There is growing concern with new school standards coming down from the state of Florida in which schools with special needs students would be graded the same way schools without them are graded.

Mt. Herman Exceptional School Center, a school for special needs children, is one of the schools the state wants to give a grade to.

"The notation of taking that group of kids and applying the school grade to them, I think, is unrealistic," said Mark Cashen, principal at Mt. Herman.

The result of grading the special needs schools is that more schools would get failing grades.

"Based on the proposed schools, it would be an F, and we are certainly not an F school," Cashen said.

Parents are speaking out about their concerns as well.

"You can't treat them the same because they're not the same," said Nikki Williams, whose daughter attends Palm Avenue Exceptional Student Center.

Williams said her 16-year-old reads at a third-grade level and couldn't take the FCAT like children without learning disabilities. She said her daughter is high-functioning and can't imagine what it would be like for her some of her daughters' classmates who are low-functioning.

"It doesn't make sense, I believe," Williams said. "So it's not an anger or frustration. It just doesn't make sense."

This spring, Florida public school students will take the new FCAT, commonly referred to as FCAT 2.0, which is a much more rigorous test with increased expectations across all grade levels.

In addition, the state Board of Education raised FCAT cut scores for each passing level in December to be applied in spring 2012. It's all in hopes of increasing accountability and high academic standards.

"I have nothing against schools being held accountable," said Lois Appleton, head of the PTA at Palm Avenue. "We all as parents want schools to be held accountable for the quality of education for the students."

Appleton said the reality of these changes in terms of real-life consequences for students needs to be recognized and understood.

"Parents of children with intellectual disability, there's no instruction guide that comes with them when they're born. There's no rules that tells you how to fight for them," Appleton said.