(1) As allowed by federal law, the Department of Education shall ensure that standardized summative assessments are administered in the schools of this state to the minimum extent practicable while still appropriately and effectively assessing the academic achievement of the students of this state.
(2) As regularly as required to satisfy subsection (1) of this section, the Department of Education shall apply under 20 U.S.C. 7861 to the United States Department of Education for a waiver of state assessment requirements prescribed by 20 U.S.C. 6311. The application may be for a strategic waiver that proposes a shortened assessment, a sampling model of assessments or any other strategy identified by the Department of Education to accomplish the purpose described in subsection (1) of this section.