ATLANTA — On Wednesday, the State Board of Education committee hearings began with a moment of silence in honor of those affected by the Apalachee High School shooting earlier this month.
"I know that's been on all of their thoughts ever since it happened," board chair Dr. Stan DeJarnett said. "It's weighed on all of us I know — all of us that care about our children and the adults that work with them."
The board then recommended passing a hardship waiver regarding test scores at AHS.
Typically, state law requires end-of-course assessments to count for at least 10% of a student's grade. This waiver, which is on Thursday's consent agenda, would drop that minimum to just 0.01%.
"With the high school, they have presented us with a list of asks and we are trying to meet those asks," state superintendent Richard Woods told 11Alive. "Some of that is state law, some of that is federal law, so we have to work with our partners with U.S. Ed to make sure that we can actually do some things."
He said the waiver they looked at Wednesday is just the first of many decisions that could help the district get back on track.
"As I've shared with their superintendent and local leaders, we want to respond to them with as much grace and compassion as we possibly can," he said. "Today was one of the steps in which we actually could control what we did with the testing, and that was something that came as a direct request from Barrow County."