Federal officials may withhold up to $6.7 million from President Bush鈥檚 home state of Texas for failing to tell parents before the start of the school year whether their children鈥檚 schools are in need of improvement, as required by the No Child Left Behind Act.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that they鈥檝e made any final decision, but they鈥檙e hinting,鈥� Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said last week.
The U.S. Department of Education did not respond last week to repeated requests for comment.
Under the law, the department has the authority to hold back money for administering the federal Title I program if a state fails to meet any of the law鈥檚 requirements, until the secretary of education determines that they have been met.
Texas was scheduled to get the money late next month.
State officials have announced that Texas will not make final decisions about whether schools have made adequate yearly progress on students鈥� reading and mathematics test scores until the end of February.
In part, they said, that鈥檚 because the federal government did not approve final changes to the state鈥檚 accountability plan until July 29.
Texas is not the only state that has yet to notify parents about the status of their children鈥檚 schools. According to data collected by Education Week, 19 states had not released the lists of schools in need of improvement prior to the start of the current school year. (鈥淒ata Show 69传媒 Making Progress on Federal Goals,鈥� Sept. 8, 2004.)
But no state planned to release the results as late as Texas. Moreover, many of those states had already specified in the accountability plans approved by the federal government that they would not have final AYP determinations until later this fall, in part, because of timelines for receiving state test results.
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Instead, some states promised to notify parents based on preliminary data, or they made it clear that only a small number of schools potentially would be affected by the delay.
Ms. Ratcliffe said that Texas should get the money eventually, once it releases the AYP results. Moreover, because only state administrative dollars are at stake, she noted, 鈥渋t shouldn鈥檛 impact the schools. It will just mean that we will have to deal with it at our end.鈥�
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Texas officials have since told Raymond Simon, the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education in the U.S. Education Department, that they could provide districts with preliminary AYP data in mid-November, on a confidential basis.
At that time, the state could order schools that appeared to be in need of improvement to send a letter to parents letting them know that their children are eligible to transfer to a higher-performing school.
Ms. Ratcliffe said state officials have yet to hear back from the federal government about whether that timeline would satisfy the Education Department鈥檚 concerns.
She also noted that the school-transfer option applies only to schools receiving Title I money for disadvantaged children, 鈥渟o the absolute maximum number of schools we could have in that category, if nobody improves [from last year], is 308 out of about 7,700 campuses in the state.鈥�
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Connecticut is among the other states that are late in identifying schools under the No Child Left Behind Act. That state actually tests elementary and middle school students in the fall, but encountered significant difficulties in the scoring provided last year by its new testing contractor, in turn causing delays in gauging the status of schools.
鈥淚 was not willing to release the results because we had caught what we thought were discrepancies and problems,鈥� said Betty Sternberg, Connecticut鈥檚 commissioner of education.
The test results were eventually issued in June鈥攁bout six months behind schedule鈥攂ut the state doesn鈥檛 expect to be able to identify schools in need of improvement until next month.
鈥淭hey did not say anything in regard to fining us,鈥� Ms. Sternberg said of the federal government. 鈥淚 think they understood we were really in an untenable situation, due to no fault of our own.鈥�
In an Aug. 27 letter to Connecticut, Mr. Simon, the assistant secretary, spelled out the actions the state must take.
For one, Title I schools already in need of improvement and whose latest test scores would not change their status must continue to provide school choice and other options.
And if a school advances to the stage where it must provide supplemental services, the services must be available immediately once the state makes that determination next month.
Connecticut also must ensure that its districts have plans in place to offer school choice immediately to students in schools that may become eligible.
鈥淥nce Title I school identifications are made,鈥� Mr. Simon wrote, 鈥渨e expect that students will be able to transfer to their new schools as soon as possible, but no later than the start of the second semester.鈥�
