NORTH COUNTY -- California's chief of schools said Tuesday he will ask the federal government to stop penalizing the state's schools for allowing parents to opt their children out of standardized tests.

Letting parents pull their children out of the tests could land dozens of California campuses on a list of failing schools because a new federal law sanctions schools for low participation on tests, said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.

O'Connell said he plans to ask the State Board of Education, and eventually the federal Education Department, to allow parents to take their kids out of standardized tests without lowering schools' overall participation rates. California is one of very few states that allow parents to opt their children out of standardized tests.

Under the federal law known as No Child Left Behind, schools that score too low on statewide standardized exams or test less than 95 percent of their students land on a list of failing schools and face state takeovers if they do not improve.

Last year in North County, about half of 80 schools that made the list did so because of low participation rates, not poor scores. Throughout the state, nearly two-thirds of high schools failed to meet the federal mark because of low participation rates.

"Here in California parents have the right to choose whether their children participate in testing or not," O'Connell said in Escondido, following a meeting with the North County Times editorial board. "We need to respect that right, but we need to do so in a manner that doesn't hurt our schools."

O'Connell said he will propose a number of changes today to the way California implements the No Child Left Behind law, which affects every state in the country.

His proposed changes include a measure that would allow schools to give children whose parents pulled them out of state exams a score of zero instead of counting them absent from the tests. Such a change would allow students to opt out without dragging down a school's participation rate, O'Connell said.

The proposal would have to be approved by the state board, which would then send the changes to the U.S. Department of Education for approval.

Federal education officials in Washington, D.C. said they would not comment on O'Connell's proposal until it is submitted in writing by the state.

A few other states have asked for changes to the federal rules about testing participation for students with "extreme medical conditions," but not for students whose parents pull them out of state tests, said department spokeswoman Jo Ann Webb.

"That is not the same thing as asking for changes because of a state's parental opt-out clause," Webb said.

San Diego County testing officials said O'Connell's proposal would probably affect elementary and middle schools more than high schools. One of the tests high school students take is the California High School Exit Exam, a test that students will now have to pass in order to graduate.

A few local schools had a relatively high number of parents opt their children out of state testing last year, including high schools. Opting out tends to happen more at schools with high numbers of college-bound students, who take a number of other, college-preparatory tests that some families deem more important than the state tests, district officials said.

"A lot of students are saying to parents, 'I'd rather stay home and study for my other tests,' " said Poway Unified School District Superintendent Don Phillips. In Poway last year, about 8 percent of a school's parents allowed their kids to skip state standardized tests, according to the district.

Phillips said O'Connell's proposal is a good start but does not go far enough. He'd like the state to consider throwing out the rule that allows families to pull their kids out of state testing.

"Does it really make sense to let parents opt out of testing at a time when testing is playing such a huge role in the well-being of a school?" Phillips said.

The answer, said O'Connell spokesman Rick Miller, is yes.

"Kids aren't owned by the schools," Miller said. "Schools have responsibilities but parents have rights, too."

Officials from the Ninth District Parent-Teacher Association, which serves San Diego and Imperial Counties, said they agree with Miller but that they know of few parents who have actually pulled their students out of standardized tests.

"It's one of those things where if there are one or two parents aware of this law they might start a movement at their particular school," said Marge Siirila Phares, vice president of education for the Ninth District PTA. "But we haven't seen this as becoming a huge issue."

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