Yes. California Education Code section 60615 allows a parent or guardian to submit a written request to school officials to exclude his or her child from any or all parts of state-mandated assessments.
To protect your child: For many students, the Big Test can be very stressful. To improve education for all students: Opting out is an effective way to protest the overuse and misuse of standardized tests, which forces schools to focus on the demands of the tests instead of the needs of students.
Yes. California Education Code section 60615 allows a parent or guardian to submit a written request to school officials to exclude his or her child from any or all parts of state-mandated assessments.
Ten states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin) have laws specifically allowing parents to opt their children out. None has ever been sanctioned.
Depending on the state, there is not much impact on the student. In the past, the standardized test scores could be used to determine remediation or placement, but recently this has been done away with for the most part in most states.
The Case for Opting Out If testing causes your child undue stress, or your child has an issue such as dyslexia that makes a timed test a living nightmare, then putting your child through testing feels like cold, hard punishment that they don't deserve. My feeling? Opt them out.
It could be as basic as: “I want to let you know we do not want our child, name, to take part in the name the standardized exam this year. Please arrange for him or her to have a productive educational experience during the testing period.”Some states or districts have specific forms.
If you submit an opt out letter, your child's STAAR will be given a zero score even though your child did not take the STAAR.