Groups in two states are using the No Child Left Behind Act as the basis for lawsuits aimed at forcing states and districts to provide better teachers and school choices. In California, an activist group has sued the state board of education for allowing districts to continue to hire unqualified teachers in the face of NCLB's requirement that Title I schools hire only "highly qualified" teachers beginning this year. Last year, you may recall, the board released a definition of highly qualified teachers that required no certification and only minimal college credits in the subject to be taught. California was notified by the U.S. Department of Education that this definition would not meet NCLB requirements, but by then the state had circulated its definition to school districts, and some of them hired teachers based on the no-longer-valid definition. The board of education says that it expects to create a new definition of highly qualified teachers by May.
In New York, a group of parents with children who attend failing schools is suing two school systems-New York City and Albany-for denying their children the right to transfer to better schools and to receive free tutoring, as required by NCLB. The parents allege that the school systems rejected transfer requests by parents, have a faulty process for handling transfers, and failed to provide parents with timely information about their rights to change schools and obtain tutoring services. This past year, 3,670 New York City parents applied for transfers and 1,507 were granted, and only 20,000 students (out of an eligible 300,000) are currently receiving tutoring services. Federal officials note that, while no state or district has announced an intention to defy the law, they are seeing "less than energetic implementation of the law" in many places.
"State faces lawsuit over teachers' qualifications," by Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, January 24, 2003
"Tutor Tempest," by Stefan Friedman and Carl Campanile, New York Post, January 28, 2003
"N.Y. Suit Claims Denial of Rights in School Law," by Michael Fletcher, Washington Post, January 28, 2003