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State lawmakers accept added an amendment to a proposed bill that could allow school districts to retroactively accolade diplomas to students even if they failed the California High Schoolhouse Exit Exam.

The assembly Appropriation's Committee added a provision to Senate Bill 172 that would grant districts waivers to accolade diplomas to students as far back as 2006, when the exit test became a requirement for graduation.

The provision would only affect students who met all other graduation requirements but could non pass the exit exam, said Robert Oakes, spokesman for Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Cañada-Flintridge, author of SB 172.

Each school commune would have to decide if information technology wants to honor the diplomas retroactively, Oakes said.

The bill could go for a vote earlier the full Assembly early next week, Oakes said.

The original bill called for the land to suspend the exit exam in the 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 schoolhouse years and eliminating it equally a graduation requirement during that time. Meanwhile, lawmakers and educators would determine if the state should create a new version that'south aligned with the Common Core State Standards, or eliminate it altogether every bit a graduation requirement.

Earlier this week, Gov. Jerry Dark-brown signed legislation that exempted students from the graduating class of 2022 from having to take the test in response to a snafu that left thousands of seniors without the ability to take the test several more times equally permitted under state law.

Between 2006 and 2014, nearly 249,000 students, or nigh half dozen pct of test-takers, did not laissez passer the get out exam before the finish of their senior yr. Information technology's unclear how many of these students also lacked sufficient credits or high enough grades to earn a diploma even if they had passed the leave exam.

Alycia Billy, 19, from Ukiah in Mendocino Canton, failed the math portion of the exit test by but one point, denying her a diploma in 2014.

Billy said she was so happy to hear about the amendment including students from previous years, like her, that she wanted to weep.

"I just experience like things are happening for a reason because I've tried so hard and now it's finally going to happen," she said optimistically. "I'm so happy. I'g just so thankful. I really honestly didn't surrender. I come from a family unit where we don't give upward. We merely keep trying until nosotros succeed."

Billy will consider writing letters to lawmakers urging them to corroborate the beak as amended, and so she and others who have been trying for years to pass the test can fulfill their dreams, she said.

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