Academic Programs

Academic Support Services are coordinated through the Director of Learning Support Services and the school Counselor. 

In general, it is Regis policy to provide accommodations or adjustments for a student’s minor needs in circumstances in which the administration determines, in its sole discretion, that doing so is within the reasonable ability of Regis and/or its staff and will not result in a significant disruption to the teacher’s ability to instruct other students, to classroom or school order and discipline, will not pose a threat of harm to the safety of other students or employees, will not require a fundamental change to our educational environment or mission, and will not impose responsibilities on Regis employees for which they are not trained.  

These services are provided to those students who have testing documentation on file. This documentation, which is kept private and confidential, includes information from a medical doctor or psychologist that confirms a particular challenge or obstacle to a student’s learning (e.g. visual, hearing, ADHD/ADD, learning disability, physical limitation, chronic illness, emotional issue). Testing documentation must be complete and should be kept current, which means testing must be updated every three years. Failure to complete this process absolves the school from any obligation to provide accommodations to the student in the classroom, during standardized testing administered at Regis, or ISEE testing for high school admission. Testing documentation, medical reports, and teacher input are included as sources to form a Catholic Accommodation Plan (CAP) for a student. Regis may offer accommodations including but not limited to the use of a keyboard, preferential seating, and extended time for those students that qualify. Such accommodations are made at the School’s sole discretion, based on available data and informed by individual circumstances and best educational practices. Please provide all the information that is requested in response to questions on the Admission Application or as soon as the testing is completed after entering Regis.

A list of professional and qualified testing diagnosticians is available in the office of the Director of Learning Support. Please call or email the Director of Learning Support Services to request a copy. 

Sometimes, the documentation received from the qualified professional may raise questions, leave out necessary information, or be unclear as to the recommendations.  For that reason, the parent(s) must sign a release of information form, permitting the School to communicate with the professional treatment provider, when necessary to clarify documentation or seek necessary additional information.  In addition, if there is any cost associated with the physician’s cooperation (i.e., to answer a set of questions submitted, etc.), the parent must agree to bear the cost of such process.

Once the School has received a request for accommodation and the required medical documentation, appropriate persons within the administration will meet with the parent to clarify information and to discuss whether the School will be able to implement the accommodation requested. In some cases, the parent may be asked to provide (at the parent’s cost) any special equipment needed, training for the School’s staff, or other associated matters.  In addition, the School may advise the parent that the School will allow a particular accommodation, but the full responsibility for doing so will rest with the parent.  For example, if the student needs to be tested or have certain types of medicines administered during the day that the School or School Nurse believe are beyond the scope of the School’s responsibility or are disallowed by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, the School may allow the parent to make arrangements to visit the campus for the purpose of testing and administering.

Please understand that the School is not a medical facility and does not have the personnel, training, or equipment to handle certain types of medical procedures best left to the student, parent, or physician.  In addition, the School reserves the right to deny a request for accommodation or to modify any consent to previously granted accommodation requests.  

Depending on the nature of the request, the School may agree to provide the accommodation directly; may require the student to provide the accommodation (such as taking prescribed medications with observation by the nurse), or may require that the parent provide all aspects of the accommodation.  In addition, to the extent that a student may need some type of adjustment or accommodation during off-campus activities, the School may condition the student’s participation in such activities upon the parent agreeing to participate in the activity for purposes of monitoring and addressing the student’s needs. Depending on the nature of the request and the type of the accommodations, the School may require the parent to execute a release and waiver in favor of the School as a condition to providing the accommodations.

Teachers will have access to a secure file which contains the accommodation list for students who qualify for services. If a teacher needs to review the testing documents, these can be accessed only in hard copy form in the offices of the Director of Learning Support Services. At the start of every year, the school Counselor, the Director of Learning Support Services, and pertinent teachers and administrators will hold a meeting to review student accommodation plans for students who have testing documentation on file. If a student undergoes his first battery of testing over the summer or after the start of the academic year and is given a diagnosis with recommendations, an initial meeting will be held between the parents, Director of Learning Support Services, Counselor, pertinent teacher, and Division Head to review the accommodations that Regis will offer the student.
 

