Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson joined fellow House members in announcing the introduction of H.R. 2946, the State and Local Education Flexibility Act of 2007. Simpson is an original co-sponsor of the bipartisan bill that is sponsored by Nebraska Congressman Lee Terry. 
 
“No Child Left Behind needs to be flexible. What may work in New York City may not work in Declo, Idaho,” said Simpson. “I’ve been successful in working with the Administration and Members of Congress to make common-sense improvements to this legislation and we need to continue with this principle.”
 
When H.R. 2946 is enacted it will contain many new improvements to the existing law, while making significant enhancements to items in place.
 
H.R. 2946 adds and ensures FLEXIBILITY to NCLB for schools, parents and children:

• To meet the needs of students with limited English proficiency.
• To recognize students with special educational needs or extraordinary circumstances when calculating high school graduation rates.
• To assess students with severe and significant special educational needs based on standard practice under federal special education law.
• To implement innovative localized testing systems to meet the requirements of NCLB.
• To help special education and rural teachers who teach multiple subjects be “highly qualified” in all subject areas.

There will be many new improvements for No Child Left Behind including the ability to more accurately grade individual schools with A, B, C, D, or F rather than pass/fail. H.R. 2946 will also allow states the option to meet adequate yearly progress requirements by using the growth model to track individual student progress from grade to grade, rather than comparing one class of students against a previous class of different students each year.
 
Members of Congress, the National Conference on State Legislatures (NCSL), the National Education Association (NEA), and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), support H.R. 2946 and its importance in the NCLB reauthorization debate.