Accord calls for California special ed students to take high school exit exam

After two years of exemptions from California's high school exit exam, special education students could be forced to pass the test this year, but not without a fight in the Legislature that could continue until students begin crossing the graduation stage next month.

Just like their peers who are not disabled, students in special education will have to pass the California High School Exit Exam to graduate in 2008, according to a legal settlement reached Friday between attorneys representing the students and the state Department of Education. The students have been exempted for the past two years.

The agreement was a blow for the students' lawyers, who had been trying to exempt special ed students from the exam requirement. The settlement of Kidd v. California Department of Education calls for the state to conduct a study of students who have failed the exam even though they've taken it with special ed circumstances – such as with more time, or by using a calculator.

"We're optimistic about the study and the settlement, but we're disappointed about the lack of exemption," said Roger Heller, a lawyer with Disability Rights Advocates, the Berkeley group representing special education students statewide.

But Sen. Gloria Romero, who wrote the bills exempting students with disabilities from having to pass the test in 2006 and 2007, said the agreement doesn't go far enough.

"The settlement was basically to say we'll do another study," she said. "That is simply ridiculous."

She held a press conference Tuesday to draw attention to her new bill, SB 1446, which would extend the exemption to special ed kids in the class of 2008. Romero said 40,000 students with disabilities will be unable to graduate this year because of the exam. Her urgency bill will be discussed in the Senate education committee today.

"The Legislature enacted the exit exam, the Legislature has to resolve outstanding issues with the exit exam," Romero said.

State schools chief Jack O'Connell said the exam makes schools pay more attention to struggling students – including those in special ed.

"With all due respect, Senator Romero's bill goes in the wrong direction," he said. "I don't believe it helps prepare students for the real world in this hyper-competitive global economy."

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