All students who wish to participate in any school sponsored activity (athletics, Student Council, or clubs) must maintain a “C” average in all Middle School subjects, and no conduct grade less than an “S” in order to be eligible to participate. This policy also applies to third and fourth graders playing rugby.

• Eating and/or drinking near the laptop poses significant risks to laptop functionality.
• Never leave a laptop unattended or in a car, even when locked.
• Computers are not to be used for games during school unless otherwise instructed.
• Any evidence of computer tampering on a student’s assigned computer must be reported by the student immediately to the teacher.
• Any computer anomaly/difficulty experienced by a student through the course of a class must be reported to the teacher or technology coordinator immediately.
• All damage to school computers/servers that can be traced to the use of infected disks by students will be students’ responsibility.
• Families are responsible for any repair costs for damages not covered by Apple Care.

Disciplinary action will range from verbal warnings to the loss of all computer lab and/or laptop privileges to dismissal from the School. When applicable, the student is responsible for all expenses incurred by the school due to damage, equipment replacement or technical consultation directly associated with the violation.

During the eighth grade year, certain privileges may be earned. The administration has the right to take away any privilege if the behavior of a student or the eighth grade is not what is expected of the leaders of the school.

High School Sweatshirts & T-shirts: High school sweatshirts and T-shirts may be worn on Spirit Days ONLY. No other sweatshirts or T-shirts may be worn unless it's a Regis-approved spiritwear item. All high school sweatshirts and T-shirts must be in good condition, free of holes and tears, and paired with regular uniform bottoms, belts, and shoes. Once students are formally accepted into their high school of choice, they may wear that particular sweatshirt or T-shirt daily for the remainder of the school year. 

Red Uniform Polo: Eighth Grade only may wear a red performance polo with the Regis logo as a special class-level privilege.

Lunch Outside: Weather permitting, the eighth-grade class will be allowed to eat lunch on the picnic tables between the Kelley Building and the Miller Family Student Life Center.

High School Shadow Days: During the course of the year, the eighth-grade class may visit Catholic high schools for campus observation.

Exam Early Dismissal: During exam week, students will be dismissed after the last exam of the day (approx. 11:30 a.m.).

Eighth Grade Tie: Given at the Mass of the Holy Spirit and worn on Full Dress occasions.

Blazer Storage in Dean’s Office: On full dress days, eighth grade students will be able to hang their blazers up inside the Dean of Student’s office after mass. Their blazers may be kept hanging in this location until needed for the next full-dress day.

Field trips are planned for their educational value and/or correlation with the curriculum. Specific requirements (dress and lunch) will be sent to parents prior to each trip. Siblings may not attend field trips. Participation in field trips is a privilege. For conduct or academic reasons, the Division Head or Dean of Students may withhold students from a field trip. Participation in Class Trips is expected since these trips are part of the educational program. Although verbal permission is not accepted for field trips, an emailed or faxed signed permission slip received by the teacher before departure will be accepted in special situations. Students without signed permission slips will remain on campus and be assigned to another teacher or staff person’s supervision. For liability reasons, only currently enrolled Regis students may attend field trips. Similarly, only current Regis faculty may chaperone on field trips. On field trips, students must wear regular dress uniform or Regis approved spiritwear unless otherwise specified. 

All of the School’s regular policies and procedures apply on all field trips, in addition to trip-specific rules. Discipline for misconduct on field trips will generally be handled through the School’s regular disciplinary process.  The School may at any time require parent(s), at their own expense, to arrange for return travel for a student due to injury, illness, or behavior.

Regis maintains an extensive library collection as an area of learning essential to the School’s education program. Students have regular library instruction with the opportunity to check out books. All students have access to the library at different times throughout the day. All library materials will be returned by mid-May in order to complete an annual inventory. Families will be billed for lost or damaged books. All library accounts must be in order at the end of the school year before report cards can be mailed.

