Hopefully the following information will help parents put to rest their fundamental rights to guide and direct the education of their children. We know parents have been receiving conflicting information from their school administrators on whether or not they have the right to REFUSE the Common Core Assessments for their children.
WE CONTINUE TO ENCOURAGE PARENTS TO REFUSE THE STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS and hope this information will help you in that decision.
The NH DoE acknowledges the RIGHT of parents to Opt Out their child:
“Although RSA 193-C-6 requires all public school students to participate in the statewide assessment (one assessment in English language arts, mathematics and science), there are no laws … or rules …that would penalize a student for not participating in the statewide assessment. Additionally, the same is true if a parent determined that they would not allow their child to participate.”
TA Advisory – Assessment Participation (addendum)-2
We continue to encourage you to check your LOCAL policies to see if:
1) Will your child’s grade be impacted if they do NOT take the Standardized Assessments (Smarter Balanced, STARR, NWEA, etc.)
2) Will your child’s “placement” in a class be impacted?
3) Will your child be held back from advancing to the next grade?
In other words will your school district TRY to PUNISH you and your child? IF so, please let us know immediately.