Deadline Extended for Tutor Program

With only a fraction of eligible students enrolled, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to extend a registration deadline for federally required tutoring services, many of which are provided by for-profit companies.

The 6-0 vote frustrated district administrators who warned board members that the move could leave tens of millions of dollars in federal funds unused and interfere with the district’s tutoring programs.

This year, 292,000 low-income students -- about 40% of the district’s 742,000 children -- are entitled to free tutoring because the 173 schools they attend have failed to meet testing benchmarks set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act for at least five years.

The law requires Los Angeles Unified to set aside about $72 million in federal funds reserved for disadvantaged students to pay for tutoring.

Despite what it said were extensive efforts to notify parents, including two mailings to families and the hiring of community outreach groups, the district has struggled to enroll students. Last year, roughly 10% of those eligible received tutoring under the federal requirements.

Becki Robinson, a program specialist for the district, said she believes that many parents who are illegal immigrants balk at enrolling their children in the tutoring services since, to do so, they must allow the district to release contact information to the tutoring companies.

Board President Marlene Canter and member Jose Huizar proposed the change, saying the deadline unnecessarily restricts students’ access to the tutoring.

“We create so many barriers that parents don’t understand,” Huizar said during the hourlong debate before the vote. “It makes it more difficult for students to enroll.... My God, if these programs work, why not do away with this deadline and get the kids the services?”

District officials, however, said extending the deadline could make it difficult to maximize the use of the federal funding. Without a clear idea of how many students are enrolled in the programs, officials said they must hold in limbo the money earmarked for the tutoring services in case all of it is needed. The Friday deadline, said Associate Supt. John Liechty, would have allowed officials to more readily redirect the unused tutoring funds to other services for low-income students.

The debate highlighted the tension between the 40 private tutoring groups hired by the district and the district’s own after-school programs. Until this year, the district used its own programs to serve more than half of tutored students. This year, however, because it has fallen short of the law’s requirements, Los Angeles Unified must use only outside tutoring groups. Liechty and Supt. Roy Romer expressed concern that the board’s action, which calls for greater collaboration between schools and tutoring groups, would allow private companies onto campuses at the district program’s expense.