SSL hours updated

[Anonymous]

My high schooler has long since met her SSL requirements, but gained another handful of hours (about 50) over the summer from three different opportunities. Handed in the forms in early September. Still waiting - again - for an update to her record.

At this point kid doesn’t care that much but I think she did the work and filled out the forms, the admin office needs to do their job, surely? Every year the office has to be asked where the hours are and often they seem to lose the forms and need copies to be handed in again. Is this the case at all high schools?

[Anonymous]

My son goes to Blake. He did he hours over the summer and they weren’t added until January. There was excuse after excuse every time I followed up. Other schools that my kids attended had them entered within the week. I say if you’re getting a stipend, you should take the time to do them in a timely manner (a month or less). Six months is unacceptable. He’s not going to do anymore hours past 75 because it’s not worth the follow up and headache.

[Anonymous]

OP here. She didn’t keep copies so if the school lost them then I expect it won’t be worth the effort to replace them

[Anonymous]

We have a great SSL coordinator who seems to enter them within 48 hours, but I always keep a scan of the completed form just in case.

[Anonymous]

Where can you see your kid’s hours?

[Anonymous]

An award for service? So wrong this is ridonc, mcps. Kids have over 1000s of hours helping. why do they need to get credt for it? If they don't want to serve others, don't serve. on paper it shows they have the minimum # of hours MD requires

[Anonymous]

Always keep copies and chase when the SSL hours on the transcripts are not updated (online)

[Anonymous]

My daughter (now a senior) coaches a 10U softball ball team which she gets 64 hours a season for and helps out often at the school my wife teaches for. She's got over 400 hours but, yeah. Sometimes it can take months, but I guess I haven't been paying close attention since she checked the SSL box in middle school. It is not a quick process. Likely the forms are processed in bulk when the faculty has a moment. It can't be fun on their end, but I agree... it should be a faster process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where can you see your kid’s hours?

It's in ParentVUE under Course History

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son goes to Blake. He did he hours over the summer and they weren’t added until January. There was excuse after excuse every time I followed up. Other schools that my kids attended had them entered within the week. I say if you’re getting a stipend, you should take the time to do them in a timely manner (a month or less). Six months is unacceptable. He’s not going to do anymore hours past 75 because it’s not worth the follow up and headache.

The whole process is antiquated. Printing a form to be signed, then scanned and emailed into a black hole is not a good way to track progress. They really need to create an online portal to log hours and track in real time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son goes to Blake. He did he hours over the summer and they weren’t added until January. There was excuse after excuse every time I followed up. Other schools that my kids attended had them entered within the week. I say if you’re getting a stipend, you should take the time to do them in a timely manner (a month or less). Six months is unacceptable. He’s not going to do anymore hours past 75 because it’s not worth the follow up and headache.

The whole process is antiquated. Printing a form to be signed, then scanned and emailed into a black hole is not a good way to track progress. They really need to create an online portal to log hours and track in real time.

+1 It's so obsolete and they absolutely should do an online form. Some institutions don't send the SSL forms on time, not every kid has a printer at home to get the forms printed out and get them in by the deadline which is May 30, despite having additional weeks available for the school year.

For example, Friends of the Library of Montgomery County sent the SSL form to my kid on May 29 for hours done in February. With their school deadline being May 30, and my kid wasn't able to get to a printer to turn it in before the deadline and "lost" those hours.

[Anonymous]

There’s a whole office dedicated to SSL hours. Not sure how many people are in it, but I hope they’re reading these suggestions- there should be a deadline for SSL coordinators to enter hours by, and there should be an online process to submit.

Also, I think it’s kind of dumb to have a 75 hour minimum but then award more than half of those hours for just completing classes.

Lots of upgrades to be had here. What do people in that office spend 40 hours per week doing? Just wondering…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s a whole office dedicated to SSL hours. Not sure how many people are in it, but I hope they’re reading these suggestions- there should be a deadline for SSL coordinators to enter hours by, and there should be an online process to submit.

Also, I think it’s kind of dumb to have a 75 hour minimum but then award more than half of those hours for just completing classes.

Lots of upgrades to be had here. What do people in that office spend 40 hours per week doing? Just wondering…

Apparently, there are 13 people in central office dedicated to the SSL program, plus someone at every MS and HS who processes these forms. Certainly this could be made more efficient. I would happily have MCPS cut that and have 13 additional teachers in classrooms so class sizes could be lower.

Any program that awards SSL hours for timing private summer swim meets and attending required presentations at school needs a rethink anyway... my kid received 10 hours just for attending 7th grade English. What's the point of that?

[Anonymous]

The people processing these forms proba KY have other roles within that school, for example a counselor taking on entering that many forms of some very large student population

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people processing these forms proba KY have other roles within that school, for example a counselor taking on entering that many forms of some very large student population

That's true at my kid's school. But the question of why in 2025--we have kids handing in paper based forms manually that needs to be processed manually by a staff member at each school still remains.