No Child Left Behind Act

NCLB Regulations, Guidance, and Policies

This page highlights key regulatory and other guidance and policies issued by the federal Department of Education concerning implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. The Department of Education's website contains a more comprehensive list of regulations and policy guidance for programs implemented under the Act, as well as policy letters signed by the Secretary of Education or Deputy Secretary.


PEN Weekly Action Alerts

Public Education Network (PEN) provides weekly action alerts designed to keep parents and community leaders informed of NCLB provisions.

No Child Left Behind: A Desktop Reference

In October 2002, the Department of Education released this "desktop reference," which describes each new program under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). It is intended to provide a substantive overview of policy changes and emphases for state and district officials. Programs for which no funding was requested in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 are not included.

March 1 , 2004 -- Non-Regulatory Guidance on Paraprofessional Requirements

The federal Department of Education released non-regulatory guidance on the new requirements for paraprofessionals contained in NCLB. This information provides guidance from the Department on what it feels is the proper way to implement the law, but it is not an official regulation and therefore does not have as much authority as a regulation.

February 19, 2004 -- Policies on Assessing Students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and their Inclusion in Measurement of Adequate Yearly Progress

On February 19, 2004, the Secretary of Education announced two new policies that give states and school districts greater flexibility in assessing students with limited English proficiency (LEP) and including them in their measure of adequate yearly progress (AYP). The first policy provides that students with limited English proficiency who have been enrolled in a school for a year or less must take the mathematics and English proficiency assessments, but need not take the reading/language arts assessments. The math assessments of LEP students who have been enrolled for a year or less need not be included in the AYP determinations.

The second change is that a state may include in the LEP subgroup a student who previously have been considered an LEP student during the past one or two years, even if that student has achieved English proficiency. This change addresses the difficulty schools were having with meeting AYP in the LEP subgroups. Once a student would reach proficiency, he/she would leave the LEP subgroup, often to be replaced by newly entering students. Therefore, it would be difficult for the LEP subgroup to achieve proficiency in English.

February 6, 2004 -- Draft Guidance on Public School Choice

Under NCLB many students attending underperforming schools have a right to transfer to other public schools with higher test scores. This draft non-regulatory guidance provides information from the Department of Education on which students are eligible for choice, what kind of information should be provided to parents about their options, and funding and transportation issues. This information provides guidance from the Department on what it feels is the proper way to implement the law, but it is not an official regulation and therefore does not have as much authority as a regulation.

January 16, 2004 -- Final Non-Regulatory Guidance on Improving Teacher Quality Programs

Under NCLB states must develop plans to ensure that by the end of the 2005-06 school year, all teachers teaching in core academic subjects are "highly qualified" as defined by the Act. Title II of the Act funds several programs aimed at improving teacher quality. This final non-regulatory guidance entitled Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, dated Jan. 16, 2004, explains “how State educational agencies, local educational agencies, and State agencies for higher education can effectively use Title II, Part A funds to ensure that all teachers are highly qualified and effective, a critical component of the No Child Left Behind Act.“

December 9, 2003 - Final Regulations regarding assessments of students with disabilities

On December 9, 2003, the United States Department of Education released its final regulations regarding assessments of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.  The regulations allow school districts and states to count as “proficient” and “advanced” (for the purpose of measuring adequate yearly progress) alternate assessments of students with disabilities.  These assessments may be based on standards consistent with the student's individual education plan, and not necessarily with the student's grade level.  There is a cap on how many scores based on these alternate assessments states are allowed to count for adequate yearly progress.  The cap is 1% of all students.  If the number of alternate assessments exceeds this number, states and districts will have to choose which scores to include.  States and districts may exceed to 1% cap if they can document that the incidence of students with severe cognitive disabilities exceeds 1% of all students and why.  Whereas the proposed regulations included a definition of “the most significant cognitive disabilities” (three or more standard deviations below the mean), the final regulations allow states to define what is meant by “the most significant cognitive disabilities.”

