Requests Seek Financial Aid, Policy Waivers

State leaders have just begun counting the billions of dollars it will take for schools in the Gulf Coast region to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Schools around the country, meanwhile, continue to welcome the estimated 300,000-plus students displaced by the storm--some 50,000 of whom were learning that their home schools would likely be closed for the rest of the academic year. Leaders from states like Louisiana and Mississippi and others in the region suggested that their schools would need broad latitude in applying federal rules governing school accountability, as they try to recover from one of the worst natural disasters in the nation's history. As leaders in the storm-torn region started to map out the future of their schools, they made it clear that they don't believe they'll be able to rebuild or even reopen them without federal help. In this article, the author describes how state leaders are joining forces to request for waivers exempting them from goals for adequate yearly progress and teacher-quality rules under the No Child Left Behind Act.