NCLB rules eased for hurricane-affected states

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings would allow affected districts and schools a one-year delay in achieving their adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals and would allow them to establish a separate subgroup for displaced students for one year.

“We are pleased that Secretary Spellings has responded to the education organizations in a way that acknowledges the tremendous challenges facing not only those school districts most heavily impacted by the hurricanes, but those thousands of school districts across the nation that have welcomed students who had to be relocated,” says NSBA Director of Federal Relations Reggie Felton. But for many communities, “additional waivers will be necessary.”

St. Charles Parish, La., Superintendent Rodney R. LaFon, for example, told Congress that affected school districts need waivers for other provisions of NCLB and for other federal education laws. In testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development Sept. 22, LaFon said, “It would not be fair to students, schools, or districts to hold them accountable for many of these requirements during this most unusual year.”

“The disruption in the education of students and unsettled living conditions that many families are experiencing make test scores unreliable this year,”.he says. “As a result, any conclusions formed about student achievement and adequate yearly progress will be unreliable.”

The temporary rule changes approved by Spellings are outlined in a letter sent to chief state school officers Sept. 29. “NCLB currently does not require a school or district to move forward in the school improvement timeline if the reason for not making AYP is due to exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances such as natural disaster,” Spellings wrote.

As a result, any state or school district with schools located in the “major disaster” areas declared by the President in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Florida and that have sustained substantial damage from the hurricanes, “such that the schools have been closed for a significant period of time . . . may implement this delay for the 2005-06 school year without a waiver.”

Spellings says she is “willing to consider waivers for other schools or districts that have been otherwise adversely impacted by hurricanes Katrina or Rita due to enrolling large numbers of displaced students or other factors.”

In addition, Spellings says, schools or districts taking advantage of this provision “must provide evidence to the state, ideally in the form of assessment or academic achievement information, that the reason for not making AYP was in fact caused by the effects of the hurricanes or the enrollment of displaced students.”

The letter also says schools or districts heavily affected by the hurricanes could create a separate subgroup for displaced students -- for the 2005-06 school year only -- for NCLB reporting and accountability purposes. These students would not appear in other subgroups.

All students, including displaced students, still must take state assessments, and states still must comply with the NCLB requirement that at least 95 percent of students are tested.

Spellings says having a separate subgroup for displaced students “will help us make more informed judgments about how displaced students performed and how and to what extent accountability determinations will be applied next year.”

NSBA has sought waivers and deadline extensions for a series of NCLB provisions for districts affected by the hurricanes, including a waiver to allow displaced students to be excluded from the current year AYP determinations, flexibility in the implementation of sanctions (school choice and supplemental services) for up to two years, modifications in the calculation of graduation rates, and an extended deadline for meeting the “highly qualified” criteria for teachers.