Fred,
Here’s our general advice sheet for people outside of CPS refusing PARCC: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WaGIcQPQlVvUoB6QTEvv96LvGI-3OyRxyTA0Y8pPwo0/edit?usp=sharing
I agree with Dienne. Tell your school district what you are doing, don’t just inquire!
The law has not changed from last year. Students may refuse to engage with the test. ISBE fully recognizes that this is the case even though they are sharing misinformation and asking schools to distribute misinformation as well. http://morethanascorechicago.org/2014/11/11/statement-on-misinformation-from-isbe-on-opt-out-and-parcc/
Contact More Than A Score if you need more info on opt out/refusal: info@morethanascorechicago.org
The current lack of clarity in IL School Code needs to be fixed. Will Guzzardi has filed a bill to fix this: http://ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=306&GAID=13&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=84067&SessionID=88&GA=99
ISBE doesn’t like the bill, so Will needs the support of parents and teachers across the state to get this bill passed. Please tell your state rep and state senator that we need opt out rights clearly written into law in IL just like already exists in states like CA, WI, PA and UT.
– Cassie Creswell
More Than a Score
Chicago
Fred Klonsky 
Could you share what is reason 15?
Public schools must account for all their students when they are reporting who took state tests at their school. Sometimes children on their roster don’t take a state test. In some cases it is because they moved, they’ve been hospitalized, they’re in jail, they were not actually enrolled at the school and mistakenly on the roster. There is a code for each of these things. (http://isbe.net/sis/pdf/not_testing.pdf)
Code 15 is the code schools should use for when a student “refused to engage with the test.” Here’s ISBE’s non-regulatory guidance on the the use of Code 15: http://www.isbe.net/assessment/pdfs/guidance-use-of-code15.pdf
“Code 15 is reserved for cases where an individual student is presented with a test booklet and refuses to engage with the test. To avoid penalizing a school or district for an individual student refusal to test, code 15 does not count against the AYP participation rate. In this case, the student is considered “tested” but the answer document is blank as a result of the student’s refusal to engage with the test.”
Thank you Cassie!
Cassie, should we publicize that Code 15?
Yes, please do let people know that ISBE absolutely recognizes that children may refuse to engage with a state-mandated test and that this is what Code 15 means. This is essentially the way student opt out of state-mandated testing works right now in Illinois. The state and districts may tell parents there is no opt out, but this is basically just a way of saying that they will not acknowledge parents wishes to opt their child out of testing, but will acknowledge that a child can refuse.
Reblogged this on We Are More.