Atlanta Public Schools will celebrate the graduation this evening of 138 former students who weren’t previously eligible for diplomas because they failed part of a now-defunct state standardized test.

They can get dilplomas now becaue a law enacted earlier this year eliminated the requirement that students pass the Georgia High School Graduation Test to graduate from high school.

The test dates to 1991 and was intended to ensure high school graduates met basic academic standards. It was eventually replaced by other standardized tests.

State officials estimated that the new law would affect about 9,000 people.

Atlanta has notified more than 500 former students they now qualify for graduation as a result of the law, district officials said.

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Corbitt VanDuzer, 6, strikes a pose for her mother, teacher Kathryn VanDuzer, before her first day of first grade at Glennwood Elementary School in Decatur, Ga., on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Seeger Gray/AJC)

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (center) is flanked by GOP whip Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. (left) and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, as Thune speak to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. Earlier Tuesday, the Senate passed the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

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