PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE
The NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (NCLB) ACT of 2001 is a federal law to improve education for all children. It holds schools responsible for results, gives parents greater choices, and promotes teaching methods that work. This overview will point out parts of the law that are important for parents to know.
NCLB Gives Resources to Schools and School Districts
Under the NCLB law, all schools must make adequate yearly progress – test scores must improve. If a school fails to make adequate yearly progress two years in a row, the school is identified as in need of improvement. The school must take action, with help from the district and the North Dakota State Education Department, to improve the performance of its students. Schools must tell parents how they plan to improve the school and how parents can work with the principal and the teachers to help the school improve.
You have a new choice if your child attends a failing school.
Children who are in failing schools are at risk of falling farther and farther behind in learning. The NCLB law gives you a new choice. If your child’s school is in need of improvement, you can ask that your child be transferred to a higher performing public school or a charter school in the same district. This option is called public school choice.
Your child’s school district must tell you about this new option at the beginning of the school year after the school has been identified as in need of improvement. The school district must tell you how to apply for a transfer. Parents must complete the application and return it by the deadline.
Under public school choice, the school district must provide transportation for students who transfer. Students who transfer to higher performing schools may continue to attend those schools until their own school is no longer in need of improvement.
If there are more transfer requests than available spaces in higher performing schools, the school district will give priority to students who are the most behind in academic subjects.
Under public school choice, students cannot transfer to private or religious schools.
Public school choice is just one option. . .
The NCLB law gives parents of children in failing schools more than one option. If parents decide not to transfer, and the school remains in need of improvement for another year, the school district must offer students supplemental educational services. These services are extra tutoring or help in important subjects to help students catch up. School districts, not parents, pay for these services.