FCPS Biology and Chemistry -- high school graduation requirements?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is a rising 9th grader with a strong interest in digital arts and little interest in science-focused courses especially Biology and Chemistry, although she does enjoy math. I wanted to clarify whether Biology and Chemistry are required for high school graduation. From what I understand, science is required all four years, but those requirements could potentially be met through Environmental Science, Earth Science, Physics, and AP Physics instead— is that correct? Given her affinity for math, she is likely to do well in the physics sequence.

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

That is possible, but know that some colleges are going to want to see bio/chem/physics. If she's truly headed to art conservatory I'm sure it wouldn't matter, but if she changes her mind in HS it will be hard to catch back up.

And I think for many FCPS high schools 9th grade bio is required.

[Anonymous]

I dont know for sure the answer to your main question on if Bio or Chem are specifically required. But I do know that only Bio, Chem, and Earth Science have SOLs attached to them - so you would want to consider if you want the student to have more than just Earth Science as an option to get the SOL needed for graduation. Science doesn't have very many options for substitute tests for SOLs, and they'd need 1 Science verified credit/SOL. If you're reasonably confident that testing won't be a big issue, then your sequence may be ok

[Anonymous]

The prerequisite courses before a student can take physics are biology, chemistry, and geometry.

[Anonymous]

I think the bigger issue is that some high schools only allow Physics in 11th or 12th grade. You should check with your high school to see if you can take that any earlier.