Schools to Offer Special Services
Aug. 13–Fort Worth schools that haven’t met federal accountability standards will begin offering specialized services to students Monday, the first day of school.
Carter-Riverside and Polytechnic high schools and Meadowbrook Middle School failed to meet the “adequate yearly progress” standards for the third consecutive year.
Those schools face Stage 2 sanctions and must draft a campus improvement plan, allow students to transfer to other schools and offer tutoring.
Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School and Daggett Middle School failed to meet the standards for the second straight year. They must draft improvement plans and allow student transfers but need not offer tutoring.
All of the schools must notify parents of the failure to meet the federal benchmarks created by the No Child Left Behind Act.
Preliminary results were released by the Texas Education Agency on Thursday, but agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said the schools “were notified the first part of August that this was a real possibility and they needed to go ahead and start preparing to notify parents of what services would be available to those children.”
Deputy Superintendent Pat Linares said the district began preparing as soon as notification came that some schools would face sanctions.
She said the law requiring notifying parents before school starts was especially tough to meet. Official notification came Thursday, and school starts Monday.
The letters to parents were drafted in advance and then customized once the final results were released, Linares said, enabling administrators to mail the notices out the same day the agency released the yearly-progress results.
The costs associated with complying with the federal sanctions are currently estimated at around $4 million.
That money will come out of the districts’ funds from Title I, a federal program for schools with a large percentage of children from very poor families.
Only Title I schools face sanctions for failing to meet the yearly-progress criteria.
Linares said the district is budgeting about $1,400 per student for tutoring alone.
The tutoring services will be offered by outside firms, and parents can select a tutor from a list of agency-approved service providers.
Once parents are notified of the tutoring options, they will have 30 days to sign up their child for the first enrollment period, Linares said.
“We are ready, and we have been ready for the first day of school,” Linares said. “We will make sure we do whatever we need to do to meet and exceed state and federal standards.”
School districts have until Sept. 15 to appeal schools’ yearly-progress status. Fort Worth school district officials say that although 33 schools failed to meet yearly-progress standards, officials will appeal only where appropriate.
If an appeal succeeds, the schools that must offer special services must continue to do so through the end of the year, but schools offering tutoring will not have to continue to do so.
Even so, Linares said the schools facing Stage 2 sanctions will continue to offer tutoring even if they appeal successfully.
HELP FOR PARENTS
The Fort Worth school district will conduct parent meetings at schools facing federal sanctions to answer questions about what services will be available for children at those schools.
–Carter-Riverside High School will have meetings at 6 p.m. Aug. 23.
–Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School will have a meeting at 7 p.m. Aug. 23.
–Daggett Middle School will hold its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 25.
–Meadowbrook Middle School will hold its meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 29.
–Polytechnic High School will hold its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 31.
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