Education official: Test opt-out bill may help cheaters

Children could refuse to take exams for medical reasons.

Legislation that lets schoolchildren refuse to take mandatory state tests for medical reasons could open the door to cheating, one top educational ethics enforcement official warned.

Kelly Henson, leader of Georgia’s teacher credentialing agency, said that if Gov. Nathan Deal signs Senate Bill 355, school officials could be protected if they encourage parents of low-performing students to keep their kids home on testing days.

“It’s not an improbable scenario that, at least in some places, there would be a concerted and organized effort to encourage certain parents to opt out,” said Henson, the executive secretary of the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which pursues sanctions against school employees for unethical behavior.

Schools are judged on their test results, so the temptation would be there, Henson told his commissioners at their meeting Thursday.

The bill’s author, Sen. William T. Ligon Jr., R-Brunswick, said it’s a stretch to imagine such abuse, since doctors and parents, rather than schools, would be making the opt-out decisions.

The legislation, adopted at the end of the just-finished legislative session, allows children to refuse mandatory state tests under two conditions: a diagnosis of a life-threatening or serious health condition or an excuse from a therapist or doctor.

“I think they’re looking for a problem where there is none,” Ligon said.

Henson, who has been a superintendent and a school principal, said that in his experience getting a doctor to sign a note is easy. To him, it seems obviously unethical to encourage parents of struggling students to opt out, yet he said SB 355 contains a potential loophole with this sentence: “A teacher, principal, assistant principal, school, or local school system shall not be penalized for any such child who does not participate in such assessments.”

Ligon said that language was inserted out of concern about any