School Policies and Community Expectations

Appendix C to the Meridian Enrollment Agreement | Academic Year 2026–2027 | Effective September 1, 2026

These policies describe how students, families, educators, staff, volunteers, and guests participate in Meridian’s online learning, residential sessions, and community spaces. They are intended to protect student safety, make expectations predictable, and support direct, respectful problem solving. They form part of the Enrollment Agreement for the academic year identified above.

Meridian is an international hybrid middle and high school. Live online academics, independent work, mentoring, and four residential sessions in Europe are parts of one continuous educational program. The same standards of safety, dignity, honesty, and responsibility apply across all settings.

1 Community Principles

Academic depth and intellectual curiosity: students are expected to ask serious questions, engage with evidence, and make sustained efforts.
Student agency and responsibility: students have meaningful choices and are expected to communicate, follow through, and seek help when needed.
Low power distance with clear adult responsibility: students may question ideas and participate in decisions, while adults retain responsibility for safety, safeguarding, academic judgment, and program operations.
Belonging and individual pathways: students may work at different levels and in different groups while remaining members of one school community.
Repair over punishment: when possible, conflict and mistakes are addressed through reflection, dialogue, restitution, and changed behavior.

2 Nondiscrimination and Belonging

Meridian Learning Foundation, Inc. maintains a separate Board-adopted Nondiscrimination Policy. Consistent with that policy and applicable law, community members must not discriminate against, exclude, harass, or demean another person on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, creed, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status.

Differences in language, nationality, family structure, learning profile, disability, academic level, political or religious viewpoint, or personal identity must be treated with dignity. Intellectual disagreement is welcome; personal degradation, intimidation, and exclusion are not.

3 Participation Attendance and Communication

Students are expected to attend scheduled classes, mentoring meetings, community activities, and residential sessions unless excused or otherwise approved. Because Meridian students live in multiple countries and time zones, the shared Google Calendar is the primary source for current schedules and changes.

Families should notify the School as early as reasonably possible about absences, travel, illness, or circumstances affecting participation.
Students should review missed assignments, communicate with the relevant teacher, and complete reasonable make-up work.
The School will communicate patterns of absence, non-participation, or concern and work with the family on a practical plan.
Repeated absence or non-participation may affect assessment, course credit, recommendations, promotion, or continued enrollment.

English is the language of instruction and the common language of official student and family spaces unless the School identifies a particular activity or communication as multilingual.

4 Online Learning and Digital Spaces

Online classes are real classrooms. Students should join from an environment that permits participation, use a working device and audio setup whenever reasonably possible, and follow the teacher’s directions for microphones, cameras, chat, shared documents, and collaborative work. Camera use may be encouraged for particular activities but will be handled reasonably in light of privacy, technology, disability, health, and individual circumstances.

Use Meridian accounts and School-approved platforms for School work whenever reasonably possible.
Use class chats, Google Chat spaces, Classroom comments, shared documents, and email for their intended educational or operational purpose.
Do not impersonate another person, access another person’s account, bypass access controls, or knowingly disrupt a class or digital system.
Do not record, photograph, screenshot, transcribe, or redistribute a class, meeting, chat, student work, or private communication without authorization from the School and, where appropriate, the people involved.
Do not post another community member’s personal information, image, voice, work, or messages publicly without permission.

Parents and Other Adults in Online Classes

Parents may occasionally need to assist with technology, support an accommodation, or understand a student’s learning experience. Except in an urgent or incidental situation, a parent or other adult who plans to remain present for a substantial part of a class should notify the School or teacher in advance. Adults should not participate, evaluate the teacher in the moment, communicate with other students, or interrupt the class unless invited.

Because an unseen adult changes the privacy and dynamics of a student group, families should not routinely or secretly observe classes. No adult may record or share any part of a class without written authorization. The School may arrange an observation, family meeting, or other way to address a parent’s concern while protecting student privacy and the learning environment.

5 Academic Honesty and Use of Artificial Intelligence

Students are expected to represent their own learning honestly. They must identify sources, distinguish their own work from assistance received, and follow the requirements established for each assignment, assessment, project, or collaboration.

Plagiarism, fabrication of evidence or data, unauthorized collaboration, impersonation, and submitting another person’s work as one’s own are not permitted.
AI tools may be used when the teacher or project mentor permits them and within the boundaries given for the task.
When AI materially contributes to ideas, language, code, analysis, images, or research, students must disclose that use in the form requested by the teacher.
A student may be asked to explain, reproduce, revise, or defend submitted work to demonstrate understanding.

Responses to academic dishonesty are educational and proportionate. They may include conversation, redoing work, an oral check of understanding, reflection, changes to assessment, family communication, or additional consequences for repeated or serious conduct.

6 Respectful Conduct Conflict and Harm

Community members must communicate without threats, humiliation, coercion, harassment, bullying, retaliation, targeted exclusion, or deliberate disruption. These expectations apply in School spaces and to off-platform conduct when it materially affects student safety, access to learning, or the functioning of the School community.

