Students entering their senior year at Morrilton High School should be aware of Arkansas’s new community service graduation requirement. Beginning with the Class of 2027, all Arkansas public high school students must complete 75 documented hours of community service to earn a diploma under the Arkansas LEARNS Act. Students can begin earning qualifying hours the summer after eighth grade and may complete them anytime during grades nine through twelve. Morrilton High School Assistant Principal Jasmine Wilson says they have created a process to meet the requirements of the new law…
“There are many students that are connected to churches, connected to organizations that they’re able to get hours with, and may have already been serving but just haven’t been documented,” Wilson said. “So, we have a process by which those students can submit their hours, and then I’m actually the one who is on the back end tracking them and seeing how close they are getting to the 75 and reaching out to those students and parents, so that they know where they stand, and then connecting them with opportunities if they still are in need of hours…”
The LEARNS Act states that service must be performed through approved organizations, including schools, churches, nonprofits, or government agencies. Wilson says the responsibility is primarily in the hands of parents and guardians to not only choose volunteer opportunities for their children, but to screen those opportunities to ensure they are a safe environment for their children to serve. She says the school will also present some service opportunities with community organizations at their back-to-school orientation events later this summer……