September 29, 2005

A few States have asked whether we will waive the accountability provisions 
  in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) regarding assessments and adequate yearly 
  progress (AYP). In order to accommodate this unique situation in a sensible 
  way, I am providing two temporary options, one or both of which States may adopt 
  if they so choose.

**Option 1: Exercise Existing Natural Disaster Provisions of NCLB.** 
  NCLB currently does not require a school or district to move forward in the 
  school improvement timeline if the reason for not making AYP is “due to 
  exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances, such as a natural disaster...” 
  *See* § 1116(b)(7)(D) and § 1116(c)(10)(F). These provisions 
  foresaw the challenges that events like the hurricanes could bring. Therefore, 
  any State or school district with schools: (1) that are located in the “major 
  disaster” areas declared by the President in the States of Louisiana, 
  Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Florida as a result of Hurricanes Katrina or 
  Rita; and (2) that have sustained substantial damage such that the schools have 
  been closed for a significant period of time as a result of Hurricanes Katrina 
  or Rita, may implement this delay for the 2005-2006 school year without a waiver. 
  Some counties in the five States, for example Orleans and St. Bernard in Louisiana 
  and Hancock in Mississippi, will meet these two criteria. In addition, I am 
  willing to consider waivers for other schools or districts that have been otherwise 
  adversely impacted by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita due to enrolling large numbers 
  of displaced students or other factors.

I expect States to exercise good judgment and provide guidance to districts 
  in determining eligibility for a one-year delay and to report their decisions 
  to the Department. The school or district must provide evidence to the State, 
  ideally in the form of assessment or academic achievement information, that 
  the reason for not making AYP was in fact caused by the effects of the hurricanes 
  or the enrollment of displaced students.

**Option 2: Establish a Separate Subgroup for Displaced Students.** 
  For the 2005-06 school year only, I am willing to consider favorably a waiver 
  request from a State for schools or districts heavily impacted by Hurricanes 
  Katrina or Rita that would allow them to establish a separate subgroup of displaced 
  students. At the State’s discretion, if a waiver is granted, these students 
  may appear only in this subgroup for NCLB reporting and accountability purposes 
  and not in any other subgroup to which they would usually belong.

Consistent with this flexibility, States must comply with current NCLB requirements 
  for assessment, accountability, and public reporting. All students, including 
  displaced students, must be tested on State assessments, and States must ensure 
  that their policies help schools and districts meet the AYP goal of testing 
  at least 95 percent of students. Once the assessment has occurred and all relevant 
  facts can be considered, the Department, in conjunction with affected States, 
  will make decisions regarding school and district accountability. Having performance 
  information separately identified will help us make more informed judgments 
  about how displaced students performed and how and to what extent accountability 
  determinations will be applied next year. **Rationale:** Every year, States, districts and schools respond 
  to population growth and other changes in school enrollment in an efficient 
  and effective manner. Many of you have also absorbed serious impacts from earlier 
  events (such as the hurricanes faced by Florida last year) without waivers from 
  NCLB accountability provisions. The unique nature of the hurricanes this year 
  requires unique solutions, governed by common sense and compassion, and tailored 
  to individual circumstances. What is appropriate for the schools and districts 
  physically destroyed or damaged will not necessarily be the same as for those 
  receiving significant numbers of displaced students or for those receiving only 
  a small number or none at all. We also know that many of the students forced 
  to leave their neighborhood schools may move again during the next few weeks 
  and months. The best thing we can do for them is what you are doing now - offering 
  a productive school year full of hope, learning, and high expectations. We will 
  work with States electing either of these options to help provide additional 
  guidance to districts and schools.

**Additional Considerations and Resources:** As we visit with 
  districts and schools impacted directly or indirectly by the hurricanes, it 
  is clear that students are being welcomed, treated with respect and dignity, 
  and quickly enrolled in classes, in most cases without benefit of school records 
  or other documented academic information. Many of you have indicated that shortly, 
  if not already done by now, you intend to assess these students in a variety 
  of ways to help confirm initial placement or to guide a change in placement. 
  I encourage you to not only use appropriate diagnostic assessments or progress-monitoring 
  tools to help identify individual strengths and needs at placement, but to follow 
  up with similar procedures throughout the year to monitor academic improvement. 
  To support those schools that administer such assessments, I would encourage 
  States to use this information as additional evidence to support the implementation 
  of Option 1, and I may consider the data thus generated as appropriate for measuring 
  alternate AYP goals for Option 2.

Motivated by the consequences of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the National 
  Center for Special Education Research in the Department’s Institute of 
  Education Sciences, under the leadership of Dr. Edward Kame’enui, Commissioner 
  of Special Education Research, and a team of nationally recognized researchers, 
  local educators, and others developed guidance offering suggestions for how 
  districts and schools might organize in response to such unfortunate events. 
  This guidance provides general suggestions for enrolling students and organizing 
  resources when a school is faced with a large influx of students. It will be 
  found at http://www.hurricanehelpforschools.gov/ 
  next week.

Finally, the Department will work to help interested States understand the 
  similarities and differences between their own State content standards and academic 
  assessments and the standards and assessments of Louisiana, Mississippi, and 
  Alabama. This information can be used to tailor instruction and arrange for 
  supplemental services that will help these students throughout the year and 
  assist in meeting AYP goals.

Thank you for continuing the partnership with the Department as we work to 
  make this year as normal, routine, and productive as possible, not only for 
  your resident children, but for those whom you have welcomed. I pledge to work 
  through these issues with you in the same responsive, commonsense manner that 
  I have tried to employ since I assumed my position in January. To make this 
  work, we must trust in one another and trust that, in the end, we will have 
  best served the needs of all students and that the right balance between instruction 
  and accountability will have been struck.