With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of Senate Bill 586 last Friday, special education students statewide, regardless of their ability or disability, will, starting next year, have to pass the state's high-stakes exit exam to earn high school diplomas.

The bill would have exempted seniors in the graduating classes of 2006 and 2007 with physical, mental or learning disabilities from the requirement to pass the California High School Exit Exam. The exemption would have given school districts an extra two years to put programs in place to help special education students pass the test.

Schwarzenegger's veto means that all of California's high school seniors —— from the summa cum laude speech-making valedictorian to the blind and the severely emotionally disturbed students —— must pass the exit exam to earn their diploma.

Schwarzenegger returned the bill, written by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, to the Legislature unsigned, saying it would send "the wrong message to the over 650,000 special education students in our state, the majority of which have the ability to pass the (California High School Exit Exam.)"

The exit exam is just one of three requirements for graduation in most districts across the states. Students must complete the required number of course credits, they must pass Algebra 1 and, as of this year, they must pass the exit exam.

The class of 2006 is the first senior class required to pass the exit exam as a condition of graduation. As the law is currently written, all students must pass the same test under the same conditions for the test to be valid.

For example, a learning disabled student who has been allowed extra time to take tests as a condition of his special education plan would still get extra time on the exit exam. But the exam and the results would be considered "invalid" and would not count as a pass.

The veto came as no surprise to local school district officials, who said they have been operating their special education programs under the assumption the governor wouldn't endorse any exit-exam exemption.

"In reality, we're not planning on doing anything differently," said Suzanne O'Connell, the Carlsbad Unified School District's assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. "We are going to continue operating as if all kids need to pass the test."

Carlsbad Unified has about 30 seniors in special education who have not passed either the math or language tests, or both. About half of those students are new to the district, which has no proof that any of them passed the test before enrolling, O'Connell said.

The San Dieguito Union High School District, like Carlsbad Unified, Oceanside Unified and other North County school districts, have already put in place several measures to help shore up special education students and English-language learners who have not passed the test, said Margie Bulkin, San Dieguito's executive director of curriculum and instruction.

Those measures include required remedial classes during the regular school day, voluntary remedial classes after school, referral to adult education classes and referral to a new diploma program at MiraCosta College that does not require passage of the exit exam as a condition of graduation.

Romero's bill arose out of a class-action lawsuit filed against the state Department of Education, the California Board of Education, and Jack O'Connell, California's superintendent of education. The suit was filed by Juleus Chapman and other special education students.

Chapman, who is dyslexic, claimed that the exit exam was "not valid and discriminatory," said Melissa Kasnitz of Disability Rights Advocates, one of the attorneys who represented Chapman. Since the suit was filed in 2002, Chapman has graduated without taking the exit exam and is now attending college.

The state settled that suit out of court by agreeing to write legislation that would grant a waiver from the exit exam requirement for students with disabilities in the class of 2006.

Three possibilities now exist, said Carol Bartz, senior director of the North Inland Special Education Region with the County Office of Education. The issue may go away, though that is not likely to happen, she said. The Legislature could reconvene in January and pass a similar bill that limits the exemption to a single year. She said that in all likelihood, however, the question of exit-exam exemptions for special education students will wind up back in the courts.

Contact staff writer Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or pireland@nctimes.com.