Feds to California: give parents choices

The recent NPR report, California Schools Could Lose Aid over 'No Child' Law, looks into the way that students attending failing schools are not being offered alternate enrollment choices that are mandated by NCLB. This has been a long-simmering problem nationally, and one critical part of NCLB that has been largely ignored. Secretary Spellings and the federal DOE are now taking action against California in an apparent attempt to spur compliance and force the state to act. NPR has also published the letter from the feds to the California DOE here.

The question is why now? Why California? What changes are expected?

The best analysis that I've seen is found on the edspresso blog, Why Spellings's sudden change of heart? They report some interesting poll results that give a sense of the problem in LA:

• 86% do not know their children are in a failing school
• 2% report to have received a letter from their school informing them of the school’s failing designation
• Of the 46 parents who knew their child’s school was failing, only 9 of them (19%) had received written notification from the school
• 54% were not aware that their child is eligible to transfer to another school
• 63% would transfer their children if money was not an issue
• 82% would transfer their children in they were eligible to exercise the “parent choice” provision of NCLB
• 73% are likely to transfer their child knowing that the child qualifies to transfer to a different or better school at no cost

Clearly, there is a problem in LA. Parents are not being notified. Choices are not being offered. So what, exactly, have the feds demanded from California?

The DOE letter is a scant three page memo that doesn't really amount to much. They demand that the state issue a report. If the report doesn't satisfy the feds, then they threaten to request more info, or maybe give notice of possible sanctions:

California must finalize its policies for rewards and sanctions so that state and Federal policies are aligned. This condition must be resolved by September 30, 2006 by either providing evidence that the policies are final, or providing a timeline describing when this will occur. If this condition is not resolved in a timely manner, the Department may request further information, revise this special condition to require further action, or provide notice of its intent to take further administrative action.

Pardon me, but if I were Jack O'Connell, I wouldn't be trembling in my boots. Basically the state has been asked to give the feds a report on how bad the problem is and what they intend to do about it. NPR's claim that the feds "threatened to withhold millions of dollars in federal school aid from California" seems way overblown.

I hope we get to see the report from the California DOE. They are supposed to report on the top 20 most populous districts, so it would have to cover SFUSD. Obviously, SFUSD offers all families enrollment choices. That will not be the issue here. But does the district notify families of students that are attending "failing" schools that their child has the right to transfer?

It will be interesting to track this story in the future.