Welcome! This forum has a treasure trove of great info – Scouters helping Scouters! Just a heads up, though - all content, information, and opinions shared on this forum are those of the author, not the BSA.
"When a Cub Scout has done this—their best effort possible—then regardless of the requirements for any rank or award, it is enough; accomplishment is noted. This is why den leaders, assistants, and parents or guardians are involved in approvals. "
The idea is these changes to advancement should be documented in Scoutbook as part of a Scout’s development.
This can already be done today without any record so this would be about recording this.
It also gives the BSA the ability to grab anonymous data on the type of exceptions being done in the program and can target changes to requirements and policy to be more inclusive.
At a unit level, documentation of accommodations could currently be preserved in Scoutbook in the Comments field.
I’m not sure I understand what the feature you’re proposing would look like. Would this be a change to the interface that would create an additional field for each requirement (each rank?) in which specific accommodations would be documented? A submittal form to notify council/nationals of the accommodation?
Also, I understood that for youth who can’t complete a requirement and need accommodation (e.g. a hiking rank requirement for a person who is paraplegic converted to an “equivalent” distance on wheels e.g. hand-crank trike), units are supposed to submit individual advancement plans for the scouts to get the accommodations approved. This hasn’t specifically come up in any of the dens/patrols I’ve mentored, so I’m not 100% familiar with the process.
There are no changes to requirements. The requirement in Cub Scouts is “Do your best”. Once the Scout has attempted the requirement to the best of his/her ability, the requirement is met. Nothing needs to be documented. Just mark the requirement complete and move on.
