Anonymous
03/03/2026 14:53
Subject: Re:What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Anonymous wrote:On the other hand, MCPS (Montgomery County Public Schools) in Maryland, have 75 hours of documented service hours (they call it SSL) as a graduation requirement. This is the floor.
Kids can start earning these hours by doing volunteer work (from SSL-approved organizations), filling the forms after each volunteer work and submiting it in their school SSL coordinator. It shows up in the report cards and on college transcripts.
What they also do not tell students is that the SSL helps to weave a story for their interest and contribution in their college essays and that there are specific SSL hours prerequisite for application to a number of Honor Societies in HS.
Like MCPS, if service hours is a graduation requirement or MS requirement...you probably don't get to graduate without some remediation of the situation, I would think.
That is HS, we are talking MS.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 14:17
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I believe it is a requirement for Civics class. Maybe only for Honors though? My kid had to do them and enter them and verify them in their online system. It’s just 15 hrs. I don’t know what happens if they don’t meet the requirement.
I have never heard of this at our MS. I really dislike the inconsistency across schools. It's like the science fair in HS - all honors science classes must do it at our HS, but that's not the case at all. It's honestly annoying and discourages kids from taking honors, even when they can handle the work. I understand it shouldn't be a factor, but it is.
This inconsistency is a huge problem. I saw it as both a teacher and a parent in FCPS. In theory kids should be able to move to a different school in the system and take the same courses. I had kids who entered my class mid year due to a move within the county and they were coming from schools that were doing the same course in a completely different order. This created big problems. In theory an honors course at one school should be similar to the same honors course at another. But we found that gen ed classes at some schools were essentially remedial and that honors at some schools was the same as gen ed at another. FCPS is one of the largest schools in the county but a diploma from some schools is not at all the same as from others.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 14:16
Subject: Re:What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
On the other hand, MCPS (Montgomery County Public Schools) in Maryland, have 75 hours of documented service hours (they call it SSL) as a graduation requirement. This is the floor.
Kids can start earning these hours by doing volunteer work (from SSL-approved organizations), filling the forms after each volunteer work and submiting it in their school SSL coordinator. It shows up in the report cards and on college transcripts.
What they also do not tell students is that the SSL helps to weave a story for their interest and contribution in their college essays and that there are specific SSL hours prerequisite for application to a number of Honor Societies in HS.
Like MCPS, if service hours is a graduation requirement or MS requirement...you probably don't get to graduate without some remediation of the situation, I would think.
Kids can start earning these hours by doing volunteer work (from SSL-approved organizations), filling the forms after each volunteer work and submiting it in their school SSL coordinator. It shows up in the report cards and on college transcripts.
What they also do not tell students is that the SSL helps to weave a story for their interest and contribution in their college essays and that there are specific SSL hours prerequisite for application to a number of Honor Societies in HS.
Like MCPS, if service hours is a graduation requirement or MS requirement...you probably don't get to graduate without some remediation of the situation, I would think.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 14:06
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why haven’t I heard of NJHS when my child has all As in all honors and algebra and geometry honors and has done service hours?
Kids should have gotten a notification that they were eligible in 7th grade. Then they have to ask a Teacher to sponsor them and write an essay. There was an induction ceremony in 4th quarter.
Not every MS requires service hours for Honors Civics, I know Carson does. I have no clue what it means to not complete them. Your 8th grade Civics grade doesn’t mean anything so I suspect that any sanction in terms of a grade for not completing the hours means nothing.
DS had been entering his service hours since 7th grade, he had his hours for Civics done before he finished 7th grade and his NJHS done over the summer. He is in Scouts and participates in a lot of the Troops service projects.
We did not get a notification at Thoreau and should have been eligible.
Thoreau does not have a NJHS chapter.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 12:20
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why haven’t I heard of NJHS when my child has all As in all honors and algebra and geometry honors and has done service hours?
Kids should have gotten a notification that they were eligible in 7th grade. Then they have to ask a Teacher to sponsor them and write an essay. There was an induction ceremony in 4th quarter.
