201 East Colfax Avenue

Denver, CO 80203-1799

February 19, 2015

Dear Superintendents and BOCES Directors,
As many of you know, at the January meeting of the State Board of Education, the board passed a motion to direct
me to grant waivers to districts that request not to administer the performance-based portion of the upcoming
Colorado Measures of Academic Success tests in English language arts and math. Based upon that action, I
requested a formal opinion from the Attorney Generals Office to determine the legality of the directive. The
formal opinion was issued on February 4, 2015, and stated that the board did not have the authority to direct me to
grant waivers to the performance-based portion of the English language arts and math assessments. The formal
opinion clarified additional related legal questions and is attached for your reference.
As a result of the State Board of Educations decision in January, CDE has received 20 waiver requests from various
districts.
At the February 18, 2015 meeting of the State Board of Education, the board had an opportunity to discuss the
formal opinion with representatives from the Attorney Generals Office. The board was also presented with the
requests received to date for waivers of the performance-based portion of the ELA and math assessments.
The board voted to allow continued submissions of waivers by districts and to table any decision on those waivers
until the next special or regular meeting of the board. Since the board did not grant waivers from the
performance-based component of PARCC, districts should continue preparations for the administration of the
upcoming assessments.
In addition, the board adopted a motion to not hold districts liable for the decisions of parents when these parents
decide not to allow their children to take PARCC. The effect of this motion is that districts will not be penalized
by a lowering of their accreditation rating should their student participation rates fall below 95% on the PARCC
assessments due to parental refusal of their students to take the PARCC assessments. Districts still need to engage
in good faith efforts to test all students in accordance with state and federal law and maintain documentation of
parent refusals.
The department will seek an amendment to Colorados current ESEA waiver to accommodate the boards motion.
The amendment is subject to review and approval of the U.S. Department of Education. The department will also
include this request in our waiver renewal application, subject to board adoption in March.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions you might have.
Sincerely,

Robert K. Hammond
Commissioner of Education

201 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80203-1799 P 303.866.6600 F 303.830.0793

Robert K. Hammond, Commissioner of Education | Keith Owen Ph.D., Deputy Commissioner | www.cde.state.co.us