A different letter from school

Dear Parents in Washington State: Your child’s school is probably labeled as failing under No Child Left Behind Laws, and here’s a letter letting you know you may be able to send your youngster to a better-performing school or obtain tutoring for your child. Don’t worry, we’ll foot the bill. (Certain conditions may apply.) Sincerely, Your School District.That’s essentially the message that thousands of parents across the state will receive late this summer, since the U.S. Department of Education has denied the state’s requests to avoid sending out the letters. Until now, Washington hasn’t had to mail the letters because the state was exempt from No Child Left Behind — a waiver that it lost in May because the Legislature wouldn't update teacher evaluation standards to require some attention to students' testing performance. Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn had asked for an exemption from the letters, which he said “don’t serve any useful purpose.” But the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Education wrote in a memo that the notifications offer “valuable information” like “what the school is doing to address the problems of low achievement.”Washington did get some leeway, however: School districts who are newly identified as failing or that appear to be on the trajectory toward meeting standards will have more time to send the letters. A spokesperson for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction told Crosscut that school districts will manage the process of providing tutoring or transportation to another school children whose parent request it. More information on the issue will likely be available on August 27 when the state releases reports on school test scores. — M.L.