Not every MS requires service hours for Honors Civics, I know Carson does. I have no clue what it means to not complete them. Your 8th grade Civics grade doesn’t mean anything so I suspect that any sanction in terms of a grade for not completing the hours means nothing.
DS had been entering his service hours since 7th grade, he had his hours for Civics done before he finished 7th grade and his NJHS done over the summer. He is in Scouts and participates in a lot of the Troops service projects.
We did not get a notification at Thoreau and should have been eligible.
Maybe your kid did and didn’t want to do it so didn’t tell you. It looked like 1/3 of the 7th graders at Carson were at the ceremony. I know parents who said their kid refused to write the essay. It isn’t a big deal, it doesn’t go on applications. Even HS NHS is seen as a lesser achievement for college applications.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 11:41
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why haven’t I heard of NJHS when my child has all As in all honors and algebra and geometry honors and has done service hours?
Kids should have gotten a notification that they were eligible in 7th grade. Then they have to ask a Teacher to sponsor them and write an essay. There was an induction ceremony in 4th quarter.
Not every MS requires service hours for Honors Civics, I know Carson does. I have no clue what it means to not complete them. Your 8th grade Civics grade doesn’t mean anything so I suspect that any sanction in terms of a grade for not completing the hours means nothing.
DS had been entering his service hours since 7th grade, he had his hours for Civics done before he finished 7th grade and his NJHS done over the summer. He is in Scouts and participates in a lot of the Troops service projects.
We did not get a notification at Thoreau and should have been eligible.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 11:27
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
It may affect 8th grade civics class grading, but no one would fail the course regardless service hours.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 10:52
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Anonymous wrote:I believe it is a requirement for Civics class. Maybe only for Honors though? My kid had to do them and enter them and verify them in their online system. It’s just 15 hrs. I don’t know what happens if they don’t meet the requirement.
I have never heard of this at our MS. I really dislike the inconsistency across schools. It's like the science fair in HS - all honors science classes must do it at our HS, but that's not the case at all. It's honestly annoying and discourages kids from taking honors, even when they can handle the work. I understand it shouldn't be a factor, but it is.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 10:25
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Anonymous wrote:Why haven’t I heard of NJHS when my child has all As in all honors and algebra and geometry honors and has done service hours?
Kids should have gotten a notification that they were eligible in 7th grade. Then they have to ask a Teacher to sponsor them and write an essay. There was an induction ceremony in 4th quarter.
Not every MS requires service hours for Honors Civics, I know Carson does. I have no clue what it means to not complete them. Your 8th grade Civics grade doesn’t mean anything so I suspect that any sanction in terms of a grade for not completing the hours means nothing.
DS had been entering his service hours since 7th grade, he had his hours for Civics done before he finished 7th grade and his NJHS done over the summer. He is in Scouts and participates in a lot of the Troops service projects.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 06:29
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
My child was required to have them verified for Civics H in 8th grade last year. I don’t recall much or any communication to the parent about the requirement or process. The teacher explained the requirement to the class and gave them a link to log hours and have them verified by the recipient. The kids were wholly responsible for it, not the parents. I guess my point is, if you have a kid in Civics H, don’t assume it’s not required just because you haven’t heard anything about it.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 06:29
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Why haven’t I heard of NJHS when my child has all As in all honors and algebra and geometry honors and has done service hours?
Anonymous
03/03/2026 06:16
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
My kid has a ton of hours from a long-term volunteer gig, but their Civics teacher is too lazy to approve them.
Anonymous
03/03/2026 06:11
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Anonymous wrote:Our NJHS requires 20 hours of service in 8 th grade.
Yes, we all know this is a community service club. The rest of the students don’t need them here or in HA to be promoted or graduate.
Yes, if they join NHS in HS they need them to stay in that too.
Anonymous
03/02/2026 23:59
Subject: What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
Our NJHS requires 20 hours of service in 8 th grade.
Anonymous
03/02/2026 23:01
Subject: Re:What happens if you don't do service hours in middle school?
man i dont even have service hours yet