High school students have a few more days to change last year’s grades to pass or no pass

High school students who were still unaware of the option will now have until Oct. 1 to change the grades of courses they took in 2020-21 to “pass” or “no pass” on their transcripts. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation last week extending the deadline of a bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzales, D-San Diego, that the Legislature passed in June.

Assembly Bill 104 acknowledges that distance learnng adversely impacted many students’ achievement. Enabling students who struggled to switch to pass or no pass prevents their grade point average from being negatively affected so that they aren’t at a disadvantage for college admissions while retaining eligibility for financial aid, Gonzales said in a statement.

“Given how many students could really benefit from this, we worked quickly to extend the deadline to ensure parents and high school students have more time to make use of the ‘pass/no pass’ option and update their transcripts,” she said.

Districts can also allow students to submit grade change requests beyond the new Oct 1 deadline. Districts must update a student’s transcript and notify the family of the change within 15 days.

California State University and University of California campuses will accept transcripts with pass/no pass grades to determine admission for any students enrolled in high school during the 2020-2021 school year. A list of private universities that have agreed to accept transcripts with pass/no pass grades for admissions is also available on the California Department of Education’s website.