When the Texas legislature imposed EOC graduation requirements on Texas students, they threw out a very important bone that Opt Out parents utilize to their advantage: the right to use substitute assessments to satisfy graduation requirements.  This is a legislative determination and can’t be restricted by local schools or the TEA.  The TEA is charged […]

I can’t tell you how tired I am of hearing this.  Parents of kids as young as third grade hear this.  Some parents have even been told that passing STAAR in elementary school is required to graduate high school.  We’ll file that claim as “too stupid to merit a response.”  But let’s consider what underlies […]

This article will discuss the Individual Graduation Committee Process for students who have not passed all five of the EOC exit exams as they approach graduation.  This articles does not address the graduation options for Special Education students.  It does include any student covered by a 504 plan.  The IGC process allows a student to […]

The big threat is over.  No longer do parents have to listen to petty tyrants threaten to retain straight A students if they don’t take STAAR. Mind you, there was never a single instance of an Opt Out kid being retained for not taking STAAR reported to us in ten years.  But that didn’t stop […]

For reasons that are not clear to me, we’ve seen a sharp increase in “helpful” parents suggesting the answer to STAAR is to go along and bubble all “A” or all “C” or make some random design.  PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO THAT SUGGESTION!  Bubbling all the same answer will produce data.  That data will […]

Shockingly, some school officials still appear to be using the threat of retention to compel parents to bring their kids to campus mid-pandemic and take the STAAR.  Usually, when this happens, we go into a lengthy explanation of how retention is theoretically possibly, but practically never happens. Then we walk you through the GPC process […]

We know the TEA plans to make it harder for kids to use substitute assessments to graduate high school. This rule is the first step. Please read and send a comment to the TEA! We need to flood them to have a chance!!! HOW DO WE COMMENT? Go to the Web Address for Public Comment: […]

Today the Texas Education Agency proposes a rule[1] that would tell a high school student who has met the required passing scores on state approved nationally recognized assessment instruments that they are not entitled to a Texas High School Diploma unless they also submit to take a state created assessment for which they have no […]

Under the principle of Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius, accelerated instruction can never be considered an exception to 26.010, because the law presumes that all exceptions have been incorporated in the statute and unexpressed ones cannot be implied.

A standard line amongst opt out activists is that you simply can’t do it in high school.  But more and more Texas parents are proving that the opposite is true.  More and more Texas kids are finishing their Texas high schools without having taken some or all of the EOCS.  I go a step further.  I hold that, for a committed opt out parent, if you can put aside sentimentality and about $2.50 a week, you, and not the school, hold all the power.