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PHOENIX — High school seniors, you can relax — eventually.

State lawmakers gave final passage to a bill Wednesday to allow the 6,000 seniors who have not passed the high-stakes AIMS test to supplement scores with classroom grades. Gov. Janet Napolitano promised to sign it.

But the effort lacked the votes needed to go into effect immediately, meaning students will need to wait until September or later to receive their diplomas.

However, the practical effect of the delay may be minimal.

Even if students fail the test and don't receive diplomas, they can still go on to a four-year university, since colleges look at credits earned and SAT and ACT scores.

And Tucson's largest school district had already decided Tuesday to let students walk at graduation whether or not the bill went into law.

"We know those kids are getting diplomas, it's just a timing issue," said Rep. David Schapira, a Tempe Democrat and sponsor of HB 2008.

Some districts, though, are keeping AIMS failers out of graduation anyway. In Amphitheater Public Schools, the kids who failed AIMS won't walk in the ceremony since the law doesn't take effect immediately, officials said.

The formula, passed in 2005 with a two-year sunset, inflates AIMS scores if a student has taken the exam each time it was offered, has completed and passed all coursework and has taken part in tutoring offered at school.

This bill makes the grades count for 25 percent of the AIMS score for this year's class and next. In 2010, it goes down to 15 percent, and 5 percent in 2011 and beyond.

On Tuesday, the bill passed the state Senate and went back for a final vote in the House — where lawmakers had cast their votes on an initial version back in March. At that time, the bill had the 40 votes it needed to go into effect immediately.

But Wednesday, it lost the support of some Republicans who said toying with a test that has gone through perennial changes is intellectually dishonest. The final vote was 35-21.

"As long as we keep providing fixes, we don't address the real issue," said Rep. Andy Biggs, a Gilbert Republican who introduced legislation to scrap the test. But while Biggs voted against this effort, he said he thinks there may now be a political will to reform the test.

Others, like Rep. John Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican, stood by using the test without an augmentation, since he said students aren't prepared for the work force or college.

"All this does is take the heat off students and parents and maybe even ourselves," he said.

But in what has become a regular debate about the virtues of having a high school exit exam, supporters of Schapira's bill argued some students aren't good test takers and therefore shouldn't be punished for the failures of the school system.

"It's so late in the school year and so close to graduation it would be unfair to those seniors this year not to sign it," Napolitano said during her weekly press briefing. But she, too, indicated there may be a need for broader change when it comes to graduation requirements.

"There are lots of issues about AIMS and whether AIMS is really the right way to go or whether we need to be using a college-oriented test like an ACT or SAT," she said.

Without the emergency measure, the bill will go into effect 90 days after the close of the Legislative session — and that date is dependent on lawmakers reaching a 2009 budget agreement.