From the school policy:
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To remain eligible for clubs and organizations students must pass 5 full credit subjects in the previous semester and maintain passing grades in the current semester determined by nine weeks grades. Semester grades will take precedence at the end of the semester. Audits do not count as subjects. First semester freshmen are exempt from this rule. In order to participate in any club or organization, the student must sign up for the school’s DAT (random drug testing) Program.
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From our team handbook:
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Team members are expected to maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 prior to build season and have no failing grades. Grades are scrutinized weekly by the coaches during Build Season. Any student with a GPA lower than 2.0 will be on Academic Probation and will be barred from participation in build activities Monday-Thursday during build season so they can focus on their school work. Any student with a failing grade will not be permitted to work on the robot or other team activities until the grade is improved. Exceptions may be made for grades due to illness. Every effort will be made to offer tutoring during robotics meetings. Doing homework alone or in groups is encouraged during any robotics team activity.
Any student with an F in the 3rd Nine Weeks will be barred from travel to all events.
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For clarification, we meet 7 days a week during build season, so students on academic probation are able to meet F-Sun
With a large team, you start having to enforce this. It's not unheard of us having to bar a student from travel because of failing grades. Several years ago, we had students blaming their poor performance in the classroom on build season, which of course endeared us to the teaching staff... It's one of the reasons we are so attentive to grades now.
We check grades regularly and have meetings with every one of our students to talk about grades, whether they're straight A's or have D's and F's.
We used to have a higher GPA requirement of 2.5 and had a big debate when we lowered it to 2.0. I actually had parents advocate for leaving it at 2.5, because the higher requirement (compared to sports teams) motivated their kids to do their school work and bring up grades.