Students who do not meet administrative requirements or expectations to remain enrolled at Relay or are unable to submit a formal leave of absence application can be administratively withdrawn by the institution. Students can be administratively withdrawn for the following reasons:
- Failure to pay tuition;
- Failure to meet employment requirements;
- Failure to meet matriculation requirements;
- Failure to meet immunization requirements (where appropriate);
- Failure to meet certification requirements (where appropriate);
- Failure to submit withdrawal paperwork after initiating a withdrawal;
- Failure to meet attendance requirements and/or persistent absence;
- Other substantive violations of Relay’s policies, procedures, or safety rules, including but not limited to violations of the academic honesty, code of conduct, or gender-based misconduct policies; and/or
- At the request of their campus Dean’s Office.
If students are in danger of administrative withdrawal, Relay may contact their school and/or sponsoring organizations and/or teacher-preparation program membership to notify them and enlist their help in supporting students.
In the event of an administrative withdrawal, the Registrar’s Office will notify students via email. SFS will follow up with students about how to pay any outstanding Relay tuition and fees. If administratively withdrawn, students have the right to appeal the decision by contacting the campus Dean’s Office. Depending on the type of administrative withdrawal, appeals will be reviewed by the campus Dean Office, SFS, the Registrar’s Office, and/or the Office of Student Affairs. If the appeal is unsuccessful, administrative withdrawal procedures will continue, and the student will be administratively withdrawn.
If students are administratively withdrawn, it is their responsibility to notify their schools (and if applicable, their teacher-preparation program membership, such as Teach For America or New York City Teaching Fellows) of their departure from Relay.
Relay understands that there may be certain medical circumstances where a student is unable to submit an official leave of absence application due to unexpected life changes. In these cases, at the campus Dean’s Office request, Relay will administratively withdraw the student from the institution and accept an official leave of absence application with medical documentation at a later date. If an official leave of absence application is received from the student, the medical documentation must match the date of the administrative withdrawal date. Relay will reverse the administrative withdrawal to the medical leave of absence in its systems.
Persistent Absence
The Registrar’s Office and the campus Dean’s Office conduct a regular review of in-person and online attendance in order to identify and support enrolled students who have not actively withdrawn or taken a leave of absence but demonstrate persistent absence. Relay defines persistent absence as having failed to (a) attend in-person class sessions for 30 consecutive days, (b) log in to Canvas, and (c) submit any course assignments within that time period[1]. Once students who demonstrate persistent absence are identified, the Registrar’s Office or campus Dean’s Office will contact these students to determine their intention to remain enrolled and provide the necessary support. Students who continue to demonstrate persistent absence after they have been contacted may be administratively withdrawn from Relay. When persistently absent students do not formally inform Relay of their intention to withdraw or take a leave of absence, Relay will use the last day of in-class attendance, or the last date of sign-in to Canvas as the effective date of withdrawal.
[1] Relay Newark Attendance Policy: If a graduate student is absent for four or more in-person sessions throughout the term, s/he will receive a warning letter and may be at risk for dismissal. Please note that Saturday class sessions amount to two in-person class sessions since they are twice as long. As such, a graduate student missing more than one Saturday class day, without an appropriate excuse for their absence, will quickly accrue four absences. Teachers with at least four absences will receive a warning letter, and if the problem continues, they may face dismissal from the program.