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What happens when school districts don't test?

Expecting to have their children take a norm-referenced standardized achievement test through the local public school, several Home School Legal Defense Association member families in the Syracuse area received a shock. Their school district would not be providing the test for them. In fact, the district would not even be providing standardized tests for its own public school students.

What were these families to do? Should they find an alternative place to have their children tested, as was suggested by some public school officials? A close evaluation of § 100.10 of the commissioner's regulations provides the answer for families in this situation.

Subdivision (h) of § 100.10 states that a parent is to have a commercially published norm-referenced achievement test administered every other year between the 4th and 8th grades and every year during high school. This test is to be selected by the parent from an approved list of tests and "shall be administered in accordance with one of the following options, to be selected by the parents:

(a)	at the public school, by its professional staff;
(b)	at a registered nonpublic school . . . ;
(c)	at a nonregistered nonpublic school . . . ;
(d)	at the parents' home or at any other reasonable location . . . ." (emphasis added)

If a homeschool family chooses to have their child administered a norm-referenced achievement test "at the public school, by its professional staff," and the school district declines to administer the test, the family is in compliance with the law. They are not required to select an alternative option.

If you choose the public school testing option, be sure to notify your district early in the school year to avoid last-minute complications.

— by Thomas J. Schmidt