{"id":21480,"date":"2014-02-19T11:48:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T16:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=21480"},"modified":"2014-02-19T14:35:07","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T19:35:07","slug":"listen-a-mom-explains-why-florida-testing-policy-needs-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/02\/19\/listen-a-mom-explains-why-florida-testing-policy-needs-to-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen: A Mom Explains Why Florida Testing Policy Needs To Change"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Parents<\/a>

Joe Raedle \/ Getty News Images<\/p>

Parents and students protest outside then-Gov. Jeb Bush's Miami office in this 2003 photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

At yesterday’s State Board of Education meeting, Orlando mom Andrea Rediske scolded members for state and federal rules requiring standardized testing.<\/p>\n

Rediske’s son, Ethan<\/a>, recently became a national story<\/a> because Andrea Rediske was forced to submit a testing waiver as her dying son was in a morphine coma.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, she sought support for the Ethan Rediske Act, or HB 895<\/a>, which would exempt students from state standardized tests if parents, special educators and school superintendents could prove a medical need to skip the test.<\/p>\n

“This incident caused anguish to my family,” Rediske told the board, “and shows a stunning lack of compassion and even common sense on the part of the Department of Education.<\/p>\n

“You may ask yourselves: ‘If this is such a problem why isn’t there more public outcry from the parents of disabled children?’ I am here to tell you why. Parents of severely disabled children are exhausted. We spend our lives keeping these children alive.”<\/p>\n

Click the link to listen to Rediske.<\/p>\n\n

You can read the full bill after the jump:<\/p>\n

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