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OPTING OUT – Step by Step

Written by admin on March 4, 2015. Posted in Homeschooling, STAAR | EOC Testing. 258 Comments

How to Opt Out/Decline/Refuse STAAR

January 2026 Update: Link to Facilitated Refusal letter added

In response to a lot of “how do I do this” questions, we’ve put together this step by step guide on opting out. This is a general guide of the various steps and forms a parent can follow to Opt Out of the STAAR assessment. If you are looking for an easy, non-confrontational approach, we can’t offer you that. Schools have been instructed to state that they can’t permit it. Some schools go further and falsely claim that state or federal law requires all students to take the STAAR assessments. Others even make implicit or overt threats to parents.

So while all of our forms and letters are polite and civil, there is no guarantee that your school district will work with you. Fortunately, the past few years have brought more cooperation and the chances for a better outcome are greater than ever. But if you are met with resistance, you still hold the power. As Peggy Robertson of United Opt Out said, opting out is, at its heart, an act of civil disobedience. So join the hundreds and thousands of parents locally, statewide and nationally who are standing up and speaking out against the standardization of our children’s education.

STEP ONE:

Inform the school that you intend to opt out of the assessment. You are not asking them to let you. You are telling them your decision. You can use the Master Opt Out letter, and customize it to your needs.

A lot of parents have asked whether you must tell the school. If you simply intend to refuse the assessment, you do not. However, if you want to preserve the argument that Texas law permits you to Opt Out, you must give notice as described in the Opt Out letters. We also encourage notice so that the school understands that the assessment system is being protested by the parents.

STEP TWO:

It is extremely unlikely you will receive a response from the school indicating that your child will not be administered the STAAR. You will almost certainly receive a response from the school telling you they can’t permit it. At that time you can send either the response letter (if they are citing legalities) or a follow up refusal letter (if they simply say they can’t allow it). In that case, go to STEP THREE.

Some schools have taken to simply acknowledging the letter which leaves the parent in a bit of limbo. They acknowledge they received the letter but they don’t tell you what they are going to do. We take this as an opportunity to explore the refusal option. If you get one of these non-committal acknowledgements, we recommend you send a facilitated refusal request.

If the facilitated refusal request is agreed to, you simply need to follow up and iron out the details (will you stay home on the main administration day, if not where will she go, do they need you or her to sign anything, etc). You may get emailed with the list of “consequences” for refusing. Now is not the time to engage that list. Now is the time to get a refusal set up. You can simply acknowledge that you understand what they have communicated to you. If your request for a facilitated refusal is granted, continue to STEP FIVE. Otherwise go to STEP THREE.

STEP THREE:

At this point, unless the school relents, you will need to make a decision. The choices of the parent here are multiple:

(A) Keep your child home on STAAR days. If you choose (A), you must be aware of not only the primary test days, but the full testing window. Schools may assess students after the main STAAR administration day as long as it is within the window. Testing windows may be found here. (2023-2024 Calendar, as TEA appears to have made its calendar page private!!) Now a school is not REQUIRED to use the full testing window, but they can. Unless you learn that they school has completed all assessments and returned the testing materials to the state, then you should assume the entire window might be used. NOTE: the assessment windows are very long now, and it may be difficult to completely stay out of all assessment days.

(B) Send them for the assessment and instruct them to page to the end without answering any questions, submit it and confirm their submission. This is a far easier option than refusing a paper administration ever was. This is because the assessment can be submitted blank without ever interacting with the proctor. Although some schools are adding steps of telling students to raise their hands before submitting, that is not a requirement. Instruct your student to just submit it when they get to the end, being careful not to answer any questions along the way. If you choose (B) be aware the some schools have told children during testing that their parents just called and said it was OK to take the assessment. Should you go this route, create a password that the child must hear before they take the assessment. If the teacher can’t repeat it, the child doesn’t take the assessment. Refusing in this manner can be done without any notice to the school at all, although we strongly urge parents to make a written record of their protest.

(C) Keep your kid home the main day of STAAR and then return and refuse the assessment on the makeup day. Some school districts have permitted children to return to class on makeup days without being assessed. They have required that the child and parent come together to the office before school and write “refused” on the assessment (or sign some other indicator). This is a common sense approach to a refusal to test. It keeps the child in class, minimizes absences and meets their requirements. You can request Return to Class on Makeup Days using this letter.