• Eating and/or drinking near the laptop poses significant risks to laptop functionality.
• Never leave a laptop unattended or in a car, even when locked.
• Computers are not to be used for games during school unless otherwise instructed.
• Any evidence of computer tampering on a student’s assigned computer must be reported by the student immediately to the teacher.
• Any computer anomaly/difficulty experienced by a student through the course of a class must be reported to the teacher or technology coordinator immediately.
• All damage to school computers/servers that can be traced to the use of infected disks by students will be students’ responsibility.
• Families are responsible for any repair costs for damages not covered by Apple Care.

Disciplinary action will range from verbal warnings to the loss of all computer lab and/or laptop privileges to dismissal from the School. When applicable, the student is responsible for all expenses incurred by the school due to damage, equipment replacement or technical consultation directly associated with the violation.

Publicly available applications driven by GenAI, such as chatbots (ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Meta’s LLaMA), search engines (Microsoft Bing), or image generators (DALL-E, Midjourney) (“GenAI Programs”), are impressive and widely popular. This policy applies to the use of any third-party or publicly available GenAI Programs that mimic human intelligence to generate answers, work product, or perform certain tasks. Certain of our courses and curriculum may explore AI programs so students are aware of and understand these important tools.  However, while these content-generating tools are important for students to be aware of and understand, there are a number of concerns associated with this new technology:

• GenAI Programs do not always produce accurate or complete information and results can include fictional people, places, facts, or events; 
• The information entered into GenAI Programs is not confidential, is used by the GenAI Programs to continue to evolve, and are a potential target for hacking or other cyberattacks; and
• The results produced by these GenAI Programs do not cite to sources, so there is a serious risk of plagiarism.

Most importantly, the purpose of school is to allow students to grow, to be challenged intellectually, and to think critically about the material they are learning. As such, students are not allowed to use GenAI Programs, such as chatbots or image generators, either in school or at home in connection with any schoolwork, including, but not limited to: homework, projects, examinations, tests, quizzes, or as a substitute for reading assigned materials, unless expressly permitted by a teacher and attribution to AI is provided by the student. 

The specific requirements for its use and citing will be directed by the teacher, but will likely include: a citation of the generative AI tool used, a description of the prompt(s) used, and a statement about how it was used in relation to the final draft of the assignment.

When a student is suspected of improperly using GenAI Programs, using them without their teacher’s permission and/or fails to properly cite their use, the student may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and immediate dismissal.  

Students will also be subject to disciplinary consequences for using GenAI Programs for any activities that are illegal, harmful, disclose confidential information, or infringe upon the privacy or intellectual property rights of others.  Prohibited conduct includes using GenAI Programs to manipulate the images of others.  

Although The Regis School of the Sacred Heart will take preventative measures, it does not guarantee that third-party information and services made accessible through the system are error- free, accurate, without defect or not objectionable/controversial. School administration is not responsible for any damage that may occur, including but not limited to, loss of data or interruptions of service. It is not responsible for legal/financial obligations arising from the unauthorized use of the system; nor is it responsible for damages directly or indirectly caused by a student. Students and their parents shall be responsible for damages directly or indirectly caused by the student, and any financial/legal obligations arising from the unauthorized use of the system.

Likewise, regarding student laptop computers, Regis is not responsible for loss of or damage to student laptop computers, nor any damage caused either directly or indirectly by a student laptop computer.

We are committed to high quality teaching and learning.  We realize that part of 21st century learning is adapting to the changing methods of communication and providing rich and varied contents and experiences for our students.  The importance of teachers and students engaging, collaborating, learning, and sharing in digital environments is a part of 21st century learning and provides students the opportunity to develop as literate and technologically competent individuals.  Educational standards are now requiring the use of online education tools and our School uses several computer software applications and web-based/cloud-based education technology services operated not by the School, but by third parties. These applications include, but may not be limited to, Google Drive, Discovery Education, Schoology, Explain Everything, See Saw, Scratch, MineCraft, Kodable, Zoom, Canvas, Code Monkey, and other similar educational programs. 

In order for our students to use these programs and services, certain personal identifying information—generally the student’s name and school email address—must be provided to the website operator. Please note that any personal information provided by the School is for educational purposes only and is used by the School solely to communicate with the service provider.  Students will receive a School email address to participate in certain of these computer software applications and web-based/cloud-based services.  Under federal law entitled the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), certain website providers must provide parental notification and obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under the age of 13. For more information on COPPA, please visit https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/businesscenter/guidance/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions.

