Santa Ana District to Withhold CLAS Tests : Education: School trustees vote to keep controversial exams from the state despite warnings from their attorney that such an action might be illegal.

Trustees of the Santa Ana Unified School District on Tuesday voted to withhold from the state the controversial standardized tests that students took earlier this month.

Before the vote, Keith Breon, an attorney for the district, warned that the Department of Education could sue the district for this.

“They are not your tests; they belong to the state, and it would be a violation of current law” to keep them, he said. The district would have to pay the costs of defending its action in court, he pointed out.

But Trustee Tom Chaffee, who made the proposal, called the California Learning Assessment System “a challenge to adult authority.” The test “intrudes into family life. I don’t care what a court says in L.A.,” Chaffee said, referring to a recent court decision that the tests do not invade students’ privacy.

The school board voted 3 to 2 to withhold the CLAS tests except in cases where parents specifically request that their child’s test be submitted.

Chaffee, Rose Marie Avila and Sal Mendoza voted in favor. Trustees Audrey Yamagata-Noji and Robert W. Balen rejected the idea.

Officials for the state Department of Education require all school districts to administer the tests. But what, if anything, happens if they do not remains unclear.

“Our legal office cannot comment on a hypothetical” case, said Jan Agee, spokeswoman for the department.

CLAS is a performance-based assessment program that tests fourth-, fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders in reading, writing, math, social studies and science.