Ed. Dept. Grants N.Y.C., Boston Waivers on NCLB Tutoring

In its continuing bid to ensure free tutoring for as many eligible students as possible, the U.S. Department of Education has granted waivers allowing two more urban school districts to provide the extra help.

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings informed Boston and New York City in letters this month that for the 2005-06 school year, they would be exempt from a requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act that prohibits districts from serving as federally financed tutoring providers if they are deemed to be “in need of improvement” under the law.

Before Boston and New York City got their exemptions, the Education Department extended a similar waiver enabling Chicago to provide tutoring. In addition, the agency granted a slightly different waiver to a group of four Virginia districts, allowing them to offer tutoring to low-income students in struggling schools before they offered the choice of transferring to another school—a reversal of the usual timing in the law. ( "NCLB Waiver Lets Virginia Offer Tutoring Before Choice," ...