Exit Exam Rules Eased for Disabled High School students

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-exit20jan20,1,3058262.story

Exit Exam Rules Eased

State officials strike a deal to spare disabled high school students

from the requirement.

By Duke Helfand, Times Staff Writer

This year's high school seniors with disabilities would be spared

from California's new high school exit exam under a legislative

agreement announced Thursday.

A deal negotiated by state officials would excuse seniors from that

obligation if they have physical, learning or emotional disabilities

that may have contributed to past failures on the test. Existing

rules would have required all students in the class of 2006 to pass

the test of English and math to earn diplomas.

Legislation to implement the one-year delay, Senate Bill 517, is

moving through the Assembly and Senate, and Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger has pledged to sign it.

" While uniform standards are essential to ensuring that our children

receive the education they deserve … it is imperative that we give

our students with disabilities the time and the resources they need

to succeed on the California High School Exit Exam, " Schwarzenegger

said in a statement.

Unless further delays are crafted, however, similar students in the

class of 2007 would still have to take the exam, and more political

fights are expected as that time approaches.

And while the special education dilemma appears solved temporarily,

the state is bracing for other legal challenges to the exit exam in

the coming months. At least one prominent San Francisco law firm has

threatened to seek an injunction, calling the exam unfair to many

groups of students, including those who speak English as a second

language.

The agreement announced Thursday grew out of a 2002 lawsuit that

sought to exclude disabled students from the graduation requirement.

The suit accused the state of mandating the graduation test without

adequately preparing these students for it. Even if they had passed

all their courses, they still needed to pass the exit exam.

About 23,000 California high school seniors who are in special

education — or nearly two-thirds of all disabled seniors — had not

yet passed one or both sections of the exit exam at the end of last

school year, according to the latest available results.

Officials of the group that filed the lawsuit voiced satisfaction

with the new legislation.

" It's really great news, " said Heller, a staff attorney with

Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley. " It means that students in

special education will not be penalized for [the state] not providing

proper materials or qualified teachers. "

Students covered by the legislation can have a range of physical,

emotional or cognitive disabilities that hinder learning. To qualify

for the delay, however, these students must be on track to graduate

in 2006 and have failed the exit exam at least twice since 10th grade.

Districts also must verify that they have provided supplemental

instruction to these students.

The exit exam is geared to sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade levels

in math, and ninth- and 10th-grade levels in English. Students have

to answer only about half of the questions correctly to pass and can

take it multiple times.

The test was originally slated for the class of 2004, but low passing

rates among many groups of students led state officials to delay it

two years.

The need for a quick solution for disabled students was underscored

by exam results released Thursday by the Los Angeles Unified School

District.

Only 26% of L.A. Unified special education students have passed both

portions of the exam, the results showed.

Overall, 80% of the district's high school seniors have passed both

parts of the test, up from 75% last fall. Nearly 6,000 Los Angeles

seniors have yet to clear the exam hurdle.

The state's postponement for special education students was

negotiated by officials from the governor's office, the Legislature,

the state Department of Education and the state Board of Education.

Those involved in the deal said they hoped their consensus would set

the tone for further negotiations toward a lasting solution.