Academic Integrity Policy

VirtualSC (VSC) takes academic integrity very seriously and expects a full commitment to it from each VSC student. To this end, all VSC teachers manually review all student submissions,  and they also utilize a variety of technologies to check student work for authenticity.  All suspected infractions, whether detected by technology or identified through individual academic assessment by the teacher, will undergo careful review to determine whether or not the infractions are intentional. Students are encouraged to use course materials to support their learning and complete assignments, but all work  must be their own. Assignments submitted by students are reviewed by plagiarism review software. Submissions that are flagged by the plagiarism review software at 35% plagiarized, or higher, are subject to an Academic Integrity Review by the teacher.

Academic integrity means:

  • Students will not submit work completed by or copied (in full or in part) from another person or software that mimics human intelligence.  This includes, but is not limited to, classmates, friends, parents/guardians, siblings, AI technology, etc.
  • Students will not submit work copied (in full or in part) and pasted from the Internet. This includes exact sentences, paragraphs, videos, logos, images, templates, etc.  
  • Students will not resubmit work (in whole or part) they have previously submitted.
  • Students will not submit work that reflects the ideas of another person, regardless of whether or not students use the other person’s exact words. Citation must be used if referencing specific content, quotes or ideas belonging to another person or body of work.
  • Students will work independently on all assignments unless they receive permission from their VirtualSC teacher to work with another student.
  • Students will not distribute copies of their own work to others and will not allow others to copy their work.
  • Students will not misuse content from the Internet.
  • Students will not use any external materials, resources or testing aids on final exams, unless required by a student's accommodations documentation, or otherwise noted on the front page of the exam.
  • Students will properly punctuate and cite all ideas from others they wish to use to support their own ideas.
  • Students will contact their VirtualSC instructors for help in avoiding plagiarism.  

Consequences for Cheating

First Offense - Official Warning & Remediation

  • Upon identification of the first infraction, the teacher will pause grading and will contact the student, parent and counselor via email. The message will include the notification of the violation, next steps and a description of the potential future consequences if the policy is violated again.
  • The student will have the opportunity to acknowledge their violation of the Academic Integrity Policy and resubmit the assignment for full credit within three (3) business days of the teacher’s emailed notification. A student-parent-teacher conference held in the first two (2) business days after the teacher's emailed notification is encouraged, but not required, before resubmitting the assignment.
  • The assignment resubmission deadline is 11:59 PM on the third business day after the teacher’s emailed warning notification. Failure to resubmit the assignment by the deadline will result in a grade of zero on the assignment in question.
  • The infraction will be documented in the student’s permanent VirtualSC file.

Second Offense - Formal Violation 1

  • Upon identification of a second infraction, the teacher will pause grading and will report the Formal Violation to the student, parent and counselor via email. The message will include the notification of the violation, next steps and description of the potential future consequences if the policy is violated again.
  • The student will have the opportunity to acknowledge their violation of the Academic Integrity Policy and resubmit the assignment for a maximum grade of 60 within three (3) business days of the teacher's emailed notification. A student-parent-teacher conference held in the first two (2) business days of the teacher's emailed notification is encouraged, but not required, before resubmitting the assignment.
  • The assignment resubmission deadline is 11:59 PM on the third business day after the teacher’s emailed warning notification. Failure to resubmit the assignment by the deadline will result in a grade of zero on the assignment in question.
  • The infraction will be documented in the student’s permanent VirtualSC file.

Third Offense - Formal Violation 2

  • Upon identification of a third infraction, the teacher will pause grading and will report the Second Formal Violation to student, parent, counselor and VirtualSC administration. The message will include the notification of the violation and the resulting final consequence.
  • The student will be administratively removed from the course and assigned a “Dropped” status, which will appear on the student’s transcript as a WF.
  • The infraction will be documented in the student’s permanent VirtualSC file.

NOTE: A student in violation of the VSC Academic Integrity Policy is also subject to discipline by his/her home district/school per the district/school’s discipline policy.