United States Code
USC most recently checked for updates: Dec 03, 2024
Consultation required under paragraph (1)(A) shall not interfere with the timely submission of the plan required under this section.
A State plan submitted under paragraph (1) may be submitted as part of a consolidated plan under section 7842 of this title.
Peer reviewers shall conduct an objective review of State plans in their totality and out of respect for State and local judgments, with the goal of supporting State- and local-led innovation and providing objective feedback on the technical and overall quality of a State plan.
Neither the Secretary nor the political appointees of the Department, may attempt to participate in, or influence, the peer-review process.
If a State makes significant changes to its plan at any time, such as the adoption of new challenging State academic standards or new academic assessments under subsection (b), or changes to its accountability system under subsection (c), such information shall be submitted to the Secretary in the form of revisions or amendments to the State plan.
The Secretary shall review the information submitted under clause (i) and approve changes to the State plan, or disapprove such changes in accordance with paragraph (4)(A)(vi), within 90 days, without undertaking the peer-review process under such paragraph.
If a State makes changes to its challenging State academic standards, the requirements of subsection (b)(1), including the requirement that such standards need not be submitted to the Secretary pursuant to subsection (b)(1)(A), shall still apply.
If a State fails to meet any of the requirements of this section, the Secretary may withhold funds for State administration under this part until the Secretary determines that the State has fulfilled those requirements.
Each State shall make the State plan publicly available for public comment for a period of not less than 30 days, by electronic means and in an easily accessible format, prior to submission to the Secretary for approval under this subsection. The State, in the plan it files under this subsection, shall provide an assurance that public comments were taken into account in the development of the State plan.
Each State, in the plan it files under subsection (a), shall provide an assurance that the State has adopted challenging academic content standards and aligned academic achievement standards (referred to in this chapter as “challenging State academic standards”), which achievement standards shall include not less than 3 levels of achievement, that will be used by the State, its local educational agencies, and its schools to carry out this part. A State shall not be required to submit such challenging State academic standards to the Secretary.
The State shall have such academic standards for mathematics, reading or language arts, and science, and may have such standards for any other subject determined by the State.
Each State shall demonstrate that the challenging State academic standards are aligned with entrance requirements for credit-bearing coursework in the system of public higher education in the State and relevant State career and technical education standards.
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to authorize public institutions of higher education to determine the specific challenging State academic standards required under this paragraph.
A State shall not develop, or implement for use under this part, any alternate academic achievement standards for children with disabilities that are not alternate academic achievement standards that meet the requirements of clause (i).
A State shall not be required to submit any standards developed under this subsection to the Secretary for review or approval.
The Secretary shall not have the authority to mandate, direct, control, coerce, or exercise any direction or supervision over any of the challenging State academic standards adopted or implemented by a State.
Nothing in this part shall prohibit a State from revising, consistent with this section, any standards adopted under this part before or after
Subject to the authority and requirements for the individualized education program team for a child with a disability under section 614(d)(1)(A)(i)(VI)(bb) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1414(d)(1)(A)(i)(VI)(bb)), such team, consistent with the guidelines established by the State and required under section 612(a)(16)(C) of such Act (20 U.S.C. 1412(c)(16)(C)) 5
and clause (i)(II) of this subparagraph, shall determine when a child with a significant cognitive disability shall participate in an alternate assessment aligned with the alternate academic achievement standards.Nothing in this subparagraph shall be construed to permit the Secretary or a State educational agency to impose on any local educational agency a cap on the percentage of students administered an alternate assessment under this subparagraph, except that a local educational agency exceeding the cap applied to the State under clause (i)(I) shall submit information to the State educational agency justifying the need to exceed such cap.
A State shall provide appropriate oversight, as determined by the State, of any local educational agency that is required to submit information to the State under subclause (II).
This subparagraph shall be subject to the waiver authority under section 7861 of this title.
Each State plan shall identify the languages other than English that are present to a significant extent in the participating student population of the State and indicate the languages for which annual student academic assessments are not available and are needed.
The State shall make every effort to develop such assessments and may request assistance from the Secretary if linguistically accessible academic assessment measures are needed. Upon request, the Secretary shall assist with the identification of appropriate academic assessment measures in the needed languages, but shall not mandate a specific academic assessment or mode of instruction.
Each State plan shall demonstrate that local educational agencies in the State will provide for an annual assessment of English proficiency of all English learners in the schools served by the State educational agency.
The assessments described in clause (i) shall be aligned with the State’s English language proficiency standards described in paragraph (1)(F).
Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prohibit a local educational agency from administering a locally-selected assessment in lieu of the State-designed academic assessment under subclause (I)(bb) and subclause (II)(cc) of subparagraph (B)(v), if the local educational agency selects a nationally-recognized high school academic assessment that has been approved for use by the State as described in clause (iii) or (iv) of this subparagraph.
To allow for State approval of nationally-recognized high school academic assessments that are available for local selection under clause (i), a State educational agency shall establish technical criteria to determine if any such assessment meets the requirements of clause (v).
