1. OPT-OUT INFORMATION Know your rights!
Welcome your audience. Introduce yourself and your role in the community you are presenting to.
Suggested script:
Hello! Welcome to this informational presentation on Oregon’s opt out law and your rights. My name is YOUR NAME and I am ROLE IN YOUR COMMUNITY. I’m here today representing the Oregon Education Association.

2. Oregon Opt Out History
2015: Oregon passed HB 2655 giving families the right to opt out of the English language arts and math state summative assessments
This slide provides basic information about the passage of House Bill 2655.
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In 2015, OEA worked with coalition partners to pass House Billl This law allows families to opt students out of taking Oregon’s statewide summative assessments, the Smarter Balanced Assessment for English language arts and math. Federal law requires all states to administer a summative statewide assessment in these two areas for all students in grades 3-8, and then once in high school. Each state gets to choose the test they will use. Oregon chose the Smarter Balanced Assessment, which was developed by a multi-state partnership called the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium or often referred to as SBAC (pronounced ess-back).

3. Oregon’s law allows … Families and adult students can opt out of:
SBAC English language arts
SBAC Math
For any reason!
Families and adult students can request exemptions from:
OAKS Science
ELPA (English language proficiency assessment)
Kindergarten Readiness Assessment
For religious or disability reasons.
This slide explains what the current Oregon law allows.
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House Bill 2655 allows families and adult students, meaning students 18 or older or who are emancipated, to opt out of the Smarter Balanced Assessments in math or English language arts for any reason at all. Families do not need to provide a reason for why they are choosing to opt out. It is their right.
Oregon’s opt out law does not currently apply to other statewide tests, which include the OAKS Science test, which Oregon students take in the 5th grade, 8th grade, and once in high school. The law also does not apply to the English Language Proficiency Assessment - or ELPA (pronounced ell-pa) or the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. Students who are learning English take the ELPA and all incoming kindergarten students in Oregon take the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment in the first few weeks of school.
Families can request exemption from these three tests for religious or disability reasons. To request exemption, submit your request in writing to your school principal and include a suggested activity for your student to do during the time other students are taking the test. An independent science project, working on vocabulary, or learning through play - like sorting shapes or counting games - are good suggested activities.
Religious reasons for requesting an exemption can include your personal moral stance or personal philosophy. Your student may also have a disability that might make you consider requesting an exemption, such as anxiety, ADD, a specific learning disability, or other disabilities.

4. For the Smarter Balanced Assessments, Oregon school districts are required:
To provide annual notification of the right to opt out and access to the opt out form.
To provide supervised study time during the Smarter Balanced Assessment testing time for students who opt out.
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Oregon law requires school districts to send an annual notification about the right to opt out to all families and provide access to the opt out form. Some districts send s, some mail these to homes, and others send the notifications home with students.
Schools must also provide supervised study time to students who opt out of Smarter Balanced assessments. You do not have to provide learning activities or suggest alternate activities. That is the school’s job.

5. Your Choice! Reasons to opt out
Testing causes a student anxiety, stress
Disagreement with purpose and value of tests, or personal, religious, or political reasons
Special education or other learning considerations such as student’s home language(s)
Over-testing concerns
Reasons not to opt out
Student wants to take the test
Agreement with purpose and value of test
To influence school and/or district accountability data
To satisfy high school essential skills graduation requirement (high school students only)
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There are several reasons why you might choose to request exemptions or opt students out. Some of the more common reasons to opt out include the stress or anxiety tests cause students or a personal belief about tests. Reasons families do not opt out include students who want to take the test or because families find the results valuable.
In high school, students may choose to take the test to fulfill Oregon’s graduation requirement. Optional high school graduation requirement information here.
The important thing to remember about opt out in Oregon is that it is your choice.
Information about high school graduation requirements -- optional to share or not share:
In Oregon, students must demonstrate proficiency in the essential skills of reading, writing and math to graduate. There are several ways students can satisfy this requirement including earning specific scores on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, the ACT or SAT, or by completing work samples.

6. Family Rights
Parents, legal guardians and students 18 or older can opt out of the Smarter Balanced Assessments for any reason.
Parents, legal guardians and students 18 or older can request to opt out of the OAKS science, the English Language Proficiency Assessment, or the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment based on religion or disability.
You are NOT required to meet with a school or district leader to submit your opt out form.
This slide is a summary of the information presented in the previous slides.
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To review, these are the rights you have as a family. Please note that some school and district leaders in Oregon have made it difficult to find information or have tried to influence families or students to take these tests even though they are choosing to opt out. You are not required to meet with any school or district leader to submit your opt out forms for Smarter Balanced Assessments. You have the right to refuse to meet with a school or district leader. School or district leaders should also not try to pressure students to take these tests after a family has submitted the opt out form. You can report unfair opt out practices to OEA who will work with local leaders to change these practices.

7. Educator Rights
Educators (teachers and other staff) have a free speech right to share their opinions about assessment and opt out as individuals during NON-WORK hours.
Educators can direct students and families to online resources or provide factual information about the law during work hours if asked to do so.
School districts can determine educator speech during work hours to be disruptive to district policy or educational processes.
Depending on your audience, you can include or skip this slide. Some family groups may want to know what the teachers in their building can and can’t do or say, or they may not understand why a teacher isn’t providing this information.
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All educators in a building have the right to free speech, though their employer can limit some speech during work hours. Educators can speak freely about their personal opinions on opt out or any other topic after work hours. During work hours, educators should only provide facts about Oregon’s opt out law to families or students. During school, educators should not try to influence a student or family’s decision about opting out.
As a parent, you can contact a teacher or other school staff members about this issue to ask questions. Be aware they may choose not to respond or respond only through their personal contact information and devices and outside the school day.

8. Resources
OEA’s Parents & Educators Together toolkit:
Oregon Department of Education resources/assessment/Pages/Assessment-Administration
Opt Out Oregon optoutoregon.org
Thank you for your time today. Here are some websites to visit for more information. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.