The city Department of Education lost US history Regents exams taken by 127 students — preventing at least eight seniors from graduating on time.
All of the 127 students are being forced to retake the test in August at the earliest. Of those, 13 are seniors, and eight needed to pass just that one exam to get their diploma.
The exams, which are graded off-site to prevent cheating, were inexplicably lost by a contracted courier, Deluxe Delivery Systems, officials said.
“As soon as I heard, I was like, ‘No! My summer!’ ” said Erin Seenauth, 17, an incoming senior at Thomas Edison Career and Technical Education HS in Jamaica, Queens.
“I don’t want to take it again because I feel like I’m not going to do as well. I’m not in rigorous classroom mode.”
Seenauth (below) said she skipped a trip to Puerto Rico to attend study sessions to prep for retaking the test.
Other students said they had to take time off work.
“It’s taking time away from my summer job . . . It really brought me down,” said Christian Raphael, 16, who also attends Thomas Edison.
This is an unfortunate occurrence, and we are working closely with the small number of affected students to ensure that the misplacing of the exams does not have any lasting impact on their education and academic futures.
- Devora Kaye, DOE Spokeswoman
The impacted students all attended four high schools in Jamaica, Queens. Along with Thomas Edison, they were HS for Community Leadership, Hillside Arts and Letters Academy and Jamaica Gateway to the Sciences.
“This is an unfortunate occurrence, and we are working closely with the small number of affected students to ensure that the misplacing of the exams does not have any lasting impact on their education and academic futures,” said DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye.
The DOE said it has given the schools letters for the students to send their colleges asking not to change any financial aid or admissions decisions until after the August Regents results are available.
Incoming Edison senior Nevaeh Rudder said students are livid.
“It feels as if we are being punished by being asked to cram in a year’s worth of information in three weeks to retake a test we have already taken,” she said. “The students did their job by studying hard and taking the test. The school did their job by preparing us. The only problem is that the DOE has not completed its job.”
Students want the city to grant an exemption from the test, Rudder said, but the DOE pointed out that the test is a requirement.
Last year, 75 students at Chelsea Career and Technical Education HS had to retake a Regents exam because their original tests fell off a truck and disappeared.
In 2012, exams taken by 17 students at FDR HS in Brooklyn vanished.