The federal government will ease up a bit next year on strict participation rules for standardized testing, but state school officials said new guidelines won't help keep most schools in California from falling short on the tests.

To comply with a federal law called the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools must test at least 95 percent of their students and 95 percent of each smaller group of students -- ethnic groups, non-native English speakers, low-income students and special education students -- to keep the schools from landing on a federal watch list.

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who runs the federal Department of Education, announced this week that schools will meet the federal requirements this year if they post an average participation rate of 95 percent during a three-year period.

Schools with participation averages at or above 95 percent will not be put on the watch list or be punished by No Child Left Behind, which sanctions schools that score too low or test too few students.

The new rules could make it easier for a few schools to meet the federal guidelines and thus avoid sanctions. Schools that test too few students are subject to punishments and may be forced to allow parents to pull their children out of those campuses.

"Every student should count, but if they don't take the tests, they can't be counted," Paige said in a written statement. "The 95 percent participation rate was included in the law to ensure that all children are assessed. However, we recognized that there were circumstances whereby a few absent students prevented an otherwise successful school from meeting the 95 percent participation rate requirement."

Paige also announced that students who miss tests because of medical emergencies will be exempted from the participation rules so they don't cause schools to fall short of participation goals.

State officials, who want even more flexibility with the federal participation rules, said the new rules are a good start but won't fix one of California's biggest participation problems: Parents who choose not to allow their students to be tested.

California law allows parents to opt their students out of testing if they do not wish for their children to take state tests. Some schools, including one in Encinitas, missed the federal standards last year because too many students' parents pulled their children out of testing.

The state has asked the U.S. Department of Education to change its participation rules so that schools where too many parents opt their kids out of testing are not penalized. Paige and his department have not responded to that request.

"Parental opt-outs are still a huge issue that has not been addressed by the federal department," said Bill Padia, head of the policy and evaluation division of the California Department of Education. "But we're optimistic that could change."

Encinitas Union School District Superintendent Doug DeVore sure hopes so, he said. Capri Elementary School in Encinitas was labeled underperforming because three students' parents chose to take their children out of testing, DeVore said.

"We can't legally test them if their parents say no," said DeVore, who mentioned the state should change its rules about "opting out" if the federal government doesn't ease up on its rules. "If they're going to hold us accountable for those kids, then they need to tell parents they can't take them out of testing."

Contact staff writer Erin Walsh at (760) 739-6644 or ewalsh@nctimes.com.