Community Service Procedures & FAQ

Unpaid work with a nonprofit organization will count. It cannot be unpaid work for a for-profit company, or a privately-owned business, even if it is a small business, such as a home daycare. 

Nonprofit organizations are places like libraries, schools, food banks, the YMCA, and other places that are specifically set up for a humanitarian purpose and not to make a profit. 

This is an official tax designation with the State of Washington. 

• Paid work does not count.
• Work for a for-profit company, even if it is a small company like a home daycare, does not count. 
• Favors done independently, like helping a neighbor, do not count. However, we encourage you to help individuals in your community as wish to and are able. 

Student-initiated volunteer work performed for a political candidate, initiative or action group with a Washington state registered non-profit number qualifies for Shorecrest and Shorewood high schools community service programs, as long as all other requirements are met. Shoreline high schools do not actively promote or advertise volunteer opportunities for such campaigns. Promotion/advertising is allowed in high schools for non-profit, non-partisan “Get Out the Vote” and voter forums.

It depends: 

• Engaging in activities that are not directly religious--like set up, clean up, child care, recreation, meal programs, community cleanup--do count for school community service.
• Religious teaching or participation in a worship service do not count for community service. 

Yes. When Community Service was a Graduation Requirement, hours for incoming 9th graders did not count, but now that service is optional, we will count hours that were served just before a student started at Shorewood. 

Yes. Students in National Honor society should turn in their forms twice in Canvas, once in the NHS course and once in their Community Service Form Upload Assignment in their Class of 202x course. 

No. Please do not count service for 24 hours/ day. Standard maximum is 10 hours/ day. 

We encourage volunteering through programs that will not cost you anything. However, there are a few circumstances where a student or family might choose to pay in order to participate in a program. As long as: 1) the sponsoring organization is a registered nonprofit, and 2) the student does not get paid, hours would probably count.

Please check in the Career Center if you are not sure. Two examples:  some nonprofits sponsor service trips that a family might pay for, but the student does not get paid and on the trip, does some sort of activity that is considered a humanitarian service. Also, some camps might charge summer volunteers for room & board but not pay them for their service to the camp. 

Summer, weekends and vacations are a great time to volunteer.  Many non-profit organizations need volunteers year-round.  You can volunteer during the day when school is out,  or evenings and weekends when school is in session.

It depends. 

What does count: 

• Helping at an event put on by a nonprofit organization. For instance, you could help with the annual Shorewood Booster Auction or at a local preschool's fundraising dinner.
• Time spent with a group in an organized effort to raise money that will be donated.

What does not count: 

• Doing a club fundraiser to help finance the club's work.
• Time spent saving money on your own to then donate to a cause.
• Time spent going door-to-door asking for donations on behalf of a nonprofit. This exception is in place to limit the risk for students. 

Our community still values volunteering and giving back. Tracking hours is useful for students who:  put volunteering on resumes; include them on job, college, or scholarship applications; hope to earn community service awards. 

Staff are sometimes asked to verify service for a student; tracking allows us to do that. 

Hours are logged in Canvas in your Class of 202x course in the Community Service Upload Assignment. Use a Community Service form which is linked on the Community Service landing page or available in hard copy in the Career Center. 

Take a picture of your form (both sides if you have used both sides) and submit that with a comment in your Community Service Form Upload Assignment in Canvas. Follow the more detailed instructions in Canvas. 

Look right in your Community Service Form Upload Assignment in Canvas. Your grade is your # of hours. 

It can take quite a while for forms to be logged since there are lots of students and tracking hours is not a primary duty for staff. Please be patient

If you turned in a form and all of the hours were not counted, look back. Did you add a comment about how many hours you were submitting? Did you note if you were uploading two sides of a form or two forms? How you upload your forms is very important. 

If you think that staff missed a form or has not added correctly, come into the Career Center to inquire. 

Turn in forms shortly after you complete service. Please do not hang onto all of your forms until the end of the school year. 

For short-term service, turn the form in soon after the event.

For ongoing service, turn in your hours in increments of several weeks. For example, you could complete fall/ winter/ spring forms if you engage in regular service with the same organization. Keeping up on the hour tracking as you perform the service helps you and the school be up to date. 

Upon completion of your service at an established organization, you may receive a letter or a certificate detailing your hours. When you turn this in, please fill out a Shorewood form as much as possible, upload both, and describe what you are uploading in your comment when you submit. We realize that the supervisor's signature may be on the letter rather than on the Shorewood form. 

If you have multiple forms to turn in for different events: 

• upload a form (front & back if appropriate);
• make a comment as directed;
• submit

for each form. There is almost no indicator on the grading side that you have uploaded more than one form, so we rely on you making separate submissions and complete comments. 

If you are uploading multiple forms for the same event/ experience, note in your comment that you are uploading multiple forms and how they are connected ("please see front and back of my form"; "the second form is a continuation of the first" or whatever applies to your situation). 

If you are submitting another form sometime after you have submitted one, just do the regular procedure again. The assignment will keep all of your submissions, and the string of comments creates a record of your submissions. 

If you are continuing service at the same location, start a new form after you have turned it in. Do not continue on the same form if you have already submitted it. 

No. The same assignment will be live for your four years at Shorewood. We will change the due dates, which encourage students to get forms in soon after they have done service rather than save them up . The assignment will be a record of your service while you attend Shorewood. 

Here is a screenshot from the grading side showing how the grade/ hours  increases over time, and how we can see multiple submissions over time. 

Please turn in forms promptly. You are more likely to get full credit if you turn in forms soon after you complete the service. It is easier for us to verify service when the information is current. 

If you have old forms, make sure that you have not already submitted them in Canvas. If you have not, make sure that they are completely filled out, with full information in each section. 

If the organization you volunteer with keeps a log of your hours, you can turn that in along with a Shorewood form.

Details:

• On the Shorewood form, fill out all fields completely except in section #3 Log of Services Rendered, enter your total hours and write something like "please see additional upload for dates, hours, description of tasks, and supervisor verification."  
• Have the organization information clearly visible in your additional upload. 
• Records from the nonprofit organization are preferred; personal spreadsheets are not. 

It is important to do this so that we have complete records. The Shorewood form is essentially an agreement between you, your parent/ guardian, and the school district. 

Yes! There are Shorewood students who have completed hundreds of hours. 

• Many students really enjoy doing service and being involved in their community.
• Students gain experience that they put on resumes and applications. 
• Student gain skills--working with kids, leadership tasks, or almost anything else--that they can list on resumes and use in future roles. 
• Students make connections that can lead to jobs or career connections. 

Students who complete enough hours may be eligible for the President's Volunteer Service Award which is based on a high number of hours within a calendar year. The requirements for students 15 and under are slightly different than those for students age 16 and older. 

For the hour and age requirements and Shorewood's particular procedure, see our Awards for Community Service page.

These awards are given to graduating seniors for cumulative hours served over their years of high school. However, if students have served and logged the following number of hours, they can list these on their resumes and applications: 

• Certificate of Merit for 40+ Hours
• Certificate of Distinction for 80+ Hours

We usually have at least 100 seniors who have earned 40 hours, and about 50 who earn more than 80 hours. These seniors will be recognized as a group during the awards assembly in June, and will receive a certificate when they pick up their diploma after the end of the school year. 

For more specifics, See Awards for Community Service.