Highlands Today
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Many Students Will Have School Choice Next Year
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Published: April 21, 2008
SEBRING — The Highlands County School District will have four, and possibly five schools next year for students to choose from in case their schools do not meet federal progress guidelines.
Parents with children at schools that do not earn the federal adequate yearly progress designation will be notified late in the summer about transfer options.
Patricia Landress, federal programs resource teacher, said she receives calls every day from parents wanting information about school choice, which is a provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The following schools will be school-choice options for the 2008-09 school year:
* Cracker Trail Elementary School, which earned adequate yearly progress (AYP) in 2007.
* Lake Placid Elementary, which earned AYP in 2007.
* Memorial Elementary, opening in August so there are no FCAT scores to determine school grade or AYP designation.
* Kindergarten Learning Center, kindergartners do not take the FCAT so the school does not receive a grade or AYP designation.
Avon Elementary earned the AYP designation in 2007, but not in 2006. If the school receives AYP this year, it would become a school-choice option.
Landress estimates, under school choice, about 80 students are currently attending Cracker Trail Elementary and about 40 students are attending Lake Placid Elementary.
The number of students using the choice option fluctuates throughout the year.
Parents opt for school choice, but for some reason it becomes inconvenient or they move and change schools, Landress said.
Transportation under school choice is not door-to-door, but from one or two of central locations to the school.
Sometimes parents will change their mind about sending their child to another school due to transportation, Landress said. They don't want to be at the Sweet Bay Supermarket at 6:30 a.m. so their child can ride the bus to Lake Placid Elementary, she added.
After the AYP results are released July 15, letters will be sent to parents who have children who are eligible for school choice.
This leaves little time for the district to send out the letters, which are different for each school, Landress said. Parents will also have little time to make a school-choice decision prior to the first day of school Aug. 18.
Who Is Eligible For School Choice?
Children are eligible for school choice when the Title I school they attend has not made adequate yearly progress in improving student achievement for two consecutive years or longer. Any child attending such a school must be offered the option of transferring to a public school in the district.
All the public elementary schools in Highlands County are Title I schools, which means they receive federal money because of their high number of students who are economically and educationally disadvantaged.
Under No Child Left Behind, school districts are required to notify parents if their child is eligible for school choice.
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