On May 15th, Congressman Tom Reed from New York introduced H. R. #2382, a parent opt-out bill that would allow parents to opt out of any standardized assessment required by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. For many states, this would include the Smarter Balanced Assessment and the PARCC Assessment. Co-sponsored by Democrat Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut and Republican Chris Gibson from New York, the bill will go to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
I would strongly urge all supporters of parent opt-out to contact their United States Representatives and Senators. If this bill goes through it would make this the law of the entire country. No text for the proposed legislation has been released at this point, but it will certainly be one to follow closely. Two of the main sponsors are from New York, which had the most amount of opt-outs in the entire country. If you currently have a parent opt-out bill in your own state, don’t think this will replace that. If this bill does not pass and your state bill does, it would be more fuel to get something through at a Federal level down the road.
The Season Of Myths 