High school Regents exams scheduled for June in New York have been canceled amid the coronavirus shutdown, Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa said Monday.
The exams are graduation requirements for New York high school students . State education officials “had to undertake a very thoughtful review” of the potential ripple effects of canceling them before making the decision, Rosa said during the monthly Board of Regents meeting.
Officials will make a formal announcement Tuesday explaining how schools should operate without the June exams and offering more guidance, Rosa said. Officials did not specify Monday whether the August administration of the exams will also be canceled.
A chorus of educators, students and elected officials had called for the high-stakes testing to be canceled. State officials already canceled required exams for students in grades 3 through 8.
The regents also passed a slate of emergency amendments to state education regulations Monday to give schools more flexibility during the coronavirus closures.
One change grants schools additional time to set up support services for disabled children found eligible for a special education plan.
New York schools currently have 60 school days to provide services from when a student’s family agrees to an evaluation. With the new amendment, days when schools are closed under executive order from Gov. Cuomo won’t count toward that 60-day limit.
“Under that scenario, a child recently identified as needing speech therapy or counseling could go without these services for half a year while other students have the benefit of receiving these services via teletherapy,” wrote Advocates for Children, a group that works on behalf of disabled children, in a letter to the Board of Regents.
More than 200,000 city students receive special education services. The city Education Department plans to continue to evaluate students for special education services remotely, and is providing many with services like therapy through video chat.
Advocates for Children is concerned the state change will “let districts off the hook for providing what is feasible during the period when schools are physically closed,” the organization wrote to the Board of Regents.
Christopher Suriano, the state’s assistant commissioner for special education, said he’s “taking a look at the concern.” He emphasized that federal law requiring districts to offer the specialized services “as soon as possible” is still in effect. Advocates said that language doesn’t replace a firm legal time limit.
Suriano said the amendment is meant to ease the “extreme difficulty parents and districts will face in getting evaluations implemented.”
