Students with disabilities may be required to pass the California High School Exit Exam to receive a diploma
Despite pleas from the public not to do it, the California State Board of Education has unanimously recommended that students with disabilities in the classes of 2008 and beyond be required to pass the California High School Exit Exam in order to receive a diploma. Those students could take the test with special circumstances, such as using calculators or having it read aloud to them, but would have to get a waiver to have such a test count toward graduation. The board’s recommendations call for changes to the process for requesting a waiver. But teachers, advocates, and special education experts believe this is not enough. They asked the board to allow students with disabilities to be freed from having to pass the test. Those students—who have learning disabilities, autism, deafness, mental retardation, and a host of other conditions—should be allowed to show a portfolio of their work instead of taking the standardized exam, they say. “More than 50 percent of the students (with disabilities) will fail and not graduate under this system,” says Jo Behm of the Learning Disabilities Association of California, a parent activism group. The board rejected the portfolio option, but board members say they want to continue looking at options for special education students who fail to earn a diploma. Some members appear interested in exploring a suggestion that the state develop non-diploma certificates showing that students had completed various types of job training.
The board’s recommendation now goes to the state legislature, which will make the final decision. A bill working its way through the legislature would free special education students from the exit exam requirement. But the matter could easily land in court. Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a group that previously sued the state claiming the exit exam is unfair to students with disabilities, says it’s ready to go back to court if the legislature approves the board’s decision. “The Board of Education has decided that it's going to shirk its responsibility to special ed students and is going to leave them in a position where they're going to be denied diplomas,” says Roger Heller, a DRA attorney. “If this recommendation becomes law, we have no choice but to take action on the litigation front to protect these students.”
Sacramento Bee
By Laurel Rosenhall
[Full story]