Can honors students be held back if they 'opt out' of testing?
Parents in six Florida counties are suing school officials and school boards after a number of third graders were not allowed to move on to the fourth grade because their parents had chosen to opt them out of Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) reading tests. Many of the students involved were honors students who had already demonstrated they possessed the required reading proficiency level in their academic work, but they were still prevented from advancing to fourth grade. The lawsuit is based on claims of inequitable treatment, because only certain Florida counties interpret the third grade retention law to mean that opting out of the FSA means being held back a grade.