A relative recently asked me my thoughts on their situation that left me stumped on offering advice. Their twins it appears took extensive high school courses while in middle school for credit at a public school. From what I can gather, they took many, many high school honors courses at their former school district. These were recorded on their former high school’s transcript when they started 9th grade. They essentially completed a significant portion of high school requirements in middle school and are very bright 
This led them to take more advanced courses in high school which I believe included mostly AP’s. They recently moved to another state as juniors and their new district will only honor the math courses taken before 9th. This means that they will have to retake a significant number of core courses. Does anyone have experience with such a situation? From what I can also gather, their senior year will be filled with repeats of introductory core graduation requirements. Not sure how to guide the mother. My thoughts were that colleges will wonder why they are retaking courses already on their transcript? Anyone experienced in this type of situation?
Let me throw something radical to you:
If they’re that bright, tell them about the real viable pathway to eschew that school district’s diploma altogether. Most colleges don’t require a HS diploma. Take only the top level courses that will help them, say “no thank you” to the stupid repeat courses and formally drop out (with college acceptances in hand) when they’re through.
Basically your friend’s family can look at the requirements for home-school diploma, take the remaining needed classes at the public school and then say sayanora to the rigid district requirements. The fact that they will be leaving 1.5 years early might not sit well with the administrators who want their allotted school dollars per student. This is GREAT leverage for your friends and it might change the administrators’ tune.
look at Simons Rock edu. Fantastic alternatives exist for early achievers.
Alternatively, have the parent go to a parochial school and see what options exist. Again, this can be used as leverage against the public HS.
How is their social maturity? Have they taken any ACT or SAT?
This seems ridiculous. Is the new school proposing to put such advanced juniors into classes filled with 9th graders? That is clearly inappropriate. Who is denying them credit they earned in another school system? This should be taken up the chain of administration. What reason is being given for denying the credit? Is there any documentation about how transfer credits are handled which they can refer to?
Ive worked with students who took HS language in MS, but on their transcript it was listed as a 9th grade class. Check the transcript and see how it is listed.
My son is in 7th grade now and will have 7 high school credits, possibly 9-10, by the time he finishes 8th grade. Thanks for posting, I will look into this further as we have considered moving school districts but plan on staying in the same state.
Hello, Sorry took a moment as I wanted to give her a call before I followed up. They will take the PSAT in a few weeks.The parents received a job transfer to another state (small town with closest cc a far drive). This is sadly the only school in their area. Apparently the policy for the district is only hs math taken in middle school receives credit. The state and school district they moved from had three tracts. The high tract, which many like them used in middle school, allowed the children to complete four subjects in 7th and four subjects in 8th for hs credit. Apparently they will only honor 2 of the eight credits from middle school at the new school. Yes they are bright but were apart of a group of bright kids at their last middle and high school. The alternative the new school offered was to take the subjects online or during summer school. To me that sounds ridiculous. At this point they will be taking 5 soft electives and 2 new AP courses as a senior. My suggestion was one of them may need to quit their job and move back to the old district. The school district is denying them the credit on their high school transcript 
There is a written policy that they will only take math.
There is a difference between getting credit for the work vs. having to retake the courses. Some HS’s, as an example, will not give credit for science courses taken in MS, but do not require the student to retake the courses. Instead, if the HS graduation requirement is, as an example, 2 courses, and the student took bio in MS, the student may be required to take chem and AP Bio (or chem and physics) in HS, but would not be required to retake intro bio.
If it’s truly a case where the school is requiring the student to retake material already learned, as other posters have said, the relative should go up the chain of command.
Thank you skieurope. I think you hit it on the head from what I understand. They are not getting credit for the work and the course offerings happen to be the same course or possibly others similar? It appears by not getting credit for six of the courses, they will have to randomly pick courses that are not in “their tract”! I think pottery is one in question. I know they took a high school fine arts in middle school. So instead of taking say AP Calc BC, they will have to take a drama course to fit their schedule.
How should they explain to colleges why they are taking five, “light electives” on their senior transcript. There is only one AP/Honors substitute for the courses.
Can they afford a boarding school, and would the kids be ready to live at a boarding school?
