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SALT LAKE CITY — Members of the Utah State Board of Education gave final approval Friday to a policy they say could create a "conundrum" for high school students, thanks to conflicting state laws passed this year.
One law requires schools to allow parents to opt their children out of any state or federally mandated test. At the same time, another new law requires high schoolers, starting next year, to pass a civics test in order to graduate.
Since both laws were adopted in state education rule Friday, parents can opt their children out of the civics exam, but the students are still required to pass the exam to get their diploma. In essence, opting out of the test means opting out of graduation, according to State School Board member Laura Belnap.
"It's kind of a conundrum because we have the civics test listed on the opt-out form, and yet, if a student doesn't take the civics test, they can't graduate," Belnap said. "If it's a state-required test, they have to have the opportunity to opt out."
State education leaders were silent in policy last month when the conflict between the two statutes became apparent. They later decided to address the conflict in board rule to avoid confusion among districts and charter schools that could interpret the rule differently, according to Angela Stallings, associate superintendent of policy and communications.
Stallings said of the opt-out and graduation requirement laws, passing the civics test was the more specific mandate of the two and was "an absolute graduation requirement in code."
"Generally in a court of law, when you have two conflicting statutes, usually the one that's more specific is the one that the court will look at, as opposed to the one that's more general," Stallings said. "In this case, we stated: 'You can opt out of the test, just like kids can opt out of going to school every day, if they want. But they can't opt out of the consequence, which is you must take that civics exam to graduate because that's what the Legislature stated in code.'"
State School Board Vice Chairman David Thomas said he believes lawmakers will be open to addressing the issue in the next legislative session.
