Testing Opt Out Refusal - Indiana printable pdf download

Testing opt-out/refusal guide for: INDIANA

Form completed by PARENT POWER INDPLS

Contact information (email)

List of assessments

DIBELS, Fontas and Pinnell BAS, Benchmarks, Acuity, IREAD K-2, IREAD-3, ISTEP+,

End-of-Course Assessments (ECAs), Advance Placement Exams, ISTAR-KR, IMAST or

ISTAR (for children with disabilities), ILAAS/LAS, mCLASS, Indiana Course-Aligned

Assessments, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests aligned

with Common Core is scheduled to begin in the 2014-2015 school year.

Special considerations for the above assessments

Passing the Algebra I and English 10 assessments (or qualifying for a GQE waiver) will

meet the graduation testing requirement. Participation in Biology I fulfills the

requirement for No Child Left Behind by assessing students in high school science.

Students who do not pass IREAD-3 in the spring have an opportunity to retest in the

summer. Students who do not pass the spring or summer administrations of IREAD-3

will continue to receive instruction in Grade 3 Reading, will be officially reported as a

third grader, and will fully participate in the Grade 3 ISTEP+ assessment.

Procedures for opt-out/refusal

The IDOE has informed parents that IDOE does not have an "OPT OUT" policy. This is

correct. IDOE does not have any rules pertaining to parents opting their children out of

high stakes standardized testing. Indiana state law states that all public school children

must take the state assessment. However, the Supreme Court has upheld parents’ rights

to guide the upbringing of their children. During the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school

years, IDOE threatened to report parents who opted their children out to the Department

of Family and Children for educational neglect under Indiana's Compulsory Attendance

laws if a parent withheld their child's attendance during the testing periods. Some parents

were successful in turning this argument back on the IDOE in that the IDOE was

withholding their child's attendance and education, educational neglect, by forcing their

children to the test if their child attended and denying a parent their right to guide their

child's education. In 2012-2013, the IDOE directed school administrators to inform

parents that child may practice civil disobedience by sitting quietly throughout each

testing day/period during the testing window.

Urgency for opt-out/refusal

Without the data from high stakes tests, no one can falsely and unethically say that a

Testing Opt Out Refusal - Indiana