NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's top education official warned Wednesday that states may lose federal money if they fail to inform parents about their children's rights to free tutoring or to transfer out of struggling schools.
U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings told an audience the agency will investigate how well states are promoting participation in such programs, offered under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
"We want to ensure that districts are living up to their responsibilities to notify parents about their options in a timely and easy-to-understand way," Spellings said in a speech at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York, in Queens. "And there are a number of steps we can take to enforce these provisions, including withholding federal funds."
Two education advocacy groups filed complaints last month against two Southern California school districts, claiming they violated the law's requirement to offer free tutoring. The law promises tutoring to poor families if their children attend schools that get federal poverty aid but have not made steady progress for three years. It also lets families transfer children out of schools that have not met progress goals for two consecutive years.
Critics say enforcement of those provisions has been lax. The government's numbers appear to bear that out.
The Education Department has found that of the 4 million students eligible to transfer from schools, only 38,000 do -- fewer than 1 percent. The department also says that only 11 percent to 17 percent of eligible students nationwide are using the free tutoring.
In California, the Los Angeles-based Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education and the Phoenix-based Alliance for School Choice filed the actions against the Compton and Los Angeles unified school districts. The groups claimed the districts failed to explain to parents their right to send their children to higher-performing schools.
The groups also asked Spellings to force the districts to comply with the law or cut off federal funding.
Spellings declined to comment on the legal actions Wednesday but said they showed the No Child Left Behind law was having an impact on the notion that school districts can be held accountable.
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