ORLANDO, Fla. — As testing day gets closer and closer for Central Florida students, some parents are worried about their child’s performance on the Florida Standards Assessments due to in-class and virtual obstacles they’ve faced throughout the year.

​Parents say they worry that since this year has been so unconventional with hybrid learning models and quarantines that their child may not be as prepared as most years for the FSA. 

Spectrum News 13’s Eric Mock has been following the story of one Orange County family as they’ve returned to in-person learning.

This family, and many other parents who have children with special needs, share the same concern. 

With everything that’s gone on this school year they don’t want this test to determine their child’s future. 

At the Griffis home a couple nights a week you’ll find a private tutor helping out Ethan and Tyler. 

The tutoring is to help with the one thing other than safety that Brianne Griffis has talked about all school year: the FSA. 

“So I think each child should be given a fair shot,” she said. 

Like many other parents Spectrum News 13 has talked to, Griffis thinks her sons haven’t gotten that fair shot this year — especially when the FSA will determine whether Ethan moves on to fourth grade. 

“It’s unsettling as a parent, like, in the back of my mind there’s a pressure of this test may mean his promotion,” Griffis said. 

She has no problem with her son taking the test and the district using it to assess where he’s at. 

When Spectrum News 13 asked state education commissioner Richard Corcoran about this at a press conference in Melbourne on Monday, he said they just got guidance from the federal government that they can apply for a waiver to waive standardized testing. 

Prior to that, Corcoran and other officials with the Florida Department of Education have said testing is vital to assessing where students are. 

But so far the state has not said whether the FSA will determine if students move on. 

“I’m surprised they honestly though haven’t made a decision," Griffis said. "At this point, you know, we’re only a couple months out here."

Corcoran said Monday that the state is still getting input from superintendents and others about whether they should do the waiver but promised their decision would be fair to all parents. 

“I promise you, whatever that outcome is it’ll be something we work with the superintendents on, and it will be absolutely something I think that will be completely understood,” Corcoran said.

In a letter sent by the Orange County Public school board to Corcoran on March 12, leaders specifically asked that the testing be used to “inform instruction and address student regression” but not for retention, promotion or graduation. 

The state says it will go ahead and apply for the waiver but says it has not decided whether to waive accountability requirements from the testing.

The state department of education is seeking public comment for the waiver. Comments can be sent to ESSA@fldoe.org by March 31, 2021.

As the test is less than a month away for Ethan, though, Griffis wants to know for sure sooner rather than later. 

She, like many other parents, doesn’t want to be in the dark on test day.   

“We don’t know if it’s even going to matter,” she said.