Northshore Christian Academy is a Washington State approved private school and abides by the Washington State Board of Education (SBE) regulations for instructional days/hours for all K-12 schools in our state, both public and private. Every year, schools must report to the SBE their compliance with the number of days or hours of instruction for the school year.
Schools have the choice of whether to count instructional days or hours. Public schools typically count instructional school days. If they have a late start, they do not lose a day towards their compliance. If they have a “no school” day, it impacts their number of mandated days, which is why they have added days on at the end of the school year.
At NCA, we choose to count instructional hours. To be in compliance, grades K-8 must have a minimum of 1000 hours of instruction in a school year. NCA exceeds these requirements by more than 44 instructional hours.
Therefore, if school starts late or is canceled, extra time is built-in so it will not impact our compliance – or more importantly, the educational success of our students. The NCA academic calendar also has options for making up hours within the current school year if we experience an excess of “no school” days.
We also recognize our parent's work in spite of the snowy weather. Missing days of school is not our goal, however, it is important to maintain campus safety as well as making sure the quality of the student’s education is not impacted, and NCA teachers adjust and prioritize their instruction accordingly.
