I speak today as a parent, a former Virginia special education teacher, and an advocate for students with disabilities across the Commonwealth to express my support for HB 1171. In all three roles, I have seen the real and lasting consequences of how graduation pathways are designed—and who they unintentionally leave behind. As a teacher, I worked with students who were appropriately found eligible for the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) based on their cognitive and functional profiles. When policy changes narrowed access to VAAP, many of those same students were removed from eligibility. Their needs did not change. Their abilities did not change. The system changed around them. As a result, many students were left without a meaningful or attainable path to earning a Standard Diploma, despite continuing to need alternative ways to demonstrate learning and competence. For these students, requiring passing scores on Standards of Learning assessments does not reflect what they know, what they can do, or how prepared they are for adulthood. Instead, it creates an artificial barrier to graduation. As a parent and advocate, I see the broader impact of this gap. A system that offers no viable pathway to graduation for certain students with disabilities—despite well-documented needs and strengths—fails to meet its obligation to provide a Free Appropriate Public Education under federal law. Alternative graduation pathways are not about lowering expectations or replacing existing diploma requirements. They are about equity, access, and compliance. Developing and implementing alternative graduation pathways that include non-assessment demonstrations of competence, hands-on learning, and alignment with the Profile of a Virginia Graduate is essential. These pathways would restore opportunity for students displaced by prior policy changes and ensure that all students have a fair chance to earn a Standard Diploma in a way that reflects their abilities, growth, and readiness for postsecondary life. As both a professional and a parent, I am asking you to ensure that no student’s future is determined by a system that removes pathways without replacing them.

Changes VDOE made in July 2024 to paperwork that families must fill out for their child to qualify to take the Virginia Alternative Assessment Program (VAAP) has resulted in children with disabilities who have been on the VAAP track for years being told they are no longer eligible and put in SOL-track classes. While I fully support more students graduating with standard diplomas, as the applied studies diploma is essentially a certificate of attendance and not recognized federally as a diploma, VDOE did not include any mechanisms to successfully transition from VAAP track classes to SOL classes. My child was impacted by this. She has not been adequately taught addition or subtraction and has not had any instruction in multiplication or division, and yet - as an 8th grader now no longer eligible for VAAP track, was put into a PreAlgebra class. This is a disservice both to my daughter and to her teachers, as it sets them both up to fail. The ESSA requirement that 1% or less of the population take the alternative assessment only applies to the assessment itself - not the diploma the children receives. So right now Virginia is refusing to allow these students to take the alternative assessment, while at the same time not providing them the knowledge needed to actually take and pass SOLs at all. Virginia will look better on paper being under 1%, but these kids will still graduate with applied studies diplomas having been given no way to realistically pass an SOL. Alternative pathways to standard diplomas are necessary, or these children with be lost in the cracks where no one is being held accountable for their progress - a free and appropriate public education requires more than just sitting in a classroom. It requires that districts and states be accountable for the progress of ALL kids. I strongly urge the general assembly to support additional alternative pathways to earning a standard diplomas. Please keep in mind that colleges now have programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities - like George Mason and Syracuse University. But our children can't access financial aid to attend these colleges without federally recognized diplomas, which the applied studies diploma is not. If the state is going to say these kids can't take the alternative assessment because they don't qualify any longer, the state has a responsibility to remediate instruction - to provide the instruction the VAAP track denied them - and provide alternatives to graduate with a standard diploma.

I tried to sign up to speak on these bills. VASS supports HB195, HB332, HB785 and HB1171 Dr. Tom Smith

The SOL Tests have an outsize impact on our students in so many ways. I support this bill providing viable alternatives for achievement of a standard diploma without limiting a student to only 1 alternative verified credit. The ability to pass a test should solely determine if a student can receive a standard diplma.