(D) Advocate for the school to accept your refusal. This option has become available to parents over the last few years since the TEA has made clear that schools may accept a parental refusal. Before this, the position of the school was always that “if the student is on campus, we are required to put the assessment in front of them.” This led to numerous situations where devious test administrators lied to students, cajoled them to disobey their parents or otherwise pressured students who had been told to refuse to participate instead. The TEA has made clear that this is not required and that the school may accept the parental refusal and simply submit the assessment for scoring as if the student refused in person. Review this article on the parental refusal.

I want to be super clear – no matter what approach you take, you must prepare for the possibility that the school will try to pull your child for assessment. No matter what they have said or how much you trust them — BE PREPARED. Let your child know not to take it. Tell the kid to call you if they pull him for STAAR. Walk in with them. Set up a password system. Have them trained to tab through if they get stuck in an assessment room! It’s sad but every year parents send their kids back to school thinking their opt out will be honored, and the school pulls the kid who is unprepared and caves in and takes the assessment. That’s on us as parents. BE PREPARED! Hope for the best; prepare for the worst. Be one of the many success stories, not the surprise and disappointed victim of school bullying.

STEP FOUR:

This step used to talk about how 5th and 8th grade parents had to fight threats of retention. Great news! Promotion is not dependent on STAAR results in ANY GRADE! There is a recent change in the law which requires schools to provide 30 15 hours of tutoring (in a 4:1 ~~3:1~~ ratio) for each reading or math STAAR not passed. ~~(HB 4545~~ HB 1416). Parents can opt out of this (see letter) and schools are not permitted to remove a child from foundation or enrichment curriculum to tutor them (i.e. no loss of electives!). Review school forms and enrollment documents carefully. NEVER waive the 4:1 tutoring ratio unless it is part of an agreement that you are satisfied with to minimize or eliminate tutoring. Never sign it as part of general enrollment documents.

STEP FIVE:

If your child either refuses to complete the assessment on an administration day or if they refuse on a makeup day, you may use the FERPA corrective letter to ask to have the scored assessment removed from your child’s educational records at both the state and local level. The TEA will still score the assessment, and your request will almost certainly be denied, but you can demand your letter be included in his academic file. THIS SHOULD ONLY BE DONE AFTER YOU RECEIVE SCORE REPORTS.

STEP SIX:

Report back! We want to hear about any districts that act in a bad manner towards opt out parents. We also want to hear any stories of schools that are understanding and work with you! Use our contact form to let us know how it goes!

A NOTE ON TRUANCY:

Some districts threaten truancy charges or send notices about truancy to parents who keep their kids out for all or a large part of the assessment window. But we see this less and less since truancy laws have been modified (see 2017/2016 notes below), and because most parents use some type of agreed or in person refusal to get back to class. However, if you are missing days to opt out and receive a threat, you should not ignore this.

Rather, inform the school that you have engaged in a home school program on the dates of absence. Let them know that your program included reading, writing, social studies, science and citizenship. Once you have done that, you will have laid the foundation for a defense of truancy charges. It is likely that the school district will not proceed further at that point. For more information on Dual Enrollment Home Schooling, read this.

Update for 2017: The following addition from 2016 holds true. We have had no reports of any truancy related charges from opt out parents in 2016. >>> Update for 2016: Truancy laws have changed. The threat is no longer as great as it once was, although it has not entirely disappeared. In particular, the three day in four week provision, which was used to intimidate parents who held their kids out for a full testing window, has been removed! This is great news. An unvetted comparison of the old law and the new law is here.

Updated 1/22/24

Ten Texas Opt Out Myths, and the Real Story Behind Them

Written by admin on February 24, 2015. Posted in STAAR | EOC Testing. 2 Comments

Updated January 19, 2021

STAAR season is upon us. And with it comes the annual posting of opinions, “law” and procedures that people have been told are true or represent a sure path to successful refusal of the assessment. In this post, we discuss seven common myths that represent things that schools say, that parents say or that simply float around as truisms, when they are not!

Myth #1. If you opt out, your child cannot be promoted.

Other than for grades 5 and 8, promotion is not tied to performance on the STAAR assessment. While some local school boards may have a different policy, most follow the state law and only require STAAR passage for promotion in Grades 5 and 8. Check your ISD board policy EIE (Local) for your specific rules. By the way, even for Grades 5 and 8, the statute provides a pathway to promotion for students who fail or refuse to take the STAAR assessment.

Myth #2. A school cannot retain a child unless the parent agrees.

Each school district can set its standard for promotion and retention. They do not need your permission to retain your student. For students who did not pass STAAR or who opted out in Grades 5 and 8, the decision to promote the student must be unanimous from the Grade Placement Committee (which includes you as a parent). The decision to retain does not have to be unanimous.

