Choices for Parents - NCLB

One of the most important concerns of parents is the academic progress of their child. The “No Child Left Behind” Act of 2001 offers a wide array of choices for parents with respect to their child’s school education.

An important feature of the law is the “Parent Involvement Policy”. This encourages active participation and helps parents make informed choices regarding schooling and academics. Schools and districts now have a higher degree of accountability to parents and the state in the quality of education they offer. This means parents know more about how the school functions, the qualification of teachers, safety standards and more.

The “NCLB” laws that increases choice for parents:

1. School Report cards –

Parents are updated with the educational methods that the school uses, along with its achievements. The data is analyzed in groups such as race, ethnicity, gender and more. This ensures that no child is left behind, because of some inherent disadvantages.

2. The right to choose a better performance public school –

Parents have the right to transfer their child to a better-performing public school within the home district. The struggling school and the district have to inform parents of these choices at the beginning of the academic year. If there is no public school in the district, parents can even transfer to public charter schools. The school districts have to pay for transportation to the other schools.

3. Underperforming public schools must provide for free supplementary education-

Sometimes it is difficult to change over from a school that is in need of improvement. You can choose tutoring and other remedial academic services from state approved bodies. This has proven quite successful, in the school year 2003-04, thousands of students benefited from this service.

4. Report cards of the child helps in understanding their academic progress -

Children are assessed through standard tests in the basic skills of math’s and reading from grade 3 to 8, and at least once from grade 10 to 12. These tests are in line with the state academic content and achievement standards. In case learning disabilities or extra-ordinary abilities are recognized, the school would have to inform the parent and support the child.

5. A widening educational choice-

In many school districts, parents have very few quality educational options. The NCLB law ensures the choices that parents have are more varied. If a school is found to be persistently failing and there is no quality public school in the district children have a choice to join public charter schools and magnet schools. Private schools are also supported under this law and certain protections are provided for home schooling parents.

The NCLB law ensures that schools are safe and enriching places for students. It empowers the child with the right to quality education by expanding the choices for parents.