Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, parents of children at these campuses can ask to transfer to better-performing campuses or request private tutoring at the state's expense.

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

Under the law, schools that fail to improve may lose students to better-performing campuses or be forced to provide private tutoring, among other sanctions.

The state this summer had identified 85 high-poverty schools considered to be failing on measures of math, reading and attendance.

But today three schools were removed from that list, including: August Ahrens elementary in Waipahu, Helemano elementary in Wahiawa and Waimea Middle School on the Big Island.

In August the federal government said that districts could look at the latest standardized test scores to determine which schools can move off the list. If schools show improvements in all areas ­ math, reading, attendance and another measure chosen by the school such as parent involvement, discipline or grades ­ for two years in a row they are no longer considered to be failing.

At Helemano today, vice-principal Jim Albano was enthusiastic about the progress that pulled his school off the list, and credited the faculty's hard work plus extra tutoring in reading by part-time teachers both after school and during school hours for bringing the good results.

"It takes the whole tribe to turn this around," said Albano. "This has been a 3-4-year project for us."

Focusing on K-3 — the early basic years, said Albano — part-time teachers rearranged their schedules, and put in hours of their own time. About one-third of the 620-child student body received extra in-class help, with about one-fourth receiving extra after-school tutoring.

"Now we're trying to add math and science," said Albano. "There's no time to rest. If we're one of those schools having incoming students, we anticipate we'll have students that are needy."

Assistant Superintendent Kathy Kawaguchi said it takes time for newly implemented programs to show progress. "It's not that schools haven't been trying to meet these objectives. Many of them are instituting new reading programs and those take time to see the effects, and I think that's what you're beginning to see."

No schools can be added to the failing list until this time next year, when the next round of test scores returns to the district, under a decision issued in August by the federal government. That means that even if schools performed poorly on the test this year, it does not adversely affect them.

The ruling also means that the pool of students eligible to move to another school because their school is failing could shrink.

Parents have until Sept. 30 to apply for student transfers or private tutoring. Because of that deadline the DOE has no idea yet how many children will be applying, moving schools, or needing tutoring help.

"The parents may be waiting to see if their schools drop out (of the list)," said Kawaguchi.

Families can apply for both tutoring or a transfer, but can only take advantage of one of the options. Children who move to new schools cannot also have state-funded private tutoring.

DOE has posted information and a list of schools accepting transfer students.

School principals should also have information on which campuses are able to accept transfers.