TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Parents of numerous Florida third graders are suing the state after education officials in some counties decided to hold back students who opted out of the state’s standardized tests last year.

Parents are suing the Florida Education Commissioner, the state Board of Education, and school boards in Orange, Hernando, Oseola, Sarasota, Pasco, Broward and Seminole counties that interpreted a years old third-grade retention law as requiring students to take standardized tests to be promoted to the fourth grade, The Washington Post reports.

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Parents of numerous students across Florida, and most other states, opted their children out of standardized tests last year based on concerns about an over-reliance on testing data and stress on students, among other issues.

“Children and their families learned in June, when they received report cards, that they would be held back and over the summer, parents organized and raised money so they could file a lawsuit challenging the third-grade retention law,” which was ushered in under then Gov. Jeb Bush, the Post reports.

“School has started in some parts of Florida, and is about to start everywhere across the state.”

Parent of 14 students who were held back argued in court last week that they opted their children out of the Florida Standards Assessment last year because they believe the test does not accurately reflect student learning.

“Time spent after 180 days with a professional educator should be more important than one test score,” Opt Out Florida Network representative Cindy Hamilton told WUSF. “We want multiple forms of assessment. We want teacher evaluations of the students, projects and daily classroom work to all have weight in the decision to choose to retain.”

According to the news site:

The lawsuit asks a Leon County court to block the decision to keep the students in the third grade, saying the children will be “irreparably harmed” if they are held back. It points to research showing that students who are held back become isolated and lose interest in school.

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The Post quoted from the lawsuit:

Parents of students who received report cards with passing grades — some of whom were honor roll students — seek emergency declaratory and injunctive relief alleging that, because they opted out of standardized testing for their child, defendants arbitrarily and capriciously interpreted statutes and rules in a manner that requires retention, rather than promotion, of third grade students. The result is that students with no reading deficiency are retained in the third grade solely because they opt-out of standardized testing.

Defendants’ policy mean s that a third-grader who takes standardized tests and scores poorly — whether intentionally or not — can still be promoted. Yet, an outstanding student who regularly produces proficient school work in the classroom for which they receive passing grades will be retained simply for not taking a standardized test that they are permitted to opt of under the Florida Statutes. Because the receipt of federal dollars is at stake unless 95 percent of students participate in standardized testing, test participation is treated as more important than actual performance.

Associated Press reporter Gary Fineout posted a series of tweets during the emotional court hearing on Friday.

Several children and parents shed tears as they testified about how the third grade retention has impacted students, and Judge Karen Gievers seemed to sympathize with their plight. All school districts involved in the lawsuit filed objections to allowing parents and students to testify in the case, but were obviously rejected.

“Judge Karen Gievers asks why the children should be ‘held hostage’ – suggests they be allowed to start 4th grade while case proceeds,” Fineout tweeted.

“Orange County mother Michelle Rhea started crying on the stand, says her child is a good kid,” he wrote. “’Her report card does mean something.’”

Fineout reports Gievers also said she’s “not going to sit back and let things slide regarding children,” and will not “ignore the rights of youngsters.”

Gievers said she will give school districts time to respond to the lawsuit but could issue a ruling this week on a possible injunction to halt the districts’ decisions to hold back third-graders who opted out of the tests.