it, the NCAA has given all athletes an extra year of eligibility. It's sort of like we're doing it at the college level. You get two senior years, in essence.

Would the high school seniors just stay at their home schools then and just do another year?

That's one option. Another option is College in the High School, which a lot of students are doing. Even if they're enrolled in College in the High School now, they could come back next year and finish that up as well.

A lot of it depends upon local school districts. We have 295 school districts run by locally elected school board members who make the policies for those districts, so I expect it to vary from district to district. In general, it's to try to give the students a chance to get the grades that they can earn, and to give them the experience in activities and athletics.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.