If a local educational agency chooses to submit a nationally-recognized high school academic assessment to the State educational agency, subject to the approval process described in subclause (I) and subclause (II) of clause (iii) to determine if such assessment fulfills the requirements of clause (v), the State educational agency may approve the use of such assessment consistent with clause (i).
Upon such approval, the State educational agency shall approve the use of such assessment in any other local educational agency in the State that subsequently requests to use such assessment without repeating the process described in subclauses (I) and (II) of clause (iii).
A State may defer the commencement, or suspend the administration, but not cease the development, of the assessments described in this paragraph, for 1 year for each year for which the amount appropriated for grants under part B is less than $369,100,000.
Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed as preempting a State or local law regarding the decision of a parent to not have the parent’s child participate in the academic assessments under this paragraph.
Subject to Federal or State requirements related to assessments, evaluations, and accommodations, each State may, at the sole discretion of such State, set a target limit on the aggregate amount of time devoted to the administration of assessments for each grade, expressed as a percentage of annual instructional hours.
With respect to a student previously identified as an English learner and for not more than 4 years after the student ceases to be identified as an English learner, a State may include the results of the student’s assessments under paragraph (2)(B)(v)(I) within the English learner subgroup of the subgroups of students (as defined in subsection (c)(2)(D)) for the purposes of the State-determined accountability system.
Each State plan shall describe a statewide accountability system that complies with the requirements of this subsection and subsection (d).
The accountability provisions under this chapter shall be overseen for charter schools in accordance with State charter school law.
Each State educational agency receiving funds under this part shall notify each local educational agency in the State of any school served by the local educational agency that is identified for comprehensive support and improvement under subsection (c)(4)(D)(i).
A local educational agency may provide all students enrolled in a school identified by the State for comprehensive support and improvement under subsection (c)(4)(D)(i) with the option to transfer to another public school served by the local educational agency, unless such an option is prohibited by State law.
In providing students the option to transfer to another public school, the local educational agency shall give priority to the lowest-achieving children from low-income families, as determined by the local educational agency for the purposes of allocating funds to schools under section 6313(a)(3) of this title.
A student who uses the option to transfer to another public school shall be enrolled in classes and other activities in the public school to which the student transfers in the same manner as all other students at the public school.
A local educational agency shall permit a student who transfers to another public school under this paragraph to remain in that school until the student has completed the highest grade in that school.
A local educational agency may spend an amount equal to not more than 5 percent of its allocation under subpart 2 of this part to pay for the provision of transportation for students who transfer under this paragraph to the public schools to which the students transfer.
A plan described in subparagraph (B) that is developed and implemented in any school receiving a notification under this paragraph from the local educational agency in which any subgroup of students, on its own, would lead to identification under subsection (c)(4)(D)(i)(I) using the State’s methodology under subsection (c)(4)(D) shall also identify resource inequities (which may include a review of local educational agency and school level budgeting), to be addressed through implementation of such plan.
The State educational agency, based on the State’s differentiation of schools under subsection (c)(4)(C) for school year 2017–2018, shall notify local educational agencies of any schools served by the local educational agency in which any subgroup of students, on its own, would lead to identification under subsection (c)(4)(D)(i)(I) using the State’s methodology under subsection (c)(4)(D), after which notification of such schools under this paragraph shall result from differentiation of schools pursuant to subsection (c)(4)(C)(iii).
Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to alter or otherwise affect the rights, remedies, and procedures afforded to school or local educational agency employees under Federal, State, or local laws (including applicable regulations or court orders) or under the terms of collective bargaining agreements, memoranda of understanding, or other agreements between such employers and their employees.
In carrying out this part, the Secretary shall not, through regulation or as a condition of approval of the State plan or revisions or amendments to the State plan, promulgate a definition of any term used in this part, or otherwise prescribe any specification for any such term, that is inconsistent with or outside the scope of this part or is in violation of paragraph (1).
Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter any State law or regulation granting parents authority over schools that repeatedly failed to make adequate yearly progress under this part, as in effect on the day before
A State that receives assistance under this part shall prepare and disseminate widely to the public an annual State report card for the State as a whole that meets the requirements of this paragraph.
A local educational agency that receives assistance under this part shall prepare and disseminate an annual local educational agency report card that includes information on such agency as a whole and each school served by the agency.
In the case of a local educational agency that issues a report card for all students, the local educational agency may include the information under this section as part of such report.
A State educational agency or local educational agency may use public report cards on the performance of students, schools, local educational agencies, or the State, that were in effect prior to
Each State educational agency and local educational agency receiving assistance under this part shall, wherever possible, take steps to reduce data collection costs and duplication of effort by obtaining the information required under this subsection through existing data collection efforts.
Information collected or disseminated under this section (including any information collected for or included in the reports described in subsection (h)) shall be collected and disseminated in a manner that protects the privacy of individuals consistent with section 1232g of this title (commonly known as the “Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974”) and this chapter.
The reports described in subsection (h) shall only include data that are sufficient to yield statistically reliable information.
Disaggregation under this section shall not be required if such disaggregation will reveal personally identifiable information about any student, teacher, principal, or other school leader, or will provide data that are insufficient to yield statistically reliable information.
Nothing in this part shall be construed to prescribe the use of the academic assessments described in this part for student promotion or graduation purposes.