During the 1990s, some alternative assessment schools, similar in character to charter schools, were founded in parts of New York in an attempt to provide a way for students to graduate from high school without taking any Regents Exams. Usually, the substitute graduation assessement involved would consist of the review and grading, by a panel of teachers, of an academic portfolio — a collection of the student's best work from all his or her years at the school. From such a "portfolio examination" would be issued a "Regents equivalency" grade for the areas of Math, English, History, and Science, and a "Regents Equivalency" diploma would be awarded to the student at commencement.
However, by the end of the 1990s most, if not all, of these self-labeled "alternative schools" have been forced to adopt some or all of the standard Regents Exam, and can no longer use portfolio examination criteria as the sole basis for graduation from the school. A notable example of this progression from full portfolio-based assessment to nearly-total Regents Exam based assessment is The Beacon School.
Though all public schools are required to follow either the Regents Exam system or some form of alternative assessment, private schools may or may not follow either of these systems. Most private schools actually do use Regents exams and award Regents diplomas, but some especially academically prestigious private schools do not. These schools' argument is that their own diploma requirements exceed Regents standards. High schools run by the Society of Jesus; Fordham Preparatory School, Regis High School, Xavier High School, Canisius High School, McQuaid Jesuit High School, and Loyola School; have not used Regents exams for decades. Additionally, schools like The Masters School, The Hackley School, and The Harvey School do not use the Regents system, but set their own (often rigorous) graduation requirements that must be fulfilled.
Additionally, in some schools, individual students whose native language is not English can sometimes be exempted from taking the Regents Examination in Languages other than English (RE-LOE) if they complete a sequence in Art/Music, Business, and Technology (usually composed of five credits).
Successfully completed Advanced Placement exams are another example through which a student may become exempt of the Regents examination for that subject. E.g. AP American History in place of the U.S. History and Government Regents.