Some Washington parents have been granted permission to see their children's WASL exams in recent weeks, the first time parents have been allowed to see students' work on the state's high-stakes test.

Critics of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) say they hope more parents will follow suit now that state education officials — under pressure from parents — are reinterpreting the rules and allowing closely supervised access by parents and guardians of test-takers.

Until the past few weeks, the completed WASL was off-limits to parents. Those who asked were permitted to view a blank WASL test until 2003, and state officials recently have been releasing 30 percent of test questions to the public each year.

But parents who wanted to see their children's actual work were turned down. State officials cited copyright law and a state law that prohibited the test from being shared with the public.

Recently, state officials realized that a federal law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act — defining the exams as educational records that parents and students age 18 and over have a right to see — may trump the state's law, said Kim Schmanke, spokeswoman for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

This spring, a school-district assessment director e-mailed OSPI asking what to do about a parent request to see a child's exam. That request cited a memo prepared by federal education officials that defined completed tests as education records subject to parental disclosure, Schmanke said.

That helped prompt state officials to reconsider their rules about WASL access, she said.

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For now, parent requests to view the WASL are being handled case by case while OSPI works with the state Attorney General's Office to resolve the conflicting legal interpretations.

Amy Wolfe of Aberdeen is one of two Washington parents who has seen her child's WASL test since the rule change.

Wolfe said her 9-year-old son, Tyler Stoken, was suspended for five days this spring because he didn't finish one of the WASL writing questions. The school said the boy was being defiant, but Wolfe said Tyler was confused by the question.

Wolfe spent an hour looking over the test in the Aberdeen superintendent's office this week with an OSPI official and another district employee in the room. She had to sign a nondisclosure agreement stating that she would not disclose any WASL questions, and she was not allowed to take notes.

"It didn't help me understand why this test was so important that it led to this situation with my son," she said.

At least two other parents say they have been granted permission to view the tests in coming weeks, including Nanette Meratinia, a resident of Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood who has two sons, in the eighth and ninth grades.

She had sought access to the exams off and on for years and was denied until this week.

"What do you do when your student's scores don't match their classroom performance?" Meratinia asked.

With the WASL now a high-school graduation requirement, "the stakes are too high to leave it to chance," she said.

OSPI says Meratinia will be able to see the exams within the next couple of weeks.

Juanita Doyon, a Spanaway woman who founded a group called Mothers Against WASL, hopes many parents will take advantage of their new access.

"Anytime one test is used for high stakes ... there's a corruption factor that takes place," said Doyon, who ran unsuccessfully for state superintendent of public instruction last year. "The test is taking over the system."

Schmanke said the state never intended to hide the WASL from parents. "If we didn't want people to know what was in the test, we wouldn't release actual test items every year," she said.

Parents who seek access to their children's tests may have to wait weeks. Districts had to send the test booklets out by this week to out-of-state scoring centers.

Tests can't be recalled until the scoring is completed in the summer, Schmanke said.

Parents who want information on viewing their child's WASL exams may contact OSPI assessment coordinator Paul Dugger at 360-725-6348.

Jolayne Houtz: 206-464-3122 or jhoutz@seattletimes.com