The Commissioner of Education may issue a diploma of high school equivalency conveying all the significance and privilege of a regular high school diploma to any person who is not a high school graduate if:

(1) The person is and has been a resident of Nebraska for at least thirty days immediately preceding application or if his or her final period of high school attendance during which credit was earned toward graduation was in a Nebraska high school;

(2) On the basis of such person's achievements in approved tests and other criteria deemed pertinent by the Commissioner of Education, there is reasonable certainty that he or she has attained the educational development and abilities of the typical high school graduate; and

(3) Such person has attained his or her eighteenth birthday and is unable to secure a diploma from the high school he or she last attended or the class in which he or she was enrolled at the time of his or her withdrawal from school has been graduated for at least one year.