Ill. Districts Jump at Chance for Waivers to Rules

By Jeanne Ponessa

From seeking to drop the observance of a state holiday to asking to postpone a required installation of fire sprinklers, school districts in Illinois are requesting waivers from a wide array of rules from the state school board.

The state's 913 districts won that opportunity under a law signed in February that allows them to ask for either a waiver or modification of state laws or state board rules governing schools.

"We have discovered from many years of painful experience that once you get something into the school code, it is extremely difficult to repeal it," said Mary Lou Cowlishaw, a state representative who helped draft the plan. The law, she said, is an attempt to let districts decide for themselves what rules can be waived to help them...