Signed by Governor Kate Brown

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to concur with Senate amendments and pass a bill that authorizes parents to excuse their children from taking certain statewide assessments.

Highlights:

• Authorizes a parent or an adult student 18 years or older to annually choose to excuse a student or themselves from taking a standardized statewide summative assessment by completing and submitting a Department of Education form to the school district or public charter school, effective 2015-2016 academic year (Sec. 3). 
• Requires a school district or public charter school to send parents and adult students a notice regarding statewide summative assessments and their right to excuse a student from taking the assessments at the beginning of the school year and again at least 30 days before the assessments begin, effective 2016-2017 academic year (Sec. 3). 
• Specifies that the notice must include the form that can be submitted to the department to excuse a student from taking the statewide summative assessments (Sec. 3).
• Specifies that if the performance rating of a school is affected by the number of parents and adult students who excuse students or themselves from taking a statewide summative assessment the Department of Education is required to include on the school performance report the following information (Sec. 3):
• An indication that the ranking was affected;
• An explanation of federal law requirement that affected the rating; and
• An estimated rating the school would have received if not for the federal law requirement. 

Full Bill Text