The state Board of Regents has voted to cancel a majority of Regents exams for 2021. Now, students won’t need the tests to get their diplomas, all they must do is pass their course to graduate. 

The August 2021 Regents are canceled. As of now, the federal government has mandated that four of the Regents in June must be administered. 

Those regents include English, math, Earth science and living environment. However, the scores will not be used to determine whether a student graduates. 

The acting assistant education secretary told state leaders they don’t want to do away with the exams completely because they will be used to figure out what impact the pandemic has had on learning. 

The New York State United Teachers Organization released a statement saying in part, “In a year, that has been anything but standard, forcing states to administer standardized exams is just plain poor federal policy.” 

The state Board of Regents has asked the U.S. Department of Education for a waiver to not administer any of the tests.