Schools to keep transfer policy

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

New guidelines from the U.S. Department of Education say all students have the right to transfer out of a school labeled as needing improvement, a major change in interpretation of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The rules say the law does not permit a local school district to eliminate parents' options on the basis of capacity restraints.

Until now, school officials here and across the country believed that the transfer provision in the new federal education law was limited by the capacity of schools to accept new students. And earlier, officials at the U.S. Department of Education also had indicated that schools would not be required to exceed capacity to accept transfers from lower-performing campuses.

Despite the announcement, Hawai'i officials say they plan to stick with their policy that allows students to transfer into a new school only if there is room. Also under the policy, priority for transfer is based on poverty and poor grades.

"We support the intent of the law," said Kathy Kawaguchi, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and student support. "We also have to make sure we don't overcrowd schools and cause a health and safety problem."

This year, more than one-fourth of Hawai'i's public school children were eligible to transfer to a different campus because they were attending schools that have been labeled as needing improvement.

But just 131 Hawai'i students asked to transfer to other campuses this school year, and the state Department of Education said this week that only about a dozen of those families actually made the move once the transfers were granted.

Joan Husted, executive director of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, said the new guidelines could harm successful schools by burdening them with too many students.

"We're going to take kids from understaffed, overcrowded schools and move them to schools that have found a way to succeed, and we're going to make those schools understaffed and overcrowded," Husted said. "Now we can say all of our schools are having trouble functioning."

But the only major change the state DOE is planning next year is to allow kindergartners to switch schools under the federal law, Kawaguchi said.

This year, the state did not allow students to transfer unless they attended their neighborhood campus for at least one year.

Kawaguchi said parents interested in moving their kindergartner to a different campus will need to enroll in their home schools in January or February, then request a transfer through that campus.

All students who want to change campuses for the next school year must do so before the end of February, department officials said.

Although Hawai'i has long had a geographic exception rule that allowed children to transfer to different campuses, the No Child Left Behind Act marks the first time that low-income children get priority over other students.

Because poverty is considered a major risk factor for children, the No Child Left Behind Act targets schools where at least 45 percent of the student body receive free- or reduced-price lunches, a common measure of poverty. The schools receive federal money to improve learning and, in turn, are expected to demonstrate annual progress in academics.

Hawai'i had 127 high-poverty schools last year.

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