Although more schools are facing penalties under No Child Left Behind, fewer parents are seeking to remove their children from the struggling schools.

So far this year, the state has approved 666 transfers under the federal act, which requires schools to offer transfers if they miss academic targets for at least two consecutive years. Last year the state approved 692 requests.

Although the number of requests had steadily increased from 21 in 2002 when they were available for the first time, the department has not seen a significant spike in the number of overall requests to transfer for other reasons, said Butch Adams, a Department of Education specialist in program management.

That indicates that parents requesting NCLB transfers probably would have asked for transfers anyway. All students are eligible to request transfers to other schools, but students transferring because their home school is being sanctioned under No Child Left Behind have priority.

"Parents are becoming more akamai, or smarter," Adams said. "Like any parent would do, they are finding the best chance to get their child into that school."

While students at almost half the schools in the state are eligible to transfer, it has never been a popular option.

"We seem to just really find that families are really loyal to their school communities and most families would rather stay within their home school," Adams said. "That's where their children's friends and peers are. That's mainly where any daycare or family support systems are."

In many cases, the home school is also the hub for cultural events within the community, he said.

Even schools identified with the greatest needs, such as Wai'anae Intermediate, are not seeing large numbers of requests for transfers, Adams pointed out. Only six students transferred out of that school, and one of the six chose to go to Nanakuli High and Intermediate, which is also struggling.

Families that do choose to change schools generally do so for the same reasons as those who apply for other reasons, such as a desire to get into programs offered only at specific schools or to be closer to parents' workplaces or childcare providers.

Parents also try to get their children into higher-performing schools, especially those with a reputation for being feeders for private schools.

The biggest requests come at transition years. This year, 212 of the requests were for kindergarten-age children. The next big move comes at middle school, although only a handful of schools received more than 20 requests to transfer out, and only three saw more than 50: Central, Waipahu and Washington middle schools.

However, while Washington saw 50 students transfer out, 28 others transferred in.

There are few trends in the schools parents are choosing to move their children to, other than getting them closer to urban Honolulu.

"They're hitting town schools, for whatever reason," Adams said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.