In a landmark shift, the state Board of Regents unanimously approved a plan that will allow high school students who wish to graduate with concentrations in technical courses to opt out of one of their history exams.

Technical students will now be allowed to skip either global history or the U.S. history and replace it with a technical exam. Some educators had argued that the exam requirements put all students in the same box.

Before this year, students had to pass five Regents exams to get their diploma - English, math, science, U.S. history and global studies.

Nassau BOCES is applauding the move because of the message it sends to students.

"If you're special in an area, if you love the arts or science or a technical area or even another language, that is just as important as everything else," said Nassau BOCES Executive Director Gene Silverman.

There is a short list of state-approved exams that can be used to replace one of the two social studies Regents exams. Currently, nurse assisting is not one of them. Students at BOCES say they hope that changes soon.

In order to graduate, all students will still have to take and pass both the U.S. history and global history courses and whatever final exams are required by their district.