CHAPTER _______

An act to add Section 60851.1 to the Education Code, relating to pupil testing, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 725, Hancock. Pupil testing: high school exit examination: exemption.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to develop a high school exit examination in English language arts and mathematics in accordance with state academic content standards. Existing law requires, commencing with the 2003-04 school year and each school year thereafter, each pupil completing grade 12 to successfully pass the high school exit examination as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation from high school.

This bill would provide that the high school exit examination shall not be required as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation from high school for a pupil completing grade 12 in 2015 and who has met all other high school graduation requirements.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 60851.1 is added to the Education Code, to read:

60851.1.  

Notwithstanding any other law, the high school exit examination shall not be required as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation from high school for a pupil completing grade 12 in 2015 and who has met all other high school graduation requirements.

SEC. 2.  

This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

In order to ensure that pupils who have not passed the high school exit examination but have met all other high school graduation requirements receive a high school diploma as soon as possible, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.

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