Substantial portions of suburban New York students chose not to participate in state standardized exams amid parental skepticism of the tests.

Roughly 18% of students across the state did not take standardized reading exams in the spring while 17% did not take math exams, according to test data provided to The New York Post. Parents can send a letter to opt their students between third grade and eighth grade out of the exams, a move which does not result in penalties or consequences for students or districts.

Jeanette Deutermann, who started the group Long Island Opt Out, celebrated the fact that 45% of families in the New York City suburbs refused to take the exams. She said that “this type of standardized testing is detrimental to the learning environment” in government schools since they are “not created or administered to improve learning outcomes” and instead “take away precious time and resources” from activities which enrich the overall learning experience.

Concerns about excessing testing are shared by some lawmakers: New York State Democratic Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman introduced a bill last year that would waive state exam requirements for high school students if they score a three, four, or five on Advanced Placement exams in the same subject, marking proficiency or excellence in the material.

The New York Post linked the high rates at which students opted out to the nascent parental rights movement, which emphasizes the role of parents in charting educational decisions for their children. Advocates of the movement emphasize the infiltration of leftist ideological content into school curriculum and administration, as well as associated declines in learning outcomes.

News about the high degree of opting out also comes as New York City charter schools continue to outperform school districts on the state standardized exams, according to an analysis of test results by the New York City Charter School Center. Students enrolled in charter schools were more proficient than their peers in district schools by seven percentage points on the reading exam and by thirteen percentage points on the math exam, with considerably higher learning improvements for black and Hispanic charter school students.