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Lansing seniors may have cause to rejoice because they won't have to take the Regents exams to be issued a Regent's diploma, one of the many consequences of measures taken to fight COVID-19.  On April 6th Lansing School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso alerted the community that Regents exams have been cancelled by the New York State Education Department (NYSED).  She went into more detail Monday at an online Board of Education meeting.

"We're working with the Board of Regents and NYSED, trying to figure out what our endgame is. Getting some of that information was helpful," Pettograsso said. "We do know that June Regents are canceled. Any student that was scheduled for them does not have to take them ever. So that is just a straight-up cancellation and that helped guide our planning for our curriculum coming up."

If being exempted from the Regents exams is the good news for seniors, there is plenty of bad news.  Athletics have been cancelled for the year, as well as many of the events that typically take place in the last semester of a Lansing senior's year.

"I'm starting to shift my focus to how we can honor our seniors without the typical events that we would have year to year -- prom, graduation, senior trips, et cetera," Pettograsso said. "It's kind of hard to plan without knowing what we can actually do to get together. But it's certainly on my mind because those kids put in 12 years of hard work."

Pettograsso reported that NYSED is requiring that new subject matter be introduced during the remainder of the school year, which has meant that Lansing teachers have had to remain flexible.  It also means that curriculum has to adapt as new developments in the COVID-19 crisis impact the way school is taught.  A consequence of the cancellation of the Regents exams is that graduation requirements were adjusted for students who are planning to earn a Regents diploma.  While school administrators are hopeful that students will be able to return to school, it looks more and more likely that virtual online classes will replace physical classrooms for the remainder of the school year.  Officially Governor Cuomo had suspended in-person school attendance through April 29th, but new announcements about when students may return to school have been coming out about every two weeks.  Yesterday he extended 'NYS On Pause' until May 15th.

"In times of crisis difficult decisions must be made and the Board of Regents knows these are ultimately the right ones for New York's students," said Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa. "We are putting the safety of children, families and educators first, while ensuring that the hard work done by our students and teachers is honored. These are extraordinary decisions for an unprecedented time, and we thank our school communities for their support and continuing dedication during the statewide school closure."

Students in the Class of 2020 who would have taken the exams in June, are now exempted from the examination, but NYSED issued a new set of requirements that students must fulfill in order to be eligible for a Regents exam:

• The student is currently enrolled in a course of study culminating in a Regents examination and will have earned credit in such course of study by the end of the 2019-20 school year; or
• The student is in grade 7, is enrolled in a course of study culminating in a Regents examination and will have passed such course of study by the end of the 2019-20 school year; or
• The student is currently enrolled in a course of study culminating in a Regents examination and has failed to earn credit by the end of the school year. Such student returns for summer instruction to make up the failed course and earn the course credit and is subsequently granted diploma credit in August 2020; or
• The student was previously enrolled in the course of study leading to an applicable Regents examination, has achieved course credit, and has not yet passed the associated Regents examination but intended to take the test in June 2020 to achieve a passing score.

Pettograsso noted that the State has suspended ABDCF grading in favor of a pass-fail system starting March 16th.  She said that ABDCF grades issues since March 16th are being evaluated to turn them into pass-fail grades, and grading will be pass-fail only through the rest of the school year.

School officials are trying to get answers to questions about how the pass-fail grades will affect not only seniors, but younger students, as well, when they apply for college.

"Our school counselors have already been reaching out to colleges to see what colleges are thinking about," she said. "I know our seniors are in good standing as they move forward. Many of their applications have already been accepted and they're moving forward. But what does that look like for our sophomores and juniors when they just have these pass fails for this time period? So there are lots of questions and we are basically just saying that we're being really flexible and we're just kind of in a holding pattern. The main thing right now is to make sure that we're providing feedback to our students and families so they know how this child's doing."

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