New York state expected to adopt new path to diploma

Students in New York now have more ways to graduate with a high school diploma, Rockville Centre administrators explained to a group of parents during a forum at Francis F. Wilson Elementary School on June 12.

Prior to June 2015, students were required to pass five Regents examinations, including one in math, science, English, global history and United States history. Another choice was introduced that allowed students to pass only four Regents, and replace one of the history exams for a Pathway assessment in a range of approved subjects, or a Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) Commencement Credential, which is still an option.

But most recently, the State Board of Regents last December adopted proposed regulations that would allow high school students with special needs to be eligible to earn local diplomas without passing any Regents exams through a superintendent determination, as long as the student completes the requirements of the state’s CDOS credential. The proposed amendment will become effective on June 27 if adopted at the board’s meeting this week.

“We still want to keep all students with disabilities held to very high expectations, which of course we do in Rockville Centre,” said Dr. Noreen Leahy, assistant superintendent for pupil personnel services and special education. “We still have to provide them with meaningful opportunities.”

A few dozen parents attended the meeting, which was hosted by Rockville Centre’s Special Education Partners, or SEP, formerly known as the Special Education Parent Teacher Association. It followed a series of forums in April and May, during which some parents urged the district to re-evaluate its special education and inclusion model, citing difficulties that students with disabilities face in certain courses.

Leahy, who ran the meeting alongside South Side High School Principal John Murphy and Laurie Levy, supervisor of guidance and student support services, noted that the majority of students with disabilities can meet the state’s learning standards for graduation, but that the superintendent determination provides another option for those who are unable to demonstrate proficiency on state assessments.

To be eligible for the local diploma through a superintendent determination under the new regulations, a student must have a current individualized education program, and have earned the required course credits while passing all courses needed for graduation. He or she is also required to have taken all the Regents exams required for graduation, and despite not passing one or more of the exams, there must be evidence that the student has otherwise demonstrated graduation-level proficiency in the subjects.

They all must also complete the CDOS credential, which entails 216 hours of Career and Technical Education, or CTE, coursework, 54 of which must be in work-based learning experiences. Rockville Centre students who earn the credential at the Nassau BOCES Joseph M. Barry Career & Technical Education Center in New Cassel, or through “supportive employment” also develop a career plan and build an employability profile.

Bonnie Buckley, of East Islip, a leader of the Facebook page Multiple Pathways to a Diploma for All, spoke at the meeting, telling of how she “went to war” with the state education department while advocating for her learning-disabled daughter, who had trouble passing Regents exams.

Her daughter received a local diploma with superintendent determination by getting at least a 55 on the math and ELA Regents exams and completing the CDOS requirement, back when those two Regents were required to graduate with a diploma.

She added that she was happy that the state is putting more weight on the CDOS credential, which she said previously “led to nothing,” and that it is important for parents to be knowledgeable about the most recent changes because they are their child’s number one advocate. “The number of parents that have no idea that things have changed is staggering to me,” she noted.

Of the 104 students with IEPs that graduated from South Side from 2015 to 2017, 54 received a Regents diploma, 29 earned an Advanced Regents diploma, 15 earned a Skills and Achievement credential and only six received a local diploma.

Schools Superintendent Dr. William Johnson told the Herald that no Rockville Centre student has ever applied for a local diploma with superintendent determination since it became an option a few years ago.

“I think that the state is truly trying to figure out a way to provide our special education population with a meaningful credential when they leave us,” he said. To the extent that I can, I will work with the state and their criteria to ensure that it’s fairly applied to the students that are currently enrolled in our special education programs.”