Bill to skip tests for graduation for students with disabilities dies

The House Education Committee unanimously killed a bill Wednesday to allow students with disabilities who do not pass a graduate exit exam or a final course test but met all the other requirements retroactively could apply for a high school diploma.
House bill 771, by Rep. John Schroder, R-Covington, would originally have eliminated using end of course testing as a requirement for graduating. He was unable to present the bill due to a family issue.
The bill was amended earlier to make the bill only apply retroactively and then to apply only to students with disabilities. Shawn Fleming with the Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council said the bill would only impact about 10 students from last year, but noted the language of the bill would impact former students into the 90s.
Even after both amendments, the bill faced opposition. Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, said he was worried the committee would have to pass the bill every year to catch students who were not covered in the current school year.
“I don’t want to dissuade you from helping some people because we’re not helping everybody else,” Fleming said.
Fleming made the case to the committee that requiring standardized tests as a condition for graduation is on the way out, nationally.
“Our state is one of the few that use the tests, on a student level, for promotion and graduation.” Fleming said. He noted more than 60 percent of states don’t require certain scores to graduate.
Opponents of the bill said assessments keep standards high for students and produce people ready for higher education or workforce training
John White, superintendent of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, said 40,000 students finished school in Louisiana last year. He said the end of course tests raised the bar for tens of thousands of students, with about 100 completing high school but not graduating due to their performance on the tests.
Brigitte Nieland from the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry said supporters of the bill have a philosophical problem with assessment and evaluation. She said there should be a minimum standard to signal to colleges and universities the person is ready for higher education.
In a separate action, the committee unanimously approved a bill to create an advisory council on student restraint and seclusion policies. In addition, Senate Bill 317 changes reporting requirements on uses of restraint to include more instances and data. It now moves to the full House for consideration.
Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, said students were returning home from school with physical marks on their bodies without parents being notified properly. He said he brought the bill to fix issues in legislation passed last year.
Rebecca Ellis, a mother of an autistic child, said her son came home with fingernail marks and clusters of bruises. The school not providing documentation about them when requested, she said.
Previous law required reporting on a teacher holding a student more than five minutes. The bill would require reporting every incident except momentarily blocking a student when she or he presents a threat to herself or others and physically escorting of a student to class. It was suggested that Department of Education offer specificity on how to best handle situations where it might otherwise be unclear.
“We are not talking about prolonged periods of restraints” said Rep. Chris Broadwater, R-Hammond. “Three minutes is a long time.”