Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about New York Inspires
NY Inspires is the title of the Department's plan to transform education in response to extensive feedback from New York State parents, educators, students, educators, colleges, businesses, and communities that overwhelmingly indicated a need for a shift from our current system to one that truly focuses on the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students need most for success after high school. Backed by research and supported by National experts, NY Inspires will not only align high school graduation requirements toreadiness for college, careers, civic life, and the world beyond, it will support more meaningful instruction, more opportunities to apply knowledge across disciplines and contexts, more student engagement, and more ways for students to demonstrate learning.
- Focused on the Future
- Rather than perpetuating antiquated systems based on compliance and seat time, New York will move to a competency-based system that allows students to demonstrate knowledge and skills in multiple ways, at their own pace.
- Personalized and Focus on the Whole Child
- Learning will be more personalized to the needs, strengths, and interests of students, and support students’ mental, social, emotional, and physical well-being.
- Rigorous and Culturally Responsive
- All students will have access to rigorous, high-quality learning experiences and environments grounded in New York’s CR-SE Framework.
- Meaningful and Connected
- The educational program will focus on depth of learning interdisciplinary, real-world connections, rather than on siloed content or checking boxes.
- Multiple Ways to Learn and Demonstrate Learning
- Students will graduate high school with a body of evidence demonstrating they have achieved readiness in the competencies necessary for postsecondary success, reflected on a clear, multi-dimensional statewide transcript.
See The Vision webpage to learn about the history of NY Inspires, including the work of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Graduation Measures, the four transformations, and the New York State Portrait of a Graduate.
The Portrait serves as the guiding framework for the state’s education system and creates a shared understanding of the skills and knowledge students are expected to demonstrate upon high school graduation. This shared vision of student success anchors communities in common priorities that can guide instructional decisions, assessment strategies, continuous improvement, and more, helping educators design learning experiences that will prepare students for success in high school and beyond.
NYSED is not eliminating the Regents Examinations. Regents Exams provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate mastery of the learning standards in a specific course. Currently, the Regents Exams are used not only to satisfy the state’s diploma requirements, but also to satisfy federal assessment requirements mandated by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). State assessments will continue to be administered per federal ESSA requirements, which states:
- In mathematics and reading or language arts, all students must be assessed in each grade 3 through 8 and at least one in grades 9 through 12.
- In science, all students must be assessed once in grades 3 through 5; once in grades 6 through 9; and once in grades 10 through 12.
NYSED has proposed to sunset diploma assessment requirements by Fall 2027 (Transformation #3), which would decouple Regents Exams from graduation requirements. Under the proposed vision, students graduating in January 2028 would not be required to pass Regents Exams to earn a high school diploma. They would still be assessed in accordance with their district's local assessment strategy. The State high school exams would become one of the many options students could use as evidence of their proficiency in the high school learning standards.
Please Note: The Board of Regents must approve any changes to the New York State graduation requirements. Until such time, the existing requirements remain in effect for all students.
The NY Inspires transformations will allow students the flexibility to demonstrate their understanding and skills in the manner most aligned with their personal strengths and abilities. The vision does not create specific pathways for specific subgroups of students but instead creates options for ALL students to provide the necessary evidence of their proficiency in the high school learning standards and the Portrait of a Graduate, with a focus on creating a more equitable system that allows for multiple measures to be used to assess what students know and can do while maintaining rigor.
Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Ϲ (CR-SE) is intentionally placed at the center of the New York State Portrait of a Graduation, emphasizing that every attribute should be viewed through a culturally responsive lens. Our future system recognizes and values students’ diverse identities, languages, and experiences as strengths. The use of CR-SE practices promotes inclusive instruction that builds on students’ strengths and reflects our commitment to supporting the whole student—academically, socially, and emotionally—so that every graduate is prepared to thrive in a diverse and dynamic world.
Questions about Implementation Planning
Visit our Transformation Timeline webpage for information on the implementation timeline, including how student cohorts will be impacted and what changes have been adopted by the Board of Regents.
NYSED will:
- Prioritize Learning Standards
- Develop New York State Competencies
- Develop Rubrics for the Competencies
- Develop the Universal Transcript
- Update the Data Ecosystem to Support this Work
NYSED will also develop accompanying guidance, tools, and other resources for districts. Materials will be posted to our Resources webpage as they become available.
Entering the 2026-2027 school year, districts could:
- Pilot Innovative Ideas
- Authentic, student-centered learning experiences
- Diverse assessment strategies beyond traditional exams
- Demonstrations and celebrations of learning
- Evidence-based, performance-driven instructional changes
- Increase Opportunities for Career-Connected Learning
- Recruit and train work-based learning coordinators
- Identify local opportunities and connections
- Begin to identify possible school-based career-connected learning experiences for students
- Focus on Creating Conditions to Support Change
- Strong MTSS-I structures
- Aligned to the CR-SE Framework
- SEL Benchmarks and health supports
- Tiered, job-embedded, and supported professional development for educators
- Learning communities and regional collaboratives
Visit our Resources webpage for links to relevant information and resources.
Last Updated: Sept 2026