Myth #3. Students are required by law to take the STAAR test.

Schools are required by law to assess students. An administrative regulation suggests that the students must be assessed. The statute places no obligation on a student or parent to take the assessment and provides no mechanism to compel participation.

Myth #4. A student who fails the STAAR or opts out must go to summer school.

Schools are required to offer students who do not perform satisfactorily on the STAAR what is called “accelerated instruction.” There is no specific definition of what constitutes AI or when it must take place. There is absolutely no rule that requires it to occur during the summer or on the school’s campus. A school has a high degree of flexibility to design an AI plan appropriate for each student, and parents have successfully refused on campus summer instruction or designed their own AI programs with no negative consequences.

Myth #5. There is a difference between Opting Out and Refusing the Assessment

This myth is based on the idea that our legal system operates using magic words. It doesn’t. Whether you are informing the school that you intend to Opt Out or Refuse, you are conveying the same message: that you will not permit your child to be assessed. The key here is to be clear with the school that you are not asking permission; you are simply informing them of your decision.

Myth #6. The Supreme Court has decided that parents have the right to refuse assessments for their kids.

There is absolutely no case law on this point at the Supreme Court level. People who perpetuate this myth take decisions that looked at the right to private education, or did not even deal with schooling, and try to stretch the language to fit standardized testing. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of cases involving curricular issues are decided against parents who are trying to exempt their child from curricular choices made by the school. However, we have never found a case where the court has said that a school may compel participation against a parent’s decision, even where the parent accepts the consequences of non-participation. We believe this is a fundamentally different question than those cases that seek exemption without consequence.

Myth #7. If you Opt Out, you must keep your child home the full week due to make up dates.

This may be a myth or it may be true. Some schools have used common sense and permitted students to return to class on make up days without completing the assessment. Those schools usually require the student to write refused on the assessment booklet. So this is something a parent can negotiate with a school. If you go this route, arrange it beforehand and be present for the refusal. Make sure your child knows that they should not take the assessment without hearing from you directly. You may want to have a “password” that the child must hear before they agree to take the assessment. Another option if schools refuse to permit a return to class is to keep your child home in the morning until it is too late in the day to start the STAAR. The STAAR cannot be administered unless time for the full testing window remains in the school day.

Myth #8. A school can’t retain a student with all passing grades just for failing STAAR.

Sadly in 5th and 8th grade this is not true. In all other grades, including high school, grade level promotion is not based on passing STAAR. However, in 5th or 8th grade, it is absolutely possible for a student to pass all classes, fail STAAR, and be retained. This is part of what makes high stakes assessment so abhorrent. Now, the reality is that almost no kids who are passing their classes are retained for failing STAAR, but it is irresponsible to suggest somehow that it can’t happen. It also makes STAAR look less punitive than it is, and that minimizes the incentive of people to work to change the testing regime.

Myth #9. They can’t keep you from graduating if you are passing all your classes

Again, not true. The law requires a student to pass all five EOC assessments to be assured of graduation. If a student passes 3 out of 5, they may be approved for graduation by the Individual Graduation Committee. However, this is not automatic. Even if the student gets to an IGC, the IGC can still deny graduation to a student, even a student with passing grades in all classes. The IGC is not bound to graduate anyone, and each year students with passing grades still do not graduate at the IGC level. It’s not common, but it happens. And if the student has not passed three assessments, they never get to the IGC. (Different rules apply for Special Ed students, and the assessment count may vary for students transferring into Texas from another state or from a private school). High school parents should review our article What About High School? for more information on opt out and the high school student.

Myth #10. There really is no option to Opt Out of STAAR

Just shut up. Thousands of parents opt out their kids out of STAAR every year. The schools do not have to agree with it, they do not have to (and likely will not) give permission and they do not have to make it easy (though any true professional would). There is absolutely no means created by statute for the school to compel the attendance and participation of any student in STAAR assessments. Arguably, a statutory right to opt our exists, but even if it doesn’t, this is still a parental decision that the school has no means to override. Schools don’t get to decide what is OPTING OUT and what is not. This type a language is an attempt to control the narrative and intimidate parents. As parents we need to stop enabling this kind of nonsense talk. You can keep your kid home, or send them and have them not answer a single question. Done, you have OPTED to take your kid OUT of the data driven assessment game. You win. Just don’t tolerate this idiotic language game for a minute.

Tag: refusal