Academic Amnesty Policy

Academic Amnesty allows a student the opportunity to remove previously earned poor grades from counting in the Polk State College grade point average (GPA) for the purposes of graduation or to meet admission criteria for a limited-admission program. A student who changes his or her career goals or who has experienced extraordinary life situations that affected academic performance may petition for Academic Amnesty under the following conditions:

1. The student has not attended college for at least one full year after the term requested for amnesty.
2. After a period of absence of at least one full year, the student has completed 12 college credit hours with at least a 2.00 GPA for each and every term, however the student’s overall GPA is still less than 2.0 after the 12 completed credit hours.
3. The student may apply for amnesty for terms that are older than five years from the date of the petition.
4. The student may apply for amnesty that encompasses up to three terms, these must be consecutive terms on the student’s Polk State College transcript.
5. Only grades that are considered not passing qualify for amnesty (i.e. grades of W, I, F, and D where D is not a passing grade).
6. Terms that are part of an earned degree do not qualify for amnesty.
7. Amnesty may be applied to a student record only one time.

The student must complete a petition with a student success advisor, and the Petition Committee renders a decision regarding the petition. Courses selected for Academic Amnesty are still applicable in the calculation of financial aid and satisfactory academic standards; however, if a student is granted Academic Amnesty, this may be noted in the Financial Aid Appeals Process. More information about this policy can be found in the Standards of Academic Progress  Section.