August 22, 2003 -- Non-Regulatory Guidance on Supplemental Services

Under NCLB, eligible students attending schools that have not met performance targets for three consecutive years have a right to free tutoring and other "supplemental services." This non-regulatory guidance provides information from the Department of Education on which students are eligible for supplemental services, what kind of information should be provided to parents, state responsibilities for approving eligible providers, and how much funding must be provided. This information provides guidance from the Department on what it feels is the proper way to implement the law, but it is not an official regulation and therefore does not have as much authority as a regulation.

May 23, 2003 -- Guidance for states in distributing Title I funds to districts

This guidance provides detailed information for state education agencies (SEAs) on how to distribute federal funds to local education agencies (LEAs). The federal Department of Education makes an initial determination of Title I allocations to districts using Census Bureau information that is generally two years old. This guidance helps states modify the department's calculations to account for changes in LEA boundaries or consolidations and newly created LEAs, such as charter schools, and, in certain states, to redistribute funds among LEAs with fewer than 20,000 residents.

April 18, 2003 -- Corrected version of final Title I regulations

On November 26, 2002, the Department of Education issued final regulations covering many of the key provisions of NCLB, including: development of state accountability plans; definitions of adequate yearly progress; identification of schools for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring; implementation of school choice and supplemental services provisions; clarification of definitions of highly qualified teachers and paraprofessionals; and provisions governing allocations to districts and to individual schools. This corrected version corrects minor errors in the section on programs for migrant children.

March 28, 2003 -- Non-regulatory Guidance for Education of Homeless Children

This non-regulatory guidance describes requirements and offers program suggestions regarding education of homeless children in accordance with the McKinney-Vento Act as modified by NCLB.

March 24, 2003 -- Impact of NCLB on Charter Schools

This non-regulatory guidance discusses specifically how NCLB requirements affect public charter schools.

March 10, 2003 -- Guidance on Standards and Assessments

Under NCLB, states are required to implement standards and assessments and to take steps to ensure that all students are progressing towards 100% proficiency on these standards. This draft non-regulatory guidance provides relatively easy-to-understand information from the Department of Education on a variety of subjects, including what standards and assessments are required, the time line for implementation of these requirements, and how students with disabilities and students with Limited English Proficiency must be accommodated. This information provides guidance from the Department on what it feels is the proper way to implement the law, but it is not an official regulation and therefore does not have as much authority as a regulation. The Department has announced that this guidance will soon be supplemented by a Technical Addendum covering the same topics in more detail and intended primarily for state and district officials involved in implementing these provisions, as well as by a Peer Reviewer Manual providing states additional information on the review process that will be used assess states' proposed plans. The Department also provides additional resources on standards, assessments and accountability.

November 26, 2002 -- Final Regulations for Title I

The Department of Education issued final regulations covering many of the key provisions of NCLB, including: development of state accountability plans; definitions of adequate yearly progress; identification of schools for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring; implementation of school choice and supplemental services provisions; clarification of definitions of highly qualified teachers and paraprofessionals; and provisions governing allocations to districts and to individual schools. The Department also developed a summary of significant policies in the regulations, highlighting certain changes that were made in response to comments from the public.

October 22, 2002 - Secretary Paige Exhorts States to Keep Standards High

Responding to reports that a number of states, including Connecticut, Colorado, and Michigan, are considering lowering the level that will be deemed "proficient" on their state standards in order to to decrease the number of schools identified as "needing improvement," Secretary Paige released a public letter urging states to keep their standards high and work to bring all schools up to compliance. While stating a laudable goal, Secretary Paige's letter ignores that in many states widespread resource deficiencies will need to be addressed if they are to succeed at leaving no child behind.

On July 1, 2002, Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced that students in an estimated 8600 schools nationwide will be offered the opportunity to attend a higher-performing school in their district. Most of these students will also be offered the opportunity to access supplementary education services, such as tutoring, paid for with federal funds. Both the public school choice and supplemental education services were established under The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). [More]

Additional Resources:

Department of Education's Press Releases
Testing Requirements under the NCLB