A familiar nervous feeling hits Randy Yanez when his teacher hands out an exam.

The Oxnard football player and wrestler pays attention in class, does his homework and spends his lunch period getting extra help from teachers.

But when faced with a math test, his pulse races and his mind goes blank.

"I stress out," the 15-year-old Pacifica High School student said. "I'll know it when we practice it. But when they pass out the test, I forget."

Randy is one of more than 683,000 special education students in California public schools, a group that includes children with learning disabilities, deafness, blindness and autism.

Taking math tests is Randy's biggest challenge and one that could potentially keep him from getting a high school diploma.

Thousands of special education students, including scores in Ventura County, are earning diplomas this month without passing the California High School Exit Examination. But that could change in January, when an exemption option for special education students is set to be eliminated.

Passing the exit exam, which includes a math and English language arts test, became a California requirement for most students in 2006. The state Board of Education voted last month to also make the test mandatory for students with disabilities.

Critics have said that's unfair. A shortage of special education teachers leaves many students unprepared, they said, and the exam doesn't adequately measure some students' skills.

The state board, however, rejected alternatives that included allowing special education students to present a portfolio of their work instead of passing the exam.

The issue will now move to the state Legislature, which must sign off on the change.

While lawmakers debate the pros and cons, Ventura County school officials said they need to focus on preparing their students.

"We need to move forward as if every child will need to take and pass the test," said Mary Samples, executive director of the Ventura County Special Education Local Plan Area.

Tests versus competency

To qualify for an exit exam exemption this year, special education students had to meet all other graduation requirements, take the exit exam multiple times and receive remedial instruction focused on exam content.

Special education students also can request waivers to take the exam with modifications, such as using a calculator or having the questions read aloud. The state board is not proposing to eliminate that option.

The number of 2007 graduating seniors with exemptions wasn't available, and scores from exams given in May have yet to be released.

But state officials estimated that more than half of the special education students in the Class of 2007 had not passed the exit exam by March. In comparison, only about 10 percent of other students in the Class of 2007 had yet to pass the test.

Even with the exemption option this year, some special education students won't get a diploma, said Richard Simpson, deputy superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District. Those students haven't met other graduation criteria, which include passing Algebra 1.

In Conejo Unified, 90 percent of students who pass the exit exam do so on their first attempt. Most students who take it multiple times are learning to speak English or are special education students struggling with the test's format or content.

This year, 32 special education students in Conejo Unified used the exemption to get diplomas.

Those students "have demonstrated excellent competency. ... We're talking about a group of kids who are not successful sitting down in a paper-and-pencil test environment," Simpson said. "There are good reasons to give serious thought to some alternatives."

Randy, who plans to pursue college after high school, took the exit exam for the first time this year and passed the language arts section. He failed the math part, but his teacher, Darren Hatch, said it wasn't for a lack of effort.

While an alternative to the exam might be easier for students like Randy, the high school sophomore isn't critical of the current test.

"It's fair. Everybody has to pass the same thing," he said. He will get several more opportunities to pass before graduation, and he added, "I'll try harder the next time."

Emotional trip'

Since the exit exam was introduced, Samples said, the number of special education students passing the test has steadily increased.

She attributed the climb to "a real push to make sure students have access to the curriculum," as well as more intervention and an awareness of the test's importance.

In the Oxnard Union High School District, more than 200 of 382 special education students in the Class of 2007 have already passed the exam, according to officials.

Bryan Miller is one of them. The recent Oxnard High School graduate has a learning disability, he said. But the exam wasn't that hard for him, and he passed both the English and math tests on his first try, he said.

But, he added, "I think there should be exceptions. ... Everyone is a little different in special education."

While the state board rejected alternatives, state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, has proposed legislation that includes a "juried portfolio," which would allow students to demonstrate their work to a jury of evaluators instead of taking the test.

State senators passed the bill earlier this month, and it's now being considered by the Assembly.

Ventura County officials predicted that lawmakers will be asked to consider several proposals, and legal challenges are likely before the end of the year.

Laurie Jordan said she remembers the "ridiculous emotional trip" that her family took when her son, Richie, was in high school. He graduated from Rio Mesa High last year.

From the time he was a freshman, the Camarillo family was concerned but figured that the exit exam would be challenged in court. They were right.

A legal fight over the exam kept thousands of students in limbo until the end of the 2005-06 school year, when a court upheld it as constitutional.

Richie has learning disabilities, his mother said. He never passed the exit exam but was able to complete other requirements necessary to graduate and received an exemption.

"I don't know the answer for the big picture," she said. "But I know for my son, I wanted the high school diploma. I didn't want one more barrier in his way."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.