ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Board of Regents met Monday to act on a series of emergency regulations in regards to the recent coronavirus pandemic.
The New York State Education Department issued a press release Monday saying they will "amend the Commissioner’s regulations to provide that an alternative form of evaluation for students receiving home instruction, in lieu of an annual assessment, will be permitted for all grades in the 2019-20 school year due to the State of Emergency declared by the Governor."
Schools in New York State have been ordered closed until April 29 due to coronavirus concerns.
The NYSED is expected to provide more information to the public on Regents examinations on Tuesday.
Niagara Falls School Superintendent Mark Laurrie says he supports this move overall, "It would have been very difficult for students to be prepared, and teachers to prepare students and it just would have added to the anxiety they have already."
Laurrie says there are some main points he wants clarified by the state education department such as, "How does this affect graduation? What leeway or latitude will a school district have to grant Regents credit? What will happen with August exams for the underclassmen? How will this affect college transcripts?"
Superintendent Laurrie notes this comes following the previous move this year to eliminate testing for grades three through eight testing. As such, the schools will remain status quo in their accountability and performance ratings with the state.
Pioneer High School Student Dylan Hutchinson also was not surprised and he is relieved as well.
"With school being cancelled, I probably would have been under-prepared as most teachers aren't teaching new curriculum at this point," Hutchinson said. "They're just reviewing."
Dylan still wants to know if they will require students to take the August version of Regents or if they will get a pass. Otherwise he worries about friends who are upper-classmates.
"I'm like kinda concerned because there might be seniors who are maybe on the brink of failing and if they had to pass the Regents in order to pass high school, what's gonna happen to them?" He said.
Despite this change, students taking advanced placement classes will still have to take their AP exams next month, but they're going to look a lot different. The exams will be administered remotely at home with open books and notes, and will last only about 45 minutes.
Students will be able to take the exam on any kind of electronic device.