Official: No Child Left Behind law broken

By Antoinette Konz

Montgomery Advertiser

September 3, 2004

Alabama failed to meet a federal requirement to notify parents if their children were at an underperforming school in time to transfer their children prior to the first day of classes, an official with the U.S. Department of Education said Thursday.

The violation could result in the loss of huge sums of federal funds, said Mike Petrilli, associate deputy for innovation and improvement with the U.S. Department of Education. However, Petrilli said, the goal is not to cut funding.

"Our goal is to have the states be in full compliance with the law and we are working closely with each state to ensure that," Petrilli said.

Families at several of Montgomery County's 13 schools on the list say they were not notified that their children were eligible for choice until the second week of school.

Alabama did not release federal No Child Left Behind Act assessment results or names of schools on the improvement list until Aug. 12 -- three days after school began at more than half of the state's public schools.

Under the act, each state must provide student assessment results -- as well as the schools identified for school improvement -- in a timely manner so local districts can inform parents they may choose a different school for their child.

In turn, school districts must offer choice to eligible students prior to the beginning of the school year, Petrilli said.

State Superintendent of Education Joe Morton said the state missed the deadline by only four days, an improvement over last year's 16 days.

"I know we are making progress. Our goal is to get the information out as quickly as possible, but we also want to make sure that what we are getting out is accurate."

That is little consolation for Sandra McCullum, whose grandson attends one of the underperforming schools, Davis Elementary.

McCullum said she didn't find out the school was on the list until a week after school started. Had she known sooner, she said, she would have applied to move her grandson to a better school.

"It just doesn't seem right. If you are going to offer choice, you should do it so you won't have to move a kid once school begins," McCullum said.

Montgomery Schools Superintendent Clinton Carter said he would have informed parents of the choice option sooner had he known about all the schools placed on the list.

"We knew about some of the schools, because they had been on the list last year," he said. "But five new schools were on the list this year and we didn't know until after school began."

Morton said he doesn't believe the state will lose any federal money this year.

"I think we are fine," he said. "I don't anticipate any negative consequences, as long as we continue on the same path. Our goal is to release the data by the first day of school and we almost achieved that goal this year. We only missed it by a few days."

The U.S. Department of Education is trying to make it very clear that each state must get the information out to districts and parents in a timely manner, Petrilli said. Alabama is not the only state that has had trouble getting out information.