COLUMBUS — Charter schools won't be required to help struggling students if the latest version of a bill overhauling Ohio's proficiency-test system becomes law.

        The bill requires regular and charter schools to assess students annually to see whether they're meeting academic standards.

        It also requires regular school districts — but not charter schools — to help students whose assessments show they're unlikely to meet the standards.

        The Ohio Senate passed the bill Wednesday, sending it to the House.

        “Whether you're in a community school or a regular school, the reason for the testing program is to assess where the student is and then intervene and provide remediation,” Warren Russell, executive director of the Ohio School Boards Association, said Thursday.

        “Those students ought to be able to have that kind of program in a community school as well as a regular school.”

        The same mandates should apply to both charter schools and regular districts, said Tom Mooney, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers. He said charter schools have yet to show any track record of academic success.

        Proficiency test scores were extremely low at the 12 charter schools whose test results were reported by the state this year.

        The Ohio Department of Education said no student passed all five proficiency tests at three of eight charter schools whose fourth-grade test results were reported.

        Charter schools, known as community schools in Ohio, are publicly funded, privately operated institutions free from some state regulations. They receive basic state aid, limited startup money and no construction funds.

        The bill's sponsor, Senate Education Committee Chairman Robert Gardner, said exempting charter schools from the requirement to help students was not discussed at length by lawmakers.

        “It might be something we can work on in the House, depending on how they see it,” said Mr. Gardner, a Madison Republican.

        Charter-school supporters say the exemption is not a problem, since student success is a requirement written into their contracts with the public agency sponsoring the schools.

        If they fail to meet that requirement, the contract can be canceled and the school shut down.

        Steve Ramsey, president of the Ohio Charter Schools Association, described the threat as a “whip” over the heads of charter-school operators to make sure all students are helped.

        Nancy Brennan, vice president of White Hat Management of Akron, which operates 12 charter schools, said she believes the requirement was exempted “because community school contracts already contain that same type of language. They didn't want to make it redundant.”

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