New York is moving ahead with a major overhaul of high school graduation requirements that would eliminate the need for students to pass a prescribed set of Regents exams to earn a diploma beginning with students graduating in 2028.
The state Board of Regents has authorized the State Education Department to advance the next phase of its NY Inspires initiative, including a transition to one statewide high school diploma and a narrower role for Regents exams. The exams themselves aren’t going away: They would continue as statewide measures of student achievement, but would no longer serve as a separate graduation requirement.
The Education Department plans to bring proposed regulatory amendments to the Board of Regents by February 2027, with implementation beginning during the 2027-28 school year. Until those regulations are adopted, the changes remain part of an implementation plan rather than a completed rewrite of state graduation rules.
New York State United Teachers, which represents more than 700,000 education, human services and health care workers, backed the direction of the changes Monday while emphasizing that implementation will determine whether the overhaul works as intended.
“New York is right to rethink a system that too often measures a student’s success by performance on a single high-stakes exam,” NYSUT President Melinda Person said. “We support the direction of NY Inspires — maintaining high academic standards while creating more meaningful ways for students to demonstrate what they know and can do.”
Regents exams will remain, but their role would change
Under the framework advanced by the Regents, New York would move away from the current system of local diplomas, Regents diplomas and Regents diplomas with Advanced Designation.
Instead, students would work toward a single New York State high school diploma. Students would still be able to distinguish additional academic accomplishments through state and locally developed seals and endorsements. The current Advanced Designation would transition into a seal or endorsement rather than remain a separate diploma category.
The most consequential change concerns Regents exams.
Beginning with students graduating in 2028, passing a prescribed set of Regents exams would no longer be required for graduation. The exams would continue to measure achievement of state learning standards and remain part of New York’s broader assessment and accountability system.
Federal law still requires high school assessments in English language arts, mathematics and science, while New York’s federal accountability plan also includes social studies. The state plans to develop high school accountability assessments intended to provide comparable statewide evidence of achievement and better measure academic growth.
Schools and districts would also develop local assessment strategies drawing on multiple sources of evidence. Those could include classroom assessments, student work, performance-based learning experiences, educator observations and state assessments.
That approach is part of a broader effort to change how New York defines student readiness rather than relying primarily on standardized exams.
Changes are part of a multi-year graduation overhaul
NY Inspires was announced in November 2024 and is built around four major changes to the state’s education system: adopting a statewide “Portrait of a Graduate,” redefining credits and learning experiences, ending separate diploma assessment requirements and creating one statewide diploma.
The Board of Regents adopted the Portrait of a Graduate in July 2025. The latest authorization allows the Education Department to continue developing policies, regulations, guidance and implementation plans for the remaining portions of the initiative.
State officials have framed the effort around giving students more ways to demonstrate knowledge and skills while maintaining statewide academic standards.
Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said the changes are intended to give students more opportunities to apply what they’ve learned, think critically, solve problems and demonstrate their abilities in ways that extend beyond traditional exams.
The department said it will continue seeking feedback from educators, students, families, school leaders, colleges and universities, employers and other stakeholders as regulations and guidance are developed.
Teachers union has pushed for multiple pathways
The direction closely overlaps with recommendations NYSUT made in its “More Teaching Less Testing” task force report, though the union’s recommendations extend beyond high school graduation requirements.
The report called for reducing reliance on standardized testing and expanding the ways students can demonstrate readiness for college and careers. Its 65-member task force included educators, school-related professionals and higher education faculty from around New York, including members from Rochester, Fairport, Sodus, Batavia, East Irondequoit and Horseheads-area organizations.
On graduation requirements, the task force argued that a single standardized exam structure doesn’t adequately reflect the range of skills students need after high school.
The union recommended allowing alternatives such as interdisciplinary capstone projects, project-based learning, performance-based assessments, dual-enrollment coursework, apprenticeships, internships and career and technical education programs to play a greater role in graduation pathways.
A 2022 NYSUT survey cited in the report found 88% of members surveyed supported alternatives to mandatory Regents exams for graduation, while 77% agreed students should have greater flexibility in meeting graduation requirements. Fifty-four percent said students should still have the option to take Regents exams even if the tests weren’t required for graduation.
The task force stopped short of arguing that standardized testing has no value. Its report said appropriate assessments can provide useful information about student progress, but contended that high-stakes testing has too often narrowed instruction and encouraged schools to focus on test preparation.
Person said NYSUT wants educators involved as the state turns the new framework into regulations and district-level practice.
“As this work moves forward, the details will matter,” she said. “We look forward to working with the State Education Department and Board of Regents to ensure educators have a strong voice in implementation, schools have the resources and support they need, and every student has access to rigorous, high-quality learning opportunities.”
Grades 3-8 testing remains a separate debate
The Regents action centers on high school graduation requirements and does not eliminate New York’s grades 3-8 state assessments.
NYSUT’s testing report separately called for changes to those exams, arguing that annual testing requirements create too much pressure and provide results that often have limited instructional value.
Among its recommendations, the union called for making exams more developmentally appropriate, retaining a paper-and-pencil option during the state’s move toward computer-based testing, improving the usefulness of scoring information and separating standardized test results from teacher evaluations.
The report also endorsed changes to federal testing requirements, including consideration of testing students once during elementary school and once during middle school rather than annually in English language arts and math. Another option proposed by the task force was representative sampling, in which different groups of students answer different portions of an assessment to provide an overall measure of performance.
Those recommendations would involve separate state or federal policy decisions and are not part of the Regents’ latest authorization on graduation requirements.
For the graduation overhaul, the next key step comes by February 2027, when the Education Department expects to bring proposed regulatory amendments to the Board of Regents ahead of planned implementation in the 2027-28 school year.
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