From CHEO Legislative Liaison, Melanie Elsey:
The General Assembly has passed a bill that would scale back state assessments for public and private school students to the extent they are able.
HB67 requires the ODE to seek federal waivers on the assessments that are federally required for these students. To extend assessment waivers to all students, the legislators have included a section to waive the academic assessment report for home educated students this year. This means that the academic assessment report will not be required when notifying for the 2021-2022 school year. They have also included language waiving the American History assessment requirement for Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship students.
Of course, parents are welcome to go ahead with assessments if they so choose, but they are not required to send the results along with their notification for the 2021-22 school year.
Timeline:
- March 4: HB67 passed the House with a vote of 93 – 1.
- March 17: The Senate amended it with an emergency clause so that it can take effect immediately. The vote was 32-1.
- March 17: HB67, as amended, received concurrent passage in the House with a vote 96-0.
- March 20: HB67 was signed by Governor DeWine and takes effect immediately.
Important: These waivers are not a part of permanent law and are only valid for this academic year.
Click here for the bill: HB67
Click here for summary page of the bill: 2021 Assessment Waiver