Pupil Personnel Service
Supplemental Education Services and Parent Choice
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002 is built on four basic tenets, greater accountability for states and local education entities, increased flexibility in district spending of federal dollars, integration of instructional methods that are deemed effective according to scientific research and choice options for parents of students who are eligible. This article will address parental choice options, and the parameters within which choice is available, under the NCLB Federal mandate.
The state annually reviews local data associated with participation rates and aggregate student performance on state level tests and if any one sub-group of students is unable to meet the prescribed performance standard the school is then able to dedicate Federal dollars to support school choice or Supplemental Education Services (SES). States disaggregate data and examine the performance of individual sub-groups according to ethnicity, social-economic status and disability.
If a school is unable to meet state standards for two consecutive years, the District must, where possible, offer parents school choice. School choice is the option to transfer to any other public school within the district that offers the same grade level instruction. If a school is unable to meet state standards across sub-groups for three consecutive years they are able to dedicate a portion of their Federal allocation to support SES Services for students who qualify for free and reduced lunches. The intent of both of these interventions is essentially to level the playing field for families who may be unable to pay for a private education or private tutoring for their child and all information regarding individual eligibility for SES is confidential.
It is important to understand that although the District has been identified as a school in need of improvement due to the performance of our middle school students on the English Language examinations there has been consistent gains within subgroups and that this status has not been the result of one sub-groups depressed performance across three years. Further, although the District is now eligible to allocate Federal funds to support SES these funds are dedicated to income eligible students who in fact were not identified as a sub-group requiring improvement. The District is currently in the process of developing contracts with private vendors to provide SES. Parents will be able to independently select a vendor according to the type of service that they believe will meet their child’s needs. In the near future there will be additional information regarding the provision of SES on the Beacon City School District web site under the Pupil Personnel Department page. If your child is eligible for these services you will have already been notified and are encouraged to call the Pupil Personnel Department where your questions will be answered.
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