Gov. Jerry Brown

Governor Jerry Brown today signed Senate Bill 725 into law, allowing close to 5,000 high school seniors across the state to graduate without passing a now-cancelled high school exit exam.

The governor signed the bill without comment, his office said.

Brown’s signature brings to a close a problem that began in May, when the California Department of Education suspended administration of the California High School Edit Examination (CAHSEE), which was to have taken place in July.

“Students who’ve been accepted into college should not be prevented from starting class this fall because of a test cancellation they could not control,” said Deborah Hoffman, Brown’s press secretary. The Governor signed the bill, she added, “to ensure these students begin their college careers.”

Education officials cancelled the July test in part because state lawmakers were considering whether to continue using the test as a graduate requirement even though it is not aligned with material being taught under new Common Core standards.

The cancellation left thousands of high school seniors in limbo, unable to graduate and move on to college. The number included 492 seniors in LA Unified.

The University of California and California State University had agreed to enroll students who had qualified for admission but had not passed the exam because they couldn’t take it. However many other colleges and universities had not.

The exam assessed students’ grade-level competency in the state content standards for reading, writing and math.

Gov. Jerry Brown

The California state Senate voted 37 to 0 yesterday to approve SB-725, which exempts 2015 seniors from passing the California High School Exit Exam, allowing them to receive their diplomas immediately.

The state Assembly passed the bill last week, 77 to 1.

The bill now goes to Governor Jerry Brown to sign into law. Because it carries an urgency measure, it would take effect immediately should the governor sign it.

The law corrects a problem created in May when the California Department of Education suspended the exam to save money, because the test itself was being phased out.

However, that left more than 5,000 seniors statewide who had planned to take the test in July unable to graduate. Of those, 492 were in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The exam was introduced in 2006 to assess whether students had grade-level competency in the state content standards for reading, writing and math. Students first took the exam in their sophomore year of high school. To graduate, they were required to pass the test by the end of their senior year.

In 2013, 95.5 percent of California passed the test by the end of their senior year.

The bill now goes to the Senate, which will take it up Monday as the body is not in session today. If it passes there, it will be sent on to Governor Jerry Brown.

The California Department of Education suspended the exam in May. That left more than 5,000 seniors statewide who had planned to take the test in July in limbo and unable to graduate. Nearly 500 of them were from LA Unified.

Assemblymember David Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat and one of the co-authors of the bill, said he was pleased the bill is moving so quickly “to remedy a bureaucratic decision that placed our students and their futures in limbo.”

“None of these students should have their dreams deferred,” he said.

The California Assembly Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a bill that eliminates a graduation requirement that has prevented as many as 5,000 high school seniors from graduating through no fault of their own.

SB 725 will eliminate the requirement that class of 2015 seniors pass the California High School Exit Exam, known as the CAHSEE.

The state abruptly cancelled the final administration of the exam in July, leaving the students, including 492 in LA Unified, unable to graduate despite having completed all the necessary coursework.

Many of the students had been accepted into college but cannot start fall classes without a diploma

The original version of State Bill 725 had been focused on visual and performing arts content standards. However given the crisis for the students, it was gutted and amended by Sen. Loni Hancock, an Oakland Democrat, who authored it.

The new language exempts the students from the requirement to pass the exam.

Speed was of the essence, said Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Democrat from San Diego. “We need to help as quickly as possible these students who were innocent victims of a bureaucratic snafu,” she said.

The legislation is scheduled to be voted on by the full Assembly today and immediately sent to the Senate, Atkins said.

There has been no public opposition to the bill, which is expected to pass the Senate and reach Gov. Jerry Brown as early as Monday.

“The cancelled exit exam won’t be an obstacle blocking any student’s path in 2015,” said Atkins.

State politicians and educators are scrambling to cope with the fallout after the abrupt cancelation of an exam by the California Department of Education left over 5,000 high school students across the state — 492 of them in LA Unified –unable to graduate, despite having completed all other necessary course work.

The California High School Exit Exam, known as the CAHSEE, was required for students graduating in 2015 and before. It was meant to test students’ mastery of English and mathematics.

With the introduction of the new Common Core curriculum, the exam no longer tested what students were to have learned, so “the $11 million-a-year contract to administer the test was not renewed, and therefore the July exam was not offered as in past years,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement.

Unfortunately for those students across California who had counted on taking the July test to graduate, they were left with no possibility of completing their high school graduation requirements. Many had been accepted into colleges but would have been unable to attend because they hadn’t taken the final test.

Politicians piled on to condemn the decision. State Attorney General Kamala Harris was especially harsh.

“As the result of a thoughtless bureaucratic blunder, thousands of high school graduates face the prospect of not being able to enroll in college, serve their country through the military, or pursue other professional goals,” she said in a statement.

Governor Jerry Brown and the president of the state Board of Education, Mike Kirst, issued a joint statement: “Students who have been accepted into college should not be prevented from starting class this fall because of a test cancellation they could not control.”

To fix the problem, state legislators on Monday set to work gutting Senate Bill 725, which originally dealt with visual and performing arts education, and replacing it with language that would exempt the class of 2015 from the requirement to pass the exam.

The bill is expected to be earmarked today and go before the full Assembly for a vote tomorrow, according to the office of Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Democrat from San Diego.

Some school districts aren’t waiting for the legislature. In an emergency meeting on Friday, San Francisco’s School Board voted to amend its graduation requirements and grant diplomas to 107 San Francisco high school seniors who hadn’t been able to take the exam.

“This is a decision that’s right for students,” said Superintendent Richard Carranza.