Until this past summer, Florida high school seniors who did not meet their graduation requirements were still able to graduate with a regular diploma if they passed the GED before the end of the school year.

Not anymore.

The Florida Department of Education quietly changed the rules in late July, saying the state never had legal authority to engage in the practice known as the GED exit option.

Now hundreds of students who take the General Education Development test to graduate on time will be getting an equivalency diploma instead -- a less attractive option for those looking to enroll in some universities or join the military.

``A lot of military services accepted the exit option,'' said Randi Burger, a dropout prevention specialist in the Broward school district. ``There's a little bit of confusion as to who's going to accept it now.''

Florida law says equivalency diplomas have the same status as standard diplomas in the eyes of the state -- including for admission to any state university or community college. How private and out-of-state colleges will respond is not clear right now.

The equivalency diploma is different from the diploma awarded to students who drop out of high school and pass the GED later in life.

Seniors can take the GED if they pass the 10th-grade FCAT (or certain college-entrance exams), but they do not obtain the required 24 credits or 2.0 grade-point average to graduate. The GED tests students on math, reading, social studies and writing.

``It's not an easy option,'' said Anthenisia Jackson, instructional supervisor for adult and community education for the Miami-Dade school district. ``But some students do take advantage of it.''

Of the 142,951 students statewide who earned a standard diploma last year, about 3,000 did so after passing the GED. A little more than 200 of those were from Miami-Dade and Broward.

Now students who pick that option will get equivalency diplomas instead.

The switch means Florida's high school graduation rate will no longer include students who take the GED their senior year. The state has long been criticized for padding its relatively low rate by counting those students.

Florida school districts had been granting standard diplomas to seniors who passed the GED since 1988. Before prohibiting this, state education officials tried unsuccessfully to get an alternative diploma passed through the Legislature earlier this year.

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