SACRAMENTO – Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law this week an emergency bill authored by Senator Gloria Romero that will exempt special education high school seniors scheduled to graduate in 2006 from the California High School Exit. Assemblymember Karen Bass strongly supports this legislation and applauds Senator Romero’s leadership on the issue.

SB 517 requires those students to meet several other specific criteria before they could receive a diploma and gives the state another year to examine the needs of students with disabilities. The new law will go into effect immediately.

Current law states that no high school student can receive a high school diploma this year without passing both the English and math parts of the exit exam. AB 517 would affect about 25,000 special education high school seniors.

“This measure is an important victory for some,” said Bass. “Unfortunately, there is not a similar resolution for other challenged senior students such as those in foster care.” Studies predict 50-60 % of this group will not graduate from the Los Angeles school district this year. Experts indicate that frequent moves and displacement contribute to the high exit exam failure rate for students in the foster care system.