By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

When push comes to shove, it looks like the student transfer option allowed under the No Child Left Behind Act may go right out the window.

The No Child Left Behind Act is a federal education law that mandates yearly improvement in the nation's high-poverty schools.

Under the law, parents of students in 85 high-poverty schools in Hawai'i that have not met the state's academic criteria can request to be transferred to a different campus this fall. Priority for the available spots will be given to low-income students with the lowest standardized test scores or grades.

But principals at a state conference last week privately said they don't think the transfer option will amount to much this school year.

For all practical purposes, few families are likely to want to move their children to campuses far away. Who wants their child to have to make the same morning commute they do?

Also, the transfers would happen in October, more than halfway through the semester for some schools. With the varying school calendars, it's possible that a student could move from a school that starts in late-August to one that started at the end of July, landing the child even further behind academically than they already were.

Parents have to consider whether they are losing or gaining a significant number of school days by making the switch, and many families won't want to try to make a school change mid-year.

There's also a space issue. There are likely to be few spots to transfer to under the guidelines set by the Department of Education. Hawai'i's schools are basically filled, and there is no obligation to overload a good school with transfer students.

While principals from schools labeled as "failing" would probably not object to sending their poorest performing students off to another campus (a move that could help boost their own test scores), receiving schools are likely to have little room to open their doors to transfer students.

Many schools in Hawai'i are full or overflowing with students. At the elementary level a 1,000-member student body has become commonplace.

A change of schools would also mean leaving friends, who are sometimes the only uplifting thing about school for a student who struggles academically.

Still, officials at the DOE have been working feverishly to develop a system of transferring children to different schools. They've translated parent-information letters into a dozen languages. They've figured out how to apply new rules to the state's Geographic Exception program, which allows students to move to a school outside their neighborhood.

Nationwide, some school districts have seen little interest in the transfer option.

According to "Education Week," just 37 students out of more than 2,400 eligible children at a school district in Colorado Springs, Colo., have chosen to transfer to a new school. In Fulton County, Ga., 331 of 11,000 eligible children were expected to transfer.

The DOE doesn't have any choice but to go through the elaborate process of creating a system that few people might choose this year.

Superintendent Pat Hamamoto has said that if only one parent decides to transfer their child, the state needs to be ready.

That's true. But don't look for a mass exodus this fall.

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.