Does the law require that all non-performing schools get choice?
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, CPS is required to provide choice to children whose schools are identified as being in need of improvement. However, the Illinois State Board of Education did not inform CPS of which schools were identified as being in need of improvement until July 12, 2002. Getting this information at such a late date made it extremely difficult to establish a new choice program and the corresponding busing before the opening of school on September 3, 2002. In addition, even before the No Child Left Behind Act became law, CPS will be providing choice to almost 190,000 students this coming school year, and those choice decisions were finalized in March of 2002, meaning that any new choice plan would be limited by these 190,000 established expectations. Finally, CPS has very limited capacity within its system. We have been able to identify only 2800 seats at schools not in need of school improvement, which severely limits our ability to provide unlimited choice. All
