Dropping a Student from a Class

The procedure for dropping a student from your class depends on whether the drop is initiated before or after the Smart Start and census dates. Here is the current information from the Alamo Colleges Director of Curriculum Coordination & Transfer Articulation.

How to Withdraw (Drop) a Student in ACES

Faculty Role in Student Success

MyMAP (My Monitoring Academic Progress) is a personalized tool to help students and faculty/staff monitor students’ progress towards a certificate or a degree. Your role is to provide timely feedback so students can take responsibility for their own success.

Required faculty actions to drop or add students
What	Who	When	How	Why
Smart Start drops (drop for first DAY non-attendance )	All students	By 11:59pm Weds of the second week of class	ACES – Faculty - Web Services - Faculty and Advisors - Student Course Withdrawal - detailed instructions are available here Faculty emails student prior to drop (see suggested verbiage below) Students also receive a generic email from the system when they are dropped. Questions? Contact dst-academicsuccess@alamo.edu	Student Success policy – students are expected to attend the first DAY of class. Online students must complete the initial attendance activity within the first three days.
Census roster Verification	All students	Census date	ACES – Summary Class List link Drop students in ACES using Smart Start link, if appropriate FYI, FTICs are now indicated on Summary Class List	Need accurate rosters for state funding, financial aid, 6-drop, and 3-peat
Early Alert progress reports in Grades First	All students, all parts of term (excludes dual credit parts of term)	3-weeks and midterm, or equivalent for short parts of term For specific dates, refer to the current Important Semester Information email you received from dst-academicsuccess@alamo.edu	Instructor receives an email with a link to fill out progress report. 3 items: is student at-risk of not passing; Alert Reason (from list), and comments (optional). At-Risk email from faculty will automatically be sent to student.	Student Success policy – Faculty will provide feedback on progress Advising sessions for targeted students at-risk in multiple classes
Midterm Grades in ACES	All students	Midterm grading turns off at 11:59pm on the Monday following the middle of the part of term For specific dates, refer to the current Important Semester Information email you received from dst-academicsuccess@alamo.edu	ACES – Midterm Grades link Refer to the current Important Semester Information email you received from dst-academicsuccess@alamo.edu W is not an option for midterm grades	Communicates progress to students; advisors/counselors can see info in ACES
Last Date to Drop/Withdraw	All students	~ 75% of the part of term For specific dates, refer to the current Important Semester Information email you received from dst-academicsuccess@alamo.edu (see note about 6-drop below)	ACES – Student Course Withdrawal link Drop counter is displayed W is not an option after the last date to drop	Existing practice
Final Grades	All students	11:59pm on the Monday following the end of the part of term For specific dates, refer to the current Important Semester Information email you received from dst-academicsuccess@alamo.edu	ACES – Final Grades link Refer to the current Important Semester Information email you received from dst-academicsuccess@alamo.edu Last Date of Attendance is required when you enter W or F	Affects students – inaccurate records (missing grades) can negatively impact students’ ability to transfer and Financial Aid. Need to identify students who earn an F because they stopped coming to class (for Federal reporting).

Note – “When” is based on 16-week courses. Specific deadlines for shorter parts of term and open learning classes will be established and communicated to the appropriate faculty. Refer to the email you received from dst-academicsuccess@alamo.edu titled Important Semester Info.

Reporting is available to chairs on number of Smart Start drops, Early Alert requested and completed, and midterm grades submitted, by individual faculty.

Additional Resources in ACES, Faculty Tab, Faculty Resources box:

Important Semester Info (includes Semester Dates), FAQs for Smart Start, After Census Drops, Midterm Grades and Early Alert Progress Reports, Editing Progress Reports, Dropping Students, Posting Final Grades, and Assigning Incompletes.

Summary Info from DST-AcademicSuccess

Automated Withdrawal Process

Need guidance with the Automated Course Withdrawal process? Please refer to your Chair or the Faculty Resources box in ACES – Faculty tab, How to Drop/Withdraw Students guide.
The last class or only class on a student’s record can only be processed by the student’s assigned Advisor

The Smart Start Drop – NEVER Attended and Withdraw No Grade buttons are both available at the beginning of each part of term and both options will not affect the student’s transcript. However, the Smart Start Drop – NEVER Attended button is only available for a few days and then drops off only leaving the Withdraw No Grade button option.

The Smart Start Drop – NEVER Attended button is intended for students who do not attend the first day of class and did not contact you to inform you of their absence. For Online students, they are expected to complete an attendance verification activity by Day 3. You define what that activity is.
The Withdraw No Grade button is intended for students who do attend the first day/week of class but then stop attending on a regular basis without communication with you prior to census and/or those students who need to drop prior to census for other reasons.

The Withdraw Grade = W button appears the day after census and remain available until the Last Day to Withdraw date for the section. This option will affect the student’s transcript with a grade of “W” (Withdrawal), and count towards 6-drop, 3-peat, and undergraduate credit hour limitation.

Smart Start Drop – “The First DAY Counts”

Students who do not attend the first day of class will be dropped by their instructor. For fully online courses, students are expected to complete an attendance verification activity by noon of the 3^rd class day. The graded assignment can take the form of a discussion post or a short quiz asking the student to acknowledge important information required for the course.

Please contact students you plan to drop using the Canvas inbox, Alamo email, or both. Suggested verbiage for emailing students before initiating a drop:

Dear [Student]

The Alamo Colleges have a Student Success policy with an emphasis on a good start to the semester. Students are expected to attend class on the first day and throughout the semester. Students who do not attend the first day class and who do not contact their instructor will be dropped.

Because you have not attended this class and you have not contacted me, I am dropping you from this class. Note that this drop could impact your financial aid award and the amount you owe. I encourage you to enroll in an additional class in another part of term.

If you feel this is an error, please contact me immediately.

Sincerely,

[Instructor]

Smart Start Withdrawal Process.docx

Dropping Students after Census in ACES

Effective Fall 2017, there is a new process for withdrawing students, both from a class and the institution. Requests can be initiated by students, faculty, and advisors. The old process required manual completion of the drop by the Center for Student Information (they processed approx. 30,000 drops per semester). If a student dropped via Admissions and Records, there was not any communication to faculty. If the student was in an online class, they would disappear from Canvas, and the faculty member had no information about their last date to drop.

The new process includes opportunities for drop‐counseling, ensures regulatory information is collected, and results in automated communications to all involved parties.

Please see your chair, Alamo Talent, or the Automated Withdrawal Process link in ACES ‐> Faculty tab ‐> Faculty Resources box for more information about this process.

If the 6‐drop count is blank, please email the CRN, Subject, Student’s Name and Banner ID to dst-academicsuccess@alamo.edu.

For specific census/withdrawal dates and more details: Academic Calendar