Would it be possible for the parents to find other jobs where they can live near the old school?
I would homeschool (though the ease of this is very state-specific) and look at reputable online dual enrollment options. University of Florida has started a dual enrollment program online - my son is in one of their classes.
There are also accredited online high school programs. A friend of ours has a performing arts child who travels all over the country and this kid does an accredited program (and left one of the most exclusive high schools in Florida).
They should explain nothing. The Secondary School Report is generally accompanied by a school profile, which will list graduation requirements, academic policies, honors/AP courses offered, etc. If the situation needs to be further explained, the GC should do it.
I will assume that this is just a hypothetical example, but let’s be real: having to take an arts class is not the end of the world. The student is not disadvantaged if everyone has to take an arts class. Colleges do not expect, and in many cases do not want, students to be specialists in HS.
Thank you again and will pass the information on.
I second the online high school option. Our district has started offering one and it attracts students from throughout the state. Not sure if it has enrollees from other states. It is meant for very self disciplined kids you cannot attend a traditional school. They still take AP level classes. Maybe they can find one of these that will honor the credits? If not, I would look at the homeschool route with online CC classes.
I agree with the new high school’s policy of only giving credit for high school level courses taken in high school. There is a reason why the school requires an ‘arts’ course, and I don’t think a 7th or 8th grader puts the same level of understanding into a course as a sophomore or senior. First grade art isn’t the same as 5th grade art, and 7th grade art isn’t the same as 11th grade art (or art history, or high school drama). It’s a requirement to get the diploma from this school/state, so they have to complete the requirements.
If they can take some of these required classes online or in the summer, they should do that. My kids went to 3 different high schools, and had to make adjustments to their course choices, one had to take a language online to complete it, also took the required gym/health class online.
@backinus2012, What state are they in? As juniors, they may be past the age of compulsory education. If they were in NYS, I’d suggest homeschooling. They could take courses at the local cc and they’d still be considered high school students so they could apply to colleges as freshmen, not transfers. State homeschool laws differ, so it’s important to know the regulations.
I’m gotta say, I’ve never heard of getting high school credit for an art class taken before high school. And having more than one arts class certainly does not require explanation.
Around here it’s pretty common for math, science, and foreign language to be taken for HS credit in middle school. And with all of those, I would hope that even if credit didn’t carry over, the student could be placed in a higher level and not be made to retake a class they already took.
I’m not someone who would really consider homeschooling but it might be something to consider here.
Your post is a bit confusing. You say they need to repeat core classes they’ve already taken, but then you say they need to take a lot of electives?
Regarding electives, I expect they took some in grades 9 and 10, and would continue to take some in grades 11 and 12 anyhow. That’s not enough? It should be as much as anyone else has.
As far as the core classes go, math is covered, and there are lots of science and history APs. Can’t they just keep taking more of those to fill requirements? Must they really go back and take 9th grade history/bio/earth science instead of, say, AP Euro/APUSH/AP world/AP human geo, or AP Bio/APchem/APphysics1,2,C/APEnviro? For these core classes, they may not need to get credit. They just need to get placement. Substituting one course for another might be something they can petition for, especially considering the circumstances, and is probably easier than getting credit that is specifically prohibited. And if they finished one foreign language sequence already, can they pick up another one? There are also 2 English APs available–did they really already take these and what were they planning to do afterwards?
Our high school requirements aren’t always that specific about particular courses, more about years of study of each subject.
If they had taken 8 high school classes middle school, did they intend to graduate high school a year early? If so, they can still apply to colleges after their jr year without a high school diploma.
I understand that there is a fine arts requirement that they will need to take, but that is one course. I’m missing why senior yr would have to be 5 soft courses. Is it just that this school does not have further AP classes. or classes at a higher level? Most states requirements are for 4 years of English, Math, Social Studies without specifying specific courses. If they have already taken the two years of AP English and now need to take 2 more years of english classes, what were they going to be taking at their other high school?
They can look at taking online courses for their jr/sr year. SInce the school has said they would accept summer/nline courses that sounds like it could be a good option.
Go see a lawyer. Have him take the issue to a court of equity. Hopefully you will win. There is no need arguing with these jackasses.