The New York State Education Department recently released three Every Student Succeeds Act waiver requests for public comment. ESSA, as it is called, replaced the federal No Child Left Behind legislation, allowing more state control of educational standards.

The waivers are included in the state’s draft ESSA plan and have been previously discussed with the Board of Regents, which governs public education in New York, and with stakeholders like parents and teachers. The state will submit the waivers to the United States Department of Education, which requires that states post proposed waivers for public comment prior to their submission.

The public comment period runs through Sept. 8.

The full text of each proposed waiver is posted on the Department’s ESSA webpage.

The first waiver requests permission to continue to allow the state to use the results of middle school students who take a mathematics or science Regents exam, in lieu of the grade-level exam, for the purposes of determining school accountability and participation.

The second waiver requests permission to continue to exempt newly arrived English Language Learner/Multilingual Learner students for one year from taking the English language arts exam.  The waiver also seeks to, in the second year, have these students take the English exam to establish a baseline for measuring growth.  In the third year and beyond, both the achievement and growth results in English would be used for school accountability.

Without a waiver, New York would be required to begin to test these students in the second year and use those achievement results for school accountability.

The third waiver requests permission to assess a small number of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, but who are not eligible for the New York State Alternative Assessment, with tests matched to the instructional level of the students, not to the chronological age of the students. While these students would be considered non-proficient for accountability purposes, instructional level tests will provide teachers and parents more relevant information.

Currently these students, who are not eligible for the state’s alternative assessment, must take a grade-level exam, even if they are unable to correctly answer any of the questions on the exam.

Comments may be submitted by email to with “ESSA Comments from (sender/organization name)” in the subject line. Comments submitted by postal mail should be sent to the attention of Dr. Lisa Long, New York State Education Department, Office of Accountability, 4th Floor, 55 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, New York 11217.

In September, the state’s education department will share a summary of the public comments received on the three waivers with the Board of Regents.  Then, the board will take action on the ESSA plan and the associated waivers, so that on Sept. 18 the state department can submit the plan and any approved waivers to the federal department.

After the plan is approved by the federal department, the state will work with stakeholder groups to develop and provide guidance on implementing the ESSA plan. Further, the state is developing summary documents for parents, educators, and other stakeholders to explain the changes in the ESSA plan.