Academic honesty is essential to excellence in education and is directly related to the Board's educational objectives for students to promote integrity and self-discipline in students.  As all schoolwork is a measure of student performance, academic honesty facilitates an accurate measurement of student learning.

Each student, parent, family and staff member has a responsibility to promote a culture that respects and fosters integrity and honesty.  Academic integrity and honesty requires that all stakeholders share responsibility in the fulfillment of this policy.

In fulfilling these responsibilities:

• students will collaborate with their peers to foster a culture of academic integrity; refrain from participating, either directly or indirectly, in any form of cheating or plagiarism; and adhere to the honor code;
• parents and family will actively support the honor code by encouraging their child(ren) to foster and uphold a culture of academic integrity;
• staff will establish and annually teach expectations regarding academic integrity and honesty; and promote the honor code.

A. Prohibited Behavior

1. Cheating: Cheating is an academic deception where a student intends in some way to receive or attempt to receive credit for work not originated by the student, to give or receive unauthorized assistance, or to give or receive an unfair advantage on any form of academic work. 

Cheating includes, but is not limited to:

• copying from another student’s examination, assignment, or other coursework with or without permission;
• allowing another student to copy work without authorization from a teacher or administrator;
• taking an examination, writing a paper, or completing any other assigned academic task on another student’s behalf;
• using notes or resources in any form, including written or online, without authorization;
• sharing or accepting from another, without authorization, any examination content, questions, answers, or tips on an assessment or assignment through the use of notes, scratch paper, social media, or any type of written, oral, or electronic communication.

2. Plagiarism: Plagiarism is using passages, materials, words, ideas, and/or thoughts of someone or something else and representing them as one's own original work without properly crediting the source.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

• copying text, images, charts, or other materials from digital or print sources without proper citation;
• intentional misrepresentation of work as your own by paraphrasing of items from digital or print sources without proper citation;
• using translation tools or resources to translate sentences or passages without permission;
• using a thesis, hypothesis, or idea obtained from another source without proper citation.

3. Falsification or Deceit: Intentional acts of falsification or serious deceitful misconduct that threaten the health, safety, or welfare of others, or that cause a substantial detrimental impact on school operations or other individuals are prohibited. 

Falsification or deceit includes, but is not limited to:

• falsifying another person’s name on a school-related document such as a test or report;
• buying or selling test questions or answers;
• copying secure test materials and providing the materials to others;
• paying for or receiving anything of value to complete a school assignment.

B. Violations

1) Staff will intervene and reeducate students to promote positive change in student behavior. 

2) A student’s grade may or may not be impacted by a violation.  If the violation impacts a student’s grade, the school may impose academic consequences according to the following criteria:  (a) when reasonably possible, the student will be expected to complete the assignment or an alternative assignment as determined by the professional learning team (PLT) guidelines and will do so in an honest manner consistent with the honor code, and (b) the student may receive full, partial, or no grading credit for the assignment as determined by PLT guidelines approved by the principal.  Guidelines will consider the age of the student, the student’s performance on a repeated or alternative assignment, the student’s number of violations of the Honor Code during the school year, and the gravity or level of the violation. 

3) A violation of the Honor Code may or may not result in a disciplinary consequence.  Staff will address violations of this policy under Board Policy 4309, Student Behavior – Code of Conduct, Levels I-11 (Honor Code) and Level II-1 (Falsification or Deceit) as applicable. 

Level I-11 (Honor Code) states: “All students are expected to adhere to the academic Honor Code. Disciplinary consequences for violations of this policy will typically be consistent with Level I violations.” 

Level II-1 states that, “Intentional acts of falsification or serious deceitful misconduct that threatens the health, safety, or welfare of others, or that cause a substantial detrimental impact on school operations or other individuals, are prohibited.”  A further description of Falsification or Deceit is set forth above in this policy. 

4) Violations of the Honor Code may impact eligibility for school privileges including but not limited to athletic participation, honors, or awards.  Further, this policy does not prevent consequences from being imposed by other organizations or regulations.

Adopted: June 18, 2019