Such information may include your child’s first name, last name, email address, username, profile picture and other information your child has added to their profile; contacts and calendar information; settings, such as audio and video settings and screen sharing settings; device information such as IP address, WiFi information, and device features; product usage, such as mouse movements and keystrokes, whether your child sends message and with whom they message, actions (using mute/unmute, video on or off, etc.) and other user actions; and school-related information, such as school name, class, and teacher name.  Your signature on the Handbook Acknowledgment will also reflect and constitute your consent for your child to participate in these programs and services, which may also include video conferencing, podcasts, and live chats, which means that their identity will be revealed, their voice will be heard, and their image displayed to others and both may be recorded. The recording may also include images, messages, Q&A, and other content shared by your child and other participants.  The recordings of your child’s image, voice, identity, and content may be used for any purpose deemed appropriate by the School, including for educational, disciplinary, and marketing purposes.  If you do not want your student to participate in these programs, please notify Regis' Director of Technology.

Students are reminded that they should not place any confidential or sensitive information into cloud storage.

The school’s network system is monitored closely and constantly and provides limited privacy of personal files. The School reserves the right to inspect user directories, profiles, clouds and browsing histories for inappropriate files and to remove them if found and to take other appropriate action if deemed necessary, including notification of parents.  The School also reserves the right to inspect any personal electronic devices brought onto campus, to a School-related event, or used at or away from School for schoolwork on a regular or intermittent basis. In such case, the School reserves the right to inspect the device, including all contents.  Students must provide any and all passwords to inspect the device and its contents upon request by a School administrator. Students and their parents consent to the School logging into the device and its contents and applications, as well as accessing all communications, including, without limitation, stored communications.  Do not assume that any messages or materials on your computer/electronic device or the School’s systems are private.

Methods of research, instruction and learning have been revolutionized because of the Internet’s multimedia resources. Regis’ computer network system has been established strictly for educational purposes to provide the link between classrooms and the evolving technological landscape.

The administration supports student access to rich information sites and encourages teachers to develop skills in evaluating and using resources for integration with classroom activities. Users are given a privilege, within the guidelines set forth in this section. The administration reserves the right to restrict material accessed or transmitted through the system if deemed controversial or inappropriate, and to revoke privileges if necessary.

Schools establish guidelines commonly known as the AUP, Acceptable Use Policy, for the appropriate use of its computer equipment and network systems. The Regis School of the Sacred Heard AUP can be found below and explains expectations of students when using equipment and services provided by the school. The use of the School’s systems is a privilege and not a right.  Inappropriate or illegal use of the School’s systems or of the internet will result in loss of the privilege and disciplinary action.

LIBRARY ACCESS
Students have online access to the following:

1. Information/news from universities, government sites, museums, and schools. Examples may include but are not limited to: Texas A&M University, the Smithsonian Institute, NASA, and the White House.
2. Newsgroups on a variety of topics including science, history, math, and literature.
3. Alexandria Researcher (Regis’ online library program) and public library sites such as Harris County Public Library.
4. Public domain software and shareware.

Regis uses several software programs to filter internet content on student and faculty machines which we believe, but cannot guarantee, will be effective. In lower school, classroom teachers use safe-search websites such as www.kidrex.org to ensure safety and grade appropriate materials. In the middle and upper school levels, students are responsible for staying on task and using appropriate Internet search methods as suggested by the librarians and teachers.

In order to prepare and equip students for the 21st century, Regis provides each student in grades K-5 with a Regis owned iPad and each student in grades 6-8 with a laptop. Technology is, and will continue to be, an integral part of the curriculum in all levels.

The Internet is an open frontier of unlimited possibilities with its broad array of educational resources and information. However, it is important for students to learn how to use computer technology and online services responsibly, not just for their own protection, but for the security of the school computer system as well. While the administration, faculty and staff share the task of monitoring students throughout the day, parents are encouraged to be involved in the training process early and consistently.