Regents exam exemptions for students experiencing emergencies get preliminary OK

Students experiencing a major injury or other traumatic event could obtain an exemption from taking a state Regents exam under a regulatory change given preliminary approval Monday by state education officials.

Under new rules, school district superintendents or principals of independent schools would be empowered to grant testing exceptions to high school students faced with a "major life event," such as a critical illness or death of a family member. Requests for exemptions could come from other adults including teachers, relatives or guardians.

To quality for test exemptions under the new rules, students would be required to have earned passing classroom marks in the course that included a Regents exam at the end.

In the past, the only option available to students faced with a traumatic event was to reschedule an exam that had to be postponed due to an emergency situation. State school authorities said that one problem, in such instances, was that a student postponing an exam for an extended period might forget much of the information learned during the original course.

"It's heartbreaking for us as staff that the only thing we can share with a parent or a school or a superintendent is that, well, unfortunately, the child will just have to sit for the next administration," said Angelique Johnson-Dingle, a deputy state education commissioner.

Johnson-Dingle spoke Monday at a monthly meeting of the state's Board of Regents held in Albany. The deputy commissioner is in charge of the state's instructional support for preschool through 12th grade and formerly worked for Western Suffolk BOCES.

The test-waiver provision was approved unanimously Monday by a Regents committee in charge of elementary and secondary education. Passage by the 10-member committee virtually assures approval by the full 17-member board. A final ratification, following a period set aside for public comment, is scheduled for July.

Waivers were part of a package of recommendations for changes in graduation requirements put forward in 2023 by a state-appointed blue-ribbon advisory commission. One commission member, Lorna Lewis, who is superintendent of Malverne schools, welcomed the Regents' latest move Monday as a humanitarian effort. 

"It's the right thing to do," said Lewis, who is also a former president of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. 

Lewis went on to say there was general agreement that waivers would be granted only in cases of serious trauma and not as a relaxation of standards.

"This is not meant as a pass-through, and that is really, really important," Lewis said.

Monday's action represents an early step in a far broader state plan to revamp the role of Regents exams that have been administered in New York for more than a century. Under that plan, students seeking high school diplomas would no longer be required to pass exams, but could rather opt for other choices such as writing a research paper or completing a public-service project.

Regents exams would remain an option under the plan. In November, the Regents approved a timetable that would put the entire blueprint into operation by 2027. 

By John Hildebrand

john.hildebrand@newsday.com@johnhnewsday

John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.