School Choice and the No Child Left Behind Act Local education agencies, or school districts, create attendance zones and require students to attend schools located within that zone. Historically, students who chose to attend a school within the same district, but outside the assigned zone required families to provide transportation and perhaps even pay a fee. An exception to zoning policies are magnet schools, or schools that operate around a specific concept, such as international studies or technology. Students outside the attendance zone of the magnet school apply to attend and are bused to the school from throughout the district. Essentially, school choice existed only for families who could afford to send their students to private schools. Students from families who could not afford private school and who were zoned to attend dangerous or academically failing schools had little to no choice in the matter. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) changes all that. Under NCLB, school districts are accountable for student achievement and responsible for offering options to parents when overall school achievement is below acceptable standards. Eligibility for School Choice Students are eligible for school choice when the school they attend fails to meet adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years or longer. Such schools are labeled as needing improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. Any child attending such a school must be given the option to transfer to a public school in the same district, including a public charter school, which has met adequate yearly progress and has not been identified as needing improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. Parents decide which school in the district they want their children to attend; children may not be assigned by school officials to a different school. School Choice and Parental Notification No Child Left Behind stipulates that schools notify parents if their child is eligible for school choice. The notification must occur no later than the first day of the school year following the year for which their school was identified as needing improvement, and usually occurs through a letter mailed to each student's home. Since schools were first held strictly accountable for AYP in 2002-2003, the 2003-2004 school year is officially the first for school choice in many districts. School Choice and Transportation Districts must provide transportation to students who choose to attend another school under NCLB provisions. Priority must be given to the lowest-achieving students from low-income families. School Choice and Dangerous Schools No Child Left Behind also stipulates school choice for children who attend schools labeled as "persistently dangerous" according to the state definition of that term. Furthermore, states are required to ensure that school choice is offered to a student who has been a victim of a violent crime on the grounds of his or her school. Are parents exercising their right to school choice? Since school choice under NCLB is in its infancy, reliable and substantial data is scarce. The primary report concerning school choice was published by the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights as the fifth report in a series focusing on Title I implementation in high-poverty areas. This report, entitled Choosing Better Schools, surveyed 47 states and 137 districts to compile preliminary figures concerning the number of students eligible for school choice, the number requesting a transfer, and the number who actually transferred to a higher performing school. The report suggests that a growing percentage of parents are exercising their right to school choice. Based on its survey, the Commission reports that 70,000 students have exercised their right to school choice under the federal law. However, the report also states that incomplete data from several districts results in an underestimation of the actual number of students who requested, received, and transferred to a different school. The report distinguishes between states/districts sharing complete or incomplete data, and the findings of this report confirm a tremendous leap in the number of parents and students exercising school choice options. In 2002-03, the first year for school choice under NCLB, the report claims that 2.3 percent, or 16,038 students requested to attend alternate schools. In 2003-04, however, the statistics leap to 6.2 percent, or 53,604 students requesting school choice. An additional finding of this report states that less than half of students eligible for choice actually did transfer to alternate schools. For further study of the findings and recommendations of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, read Choosing Better Schools found at http://www.cccr.org/ChoosingBetterSchools.pdf. This article was contributed by Janice Christy, M.Ed., English Department Chair, Louisa County High School, Louisa, Virginia.