Students and families should raise concerns directly through appropriate School channels. Good-faith criticism, complaints, reporting of harm, and requests for help are protected. No person may retaliate against someone for raising a safety, discrimination, academic, or operational concern.

7 Safeguarding and Student Welfare

Any concern involving suspected abuse or neglect, self-harm or suicidal thinking, bullying or harassment, discrimination, exploitation, threats, sexual misconduct, unsafe adult-student boundaries, or a significant risk to physical or emotional wellbeing should be reported promptly to the Head of School, Head Counselor, or another designated staff member. In an immediate emergency, contact local emergency services first.

The School may need to share relevant information with designated staff, parents or legal guardians, medical providers, emergency responders, child-protection authorities, law enforcement, or other authorities when reasonably necessary or legally required. The School cannot promise confidentiality when safety or mandatory reporting is involved.

8 Restorative Response and School Action

When concerns arise, the School will ordinarily gather information, speak with the people involved, identify impact and needed support, and seek a practical plan for repair. Depending on age, seriousness, safety, and prior incidents, the response may include facilitated conversation, reflection, restitution, revised boundaries, additional supervision, temporary restriction from an activity, behavioral or participation plan, suspension, or termination of enrollment.

Restorative work is not required when it would be unsafe, coercive, or inappropriate. The School may separate participants or act immediately when needed to protect safety, preserve evidence, comply with law, or prevent serious disruption. Students and families are expected to cooperate in reasonable safety and fact-finding processes.

9 Residential Sessions and Travel

Residential sessions combine learning, shared living, outdoor and cultural activities, and community responsibility. Before each session, the School will provide location-specific information about travel, packing, schedules, supervision, health procedures, rooming, communications, and emergency contacts. Students and families must complete required travel, medical, consent, and emergency forms by the stated deadlines.

Students must follow staff instructions concerning safety, supervision, transportation, curfew, check-ins, rooming, restricted areas, outdoor activities, and leaving the site.
Students may not leave the campus or an activity group without explicit staff permission.
Students must respect rooms, belongings, sleep, bodily autonomy, personal boundaries, and the privacy of others.
Possession or use of alcohol, cannabis, illegal drugs, tobacco or nicotine products, weapons, or other dangerous items is prohibited for students.
Medication must be disclosed and handled according to the session’s medical plan. Students may not share medication.
Students are expected to contribute to reasonable shared responsibilities and care for facilities, equipment, and the natural environment.
Site-specific rules may add reasonable requirements based on local law, the campus, age group, activity, health, or safety needs.

A serious safety violation may result in immediate restriction, removal from an activity or session, or a requirement that the family arrange or reimburse early return travel when permitted by the Enrollment Agreement and session-specific terms. The School will consider the student’s age, needs, circumstances, and immediate safety.

10 Health Disability and Individual Support

Families must provide complete, current information that is materially relevant to safe participation and learning, including medical conditions, allergies, medications, psychological or behavioral concerns, and emergency contacts. This information is handled privately and shared only as reasonably necessary.

Meridian will consider reasonable supports and accommodations in collaboration with the student and family. Supports may differ by setting and cannot remove essential safety requirements or fundamentally change the School’s program. If a student needs services beyond those reasonably available, the School will discuss next steps with the family.

11 School Family Communication

Routine academic communication should begin with the relevant teacher or mentor. Scheduling and technical issues should use the designated School channels. Significant concerns involving wellbeing, safeguarding, discrimination, repeated conflict, or program-wide decisions should be directed to the Head Counselor, academic leadership, or Head of School as appropriate.

Families may ask questions, disagree, and request clarification without fear that doing so will affect the student’s standing.
Concerns about an employee, student, or family should be shared privately with the School rather than circulated in group spaces.
Teachers and staff are not expected to respond immediately outside their reasonable working hours, except through designated emergency channels.
The School will share significant academic, behavioral, or safety concerns in a reasonably timely manner while protecting the privacy of other students and employees.

12 Privacy Within the Community

Families and students may learn personal information about others through classes, chats, meetings, residential life, and informal community spaces. Community members must not disclose another person’s health information, family circumstances, educational needs, private communications, disciplinary matters, or other sensitive information without permission, except when reporting a concern to the School or an appropriate authority.

The Meridian Privacy Notice explains how the School itself collects, uses, stores, and shares personal information. Media permissions are governed separately by Appendix B to the Enrollment Agreement.

13 Policy Updates

The School may update these policies for reasonable educational, operational, legal, health, or safety reasons. Families will receive reasonable notice of material changes. A policy update will not retroactively change tuition, withdrawal, or refund obligations without written agreement. Urgent safety measures may take effect immediately, with notice as soon as reasonably possible.

Acknowledgment

By signing the Enrollment Agreement or an addendum incorporating this Appendix, the Parent acknowledges receipt of these policies and agrees to support the Student in following them. The Student is expected to review these policies in an age-appropriate form and participate in community orientation.

Student name:	Parent or legal guardian:
Signature:	Signature:
Date:	Date: