A lot of teachers have become jaded and will assume every student who brings this up is a liar and a cheat.
The problem though is that although the majority of the cases are made up to get out of exams or assignments, a small number aren't. These students, in addition to losing their beloved relative then can become very distraught to find themselves unexpectedly saddled with a false accusation of being a liar.
Because of this, when I taught, I would nod and sympathize, then say that because there had been some abuse of this in the past, they could have an extension or such only if they provided an actual published obituary from a newspaper or funeral home. Some other teachers use another method, of having a certain number of exams or assignments that can be dropped without penalty. Of course what often happens in those cases is students drop an early exam, and then later claim injustice at not getting an extra one for the deceased grandparent.
My senior year of college I wrote to the provost expecting a close relative would die close to my exams. His sympathy was immediate, and separately from that, an obituary or other certificate would set the incomplete/rescheduling machinery in motion. He did not apologize or explain, so by presenting his personal sympathy and his professional administration of a system he was able to protect both the school's expectations and an emotional, stressed student. I think this is the best approach.
I was in mourning after losing a relative and refused to participate in an overtly cheerful activity.Not only was I reprimanded for it, but later heard the professor felt the need to complain to other people as well about yet another kid 'whos grandma had died'. It just so happened that my grandma had not died, nor would have I cared much if she would've had, but a much more cared for relative.
Many people, especially poor folks, don't do obituaries, because they can be expensive. Original death certificates are always in high demand, and people tend to not realize that they need dozens of them -- proving to a teacher that grandma died is low priority. There are other cultural factors as well. Some religions call for immediate burial, so publication of the obituary will likely lag the student's absence.
Another factor to consider is that fall exam times line up with the holiday season, which also happens to be a time of the year when death rates spike.
Given all of the other accommodations that colleges give students, I don't see the big deal here. When I was in school, I was able to get incompletes to finish coursework or take exams late for various reasons. I had friends who got ADD diagnoses from doc-in-the-box places because they found taking exams in lecture centers with tiny desks impossible to deal with. If a C student gets an extra 3 days to study, the outcome is likely the same as it would have been.
I'm a professor in a university. For us a photocopy of the obituary, death certificate or an equivalent document is enough to allow the students to take the test ~1 week later. But the exact documentation needed probably depends on the university.
No, generally not in the timeframe between being notified and the funeral. There may be an announcement in a local newspaper -- local to your deceased relative -- but this is as likely to be after the funeral as before.
I don't think there's an issue with saying "you're getting a 0 on the exam until you furnish proof of death and proof of relation, at which point you can (re)take the exam." Surely even the most bureaucratic university would have some mechanism in place to allow a student to take an exam, even a final, later than planned (or even the next semester?)
A lot of teachers have become jaded and will assume every student who brings this up is a liar and a cheat.
The problem though is that although the majority of the cases are made up to get out of exams or assignments, a small number aren't. These students, in addition to losing their beloved relative then can become very distraught to find themselves unexpectedly saddled with a false accusation of being a liar.
Because of this, when I taught, I would nod and sympathize, then say that because there had been some abuse of this in the past, they could have an extension or such only if they provided an actual published obituary from a newspaper or funeral home. Some other teachers use another method, of having a certain number of exams or assignments that can be dropped without penalty. Of course what often happens in those cases is students drop an early exam, and then later claim injustice at not getting an extra one for the deceased grandparent.