The state’s new parental rights law posed an unanticipated risk to funding English language learning programs, but state and local education officials say they’ve found a workaround.
Under the new law, schools must have written parental permission to audio or video record students. That includes the state’s nearly 5,800 English language learners whose assessments, which begin in January, must include an audio recording.
That’s a lot of signed permission slips to collect in the weeks before testing begins, especially over the holiday break.
Failing to complete the assessments could cost school districts the approximately $850 in state aid they receive for each student in their English Language Learner program, totaling nearly $5 million statewide.
For the Manchester School District, which has the largest English language learner population, failure to complete assessments could cost the district $1.8 million in funding for almost 2,100 students who speak 60 languages. The Nashua School District, which has the second largest English language learner population, receives nearly $1.4 million a year for its almost 1,640 students.
The two districts worked with the state Department of Education to find a solution for all school districts in the state.
Now, according to department spokesperson Kimberly Houghton, school districts can request an exemption from the state for the speaking portion of the test, which eliminates the need for parental permission if it is not obtained in time. Districts can also use a written test instead.
Wendy Perron, executive director of Manchester’s multilingual learner education program, said her district will do both and is grateful for the options.
“We’re going to do our best, but if we don't get the forms back, our plan is to administer the paper test so that students still have a complete test,” Perron said. She said that the test helps inform them about how their students are doing, “which, really, we do use to inform our programing.”
The options for the exemption and the alternative paper test replaces the guidance the Department of Education provided districts in mid-December. Then, it said obtaining parental permission for an audio test was the only option.
In a statement, Houghton said, “Following best practice, [the New Hampshire Department of Education] would first encourage districts to obtain parental consent. The paper version of the [English language learner test], as well as the [speaking] domain exemptions, still remain as options for all school districts.”
