Citing confusion among some school districts, the state Board of Education will waive the algebra requirement for some high school seniors this school year.

The waiver, which will be granted to districts on an individual basis, will allow seniors to receive their diplomas even though they haven't completed an Algebra 1 course. The deadline for districts to apply is April 2.

Thursday's decision by the state board was welcomed by some educators and attacked by others, including students, who said it sends the wrong message to young people who worked hard to meet the requirement.

Sacramento High School senior Sara Anderson passed Algebra 1 as an eighth-grader at Sutter Middle School. She reacted strongly to news that waivers could be granted.

"High schools have known for four years that the class of 2004 had to pass an algebra proficiency test or algebra altogether," she said. "The administration should have been looking out for them. And students knew they had to buckle down."

The Sacramento City Unified School District said it doesn't plan to submit a waiver request, but other school systems say they will. Their reasons drew sympathy from the state board members who approved the plan.

Some districts said they were unaware of the Algebra 1 requirement even though state officials had notified local districts more than once. Others said that when the state postponed the exit exam requirement, they thought algebra also was included.

In addition, some districts failed to inform their adult education and special education departments about the requirement.

State board members said students shouldn't be faulted if districts failed to notify them. They also questioned whether some special education students have the ability to pass the algebra test.

State Department of Education officials have received about 200 calls since a Santa Cruz district was granted a waiver earlier this year.

Many Sacramento-area districts have worked hard to comply, offering after-school and Saturday classes to give seniors every opportunity to pass the test and receive their diplomas.

Most of the state's seniors pass Algebra 1 before their fourth year of high school, but the waiver is appealing to some districts.

Officials at Folsom Cordova Unified School District say they are considering applying, and so are their counterparts in the San Juan Unified School District.

In San Juan Unified, 4,000 seniors already have passed Algebra 1. Nearly all the seniors currently enrolled in the class are taking the course for the second or third time, school officials said.

Currently, 629 San Juan seniors in 14 comprehensive, continuation and charter schools are enrolled in Algebra 1 or 1B to meet the requirement. Of those seniors, about 150 are special education students. In addition, about 103 regular education and 43 special education students are considered in danger of not meeting the algebra requirement.

Lois Franchimone, San Juan director of schools and programs, said the district's seniors did not have the extra math opportunities underclassmen now enjoy, such as extensive tutoring.

"We have math teachers with posted tutoring hours," she said. "One school has a group of students willingly coming in on Saturday to work on math. We have a lot of pieces in place that will only grow stronger."

Special education advocates lament that some districts will not apply for the waiver. Ed Amundson, a special education teacher in Sacramento City Unified, said his district should apply.

"It's unfair to expect some students to pass at this stage," he said. "My seniors won't be able to walk across the stage and they will have 225 credits - all their required classes with the exception of algebra."

Many educators and students have stressed that most students can pass Algebra 1. "I don't understand people who are still taking algebra their senior year," Sac High's Anderson said. "They have had four years to pass it. That is four years to understand the concept of balancing equations and solving for X."

Teacher Jenn Oates, of Elk Grove Unified's Laguna Creek High School, was infuriated by the rollback. Her district is not applying for a waiver because it already requires students to pass Algebra 1 to earn a diploma.

Oates states in an e-mail that the state waffled when it approved the exit-exam delay.

"That was a mistake because we sent a message, loud and clear, to California's students and their parents that you are just not smart enough to do hard things," she said. "This deferment of the algebra requirement sends the same message, and I say hogwash."

Meanwhile, two state legislators are considering introducing legislation to postpone the algebra graduation requirement for at least one year.

Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he wants to make sure that no student is deprived of a diploma without ample notification of the algebra standard and adequate opportunity to pass the class. He said he has been discussing the matter with Sen. Charles Poochigian, R-Fresno. No decision will be made until state education officials solicit comments from school districts, Steinberg said.

"We're trying to determine the extent of notification problems and what should be the appropriate response," Steinberg said. "We want to make sure that students caught in the middle, through no fault of their own, are not harmed."