Few parents use "no child" law's clout

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times staff reporter

Principal Ben Gauyan sat down last month to write a disheartening letter to parents at Midway Elementary School in Des Moines. Despite a strong gain in reading, the Highline district school's math scores again missed what's expected under the federal No Child Left Behind law, and Gauyan had to inform parents they could transfer their children to higher-scoring schools.
He braced for what might happen. But the phone calls and e-mails just trickled in. Six students have left, and Gauyan suspects some parents chose to transfer simply because other schools were closer to their day-care centers.

No Child Left Behind, passed by Congress in 2001, gives parents strong new rights, starting with the ability to remove their children from schools that receive federal dollars but fall short of the law's targets two years in a row.

Yet few parents are exercising those options.

By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times staff reporter





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Principal Ben Gauyan sat down last month to write a disheartening letter to parents at Midway Elementary School in Des Moines. Despite a strong gain in reading, the Highline district school's math scores again missed what's expected under the federal No Child Left Behind law, and Gauyan had to inform parents they could transfer their children to higher-scoring schools.
He braced for what might happen. But the phone calls and e-mails just trickled in. Six students have left, and Gauyan suspects some parents chose to transfer simply because other schools were closer to their day-care centers.

No Child Left Behind, passed by Congress in 2001, gives parents strong new rights, starting with the ability to remove their children from schools that receive federal dollars but fall short of the law's targets two years in a row.

Yet few parents are exercising those options