Welcome to Disability Rights Advocates
Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), together with co-counsel Chavez & Gertler, LLP, is litigating a class action lawsuit on behalf of California high school students with disabilities, challenging the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) as an invalid and discriminatory exam as applied to these students. As a result of this lawsuit, students with disabilities in the Class of 2007 who meet all other graduation requirements are generally entitled to their diplomas regardless of whether they pass the CAHSEE.
This is because the California Legislature, acting in response to the long standing lawsuit, passed Senate Bill (SB) 267, which ensures that these students can receive their diplomas. SB 267 was sponsored by State Senator Gloria Romero, and it was signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 29, 2006. The bill includes certain procedural requirements students must meet in order to graduate.
The underlying class action lawsuit, Chapman/Kidd v. California Department of Education, was first filed in Alameda County Superior Court in 2002. The certified class consists of all students with disabilities in special education throughout the state who must take the CAHSEE to receive a high school diploma. The defendants are the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.
Under SB 267, California students with disabilities in the Class of 2007 are entitled to their diplomas if they meet the following requirements:
This protection under SB 267 for students with disabilities in the Class of 2007 is not affected by various rulings in other lawsuits challenging the exit exam.
DRA encourages students with disabilities in the Class of 2007 to take the necessary steps to ensure that they are entitled to a diploma under the provisions of SB 267 if they have not received a passing score on the exit exam, or to go through the waiver process if they have received a passing score using “modifications.”
In April 2008, Plaintiffs reached a settlement agreement with the State regarding the use of the CAHSEE for students with disabilities. Purusuant to the Agreement, which still requires approval by the Court, the State will fund a study by a neutral expert of the CAHSEE and its impact on students with disabilities. A report will be issued once the study is completed, which will include recommendations for necessary policy changes. The settlement represents an effort by the parties to find a long term solution to the problems that have been addressed in this case. DRA believes that the settlement offers a unique and valuable opportunity to gather the information necessary to make graduation requirements fair for students with disabilities in future graduating classes. Unfortunately, the settlement agreement does not provide for an exemption to the CAHSEE graduation requirement for special education students in the class of 2008. There is currently pending legislation sponsored by Sen. Gloria Romero, Senate Bill 1446, that would exempt special education students in the classes of 2008 and 2009 from the CAHSEE graduation requirement. DRA fully supports Senator Romero's bill, and encourages parents, students and others interested to contact their state legislators and ask them to support this important piece of legislation. If this bill is unsuccessful, however, it appears that special education students in the class of 2008 will need to pass the CAHSEE to receive diplomas.
If you are California High School student with an an IEP or 504 Plan, or the parent of such a student, we are interested in hearing how the California High School Exit Exam has affected you.
Please complete our CAHSEE Impact Survey online; your response will be automatically emailed to us.
If you prefer, you may also download and print our CAHSEE Impact Survey, and mail it to us at:
Disability Rights AdvocatesThe survey is available in both PDF and plain text formats. Please note that if you choose to complete our CAHSEE Impact Survey online, you do not need to download a copy of the survey.
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