Dealing with opt-out students probably will be left to teachers

The school district has yet to say how it will accommodate students who opt out of taking upcoming state standardized tests but appears likely to leave the decision in the hands of teachers.

At a Board of Education meeting Tuesday, Trustee James Mooney said concerns were raised during a recent community meeting with parents.

“Parents want to be assured that their kids won’t be rewarded or punished for the parents’ decision,” Mooney said. “I would like to get something in writing. I don’t know if this has to be referred to a policy or not ... but for the parents who opt their kids out, we need to make sure that those kids aren’t sitting there at empty space.”

School district Superintendent Seth Turner said options still are being considered and that teachers probably will make the decisions about what to do with students who refuse to take the tests.

“I support letting the educator who works with that child develop instructional materials,” Turner said.

Turner said that was how the situation was handled last year. “There’s no way for us to police every classroom across the district [for] what’s going on, nor to know what the people and parents would like to have in place,” he said. “I want to encourage them, though, to make sure, if they’re having any concerns, [to] go to their child’s teacher, talk to their principal.” Trustee Damion Ferraro said the district’s use of supplemental materials last year was an improvement over the “sit and stare” policy used in 2014.

“The question is what are we going to do,” he said. “... If we don’t know it, then we’re going to end up in March and April with a problem. ... But I think right now nobody knows what we’re doing.”

Turner said it’s difficult to set up a location for students who opt out of the tests. He noted there have been wide differences in how many students have opted out of past tests, with percentages ranging from less than 5 percent to more than 40 percent.

“We don’t have a lot of free space within the building, but if we did know in advance ... that there was a particular grade level in a particular building that had a greater [number of opt-outs], we can tailor where they’re physically going to be.”