Prince William County Schools- To be in compliance with NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

• Letter sent to parents at Belmont Elementary School
• Carta al Padre para Escoger la Escuela de Su Gusto - Belmont
  

• School Choice application for Belmont Elementary School
• Aplicacion para la Escuela a Escoger de Title I - Belmont

The School Choice transfer option will be given to parents of students at Belmont in the 2008-2009 school year.  Letters have been sent home to all Belmont parents, and are due back August 15, 2008 for a September start date in the new school.

Go to Belmont's Home Page.

WHAT IS THE SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAM?

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires school divisions to identify for Title I School Improvement any elementary or secondary school served under Title I that, for two consecutive years, does not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the same subject area.  These schools are designated as in Year One Title I School Improvement Status and must offer the public school choice option to parents.  Title I schools that do not make AYP for three consecutive years in the same subject area must continue to offer public school choice and, additionally, provide supplemental educational services to eligible students. These schools are designated as in Year Two Title I School Improvement Status.  The obligation to offer the public school choice option ends when schools have made AYP for two consecutive years in the same subject area in which they were identified for Title I School Improvement.

Specially, no later than the first day of the school year following Title I School Improvement identification, the school division must provide all students enrolled in a Title I School with the option to transfer to another public school served by the school division, including a public charter school, that has not been identified for Title I School Improvement.  In providing students the option to transfer to another public school, school divisions must give priority to the lowest achieving students from low-income families.

GUIDELINES

The Virginia Public School Choice Guidelines state:

• The public school choice program shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age and must be consistent with applicable civil rights commitments.
• The school division is obligated to fund transportation for the student to attend the selected school.
• The obligation of the school division to provide, or to provide for, transportation for the student ends at the close of a school year, if the school division determines that the school from which the student transferred is no longer identified for Title I School Improvement or subject to corrective action or restructuring.
• A school division must permit a student who transferred to another school to remain in that school until the student has completed the highest grade in that school.
• If a school division demonstrates that it cannot provide choice to all students in low-performing schools, the school division must permit as many students as possible to transfer to a school not identified for Title I School Improvement, with priority given to the lowest performing students in the highest poverty schools.
• If all public schools served by the school division to which a student may transfer are identified for Title I School Improvement, corrective action or restructuring, the school division shall, to the extent practicable, establish a cooperative agreement with other school divisions in the area for transfer.

WHAT IS ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS OR AYP?

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is academic progress made on an annual basis from a defined starting point that results in all students being proficient on state tests by 2013-2014.  Some of the important features of AYP include:

• AYP requires 95% tested by content
• Applies to all students and subgroups
• Race/Ethnicity
• Disadvantaged/poverty
• Special Education
• LEP
• AYP is applied to individual schools, districts, and states
• Rewards and sanctions will be applied to schools on the basis of making or not making AYP.  The sanctions for Title I schools are more severe.  The first sanction for Title I schools is to offer school choice in Title I schools that fail to make AYP for two consecutive years.

Revised June 22, 2005

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Updated 8/20/07