This week, 3,300 parents in the San Juan School District will receive letters they should be sure to read carefully. These letters represent the district's obligation to inform them that their schools -- all of which include significant populations of poor students who qualify for supplemental federal education funds under Title I -- are in "program improvement" status, or "PI."

PI status is a new federal designation under President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. It simply means the school has failed to show the kind of academic improvement the federal government now expects for Title I students. Nine of the San Juan district's 34 schools that receive Title I money are in PI status.

But the parent letters bring far more than bad news. In some cases, they bring opportunity.
Under the new law, school districts must offer parents the chance to choose to send their students to a better school within the district; districts also must pay the cost of transportation using Title I funds. If there's no room at other district schools, parents can seek to send their children to schools in neighboring districts, with the home district paying for transportation.

All of this is dependent, of course, on space. How will parents know if space is available if they don't ask?

This is the second year these letters have been sent out. Last fall, the Sacramento City Unified School District mailed 4,500 letters to parents of students at five schools in PI status. How many parents took advantage of the offer of school choice? Sit down for this one: None.

San Juan's parents were slightly more responsive. After 2,100 letters were mailed last September, 40 parents inquired about transferring their children. For lack of space, the district couldn't accommodate any transfers, but it promised "priority enrollment" in other district schools the following school year. This fall, four students took advantage of it.

When the new federal law went into effect last year, people assumed the school choice and tutoring provisions would prove a major burden to school districts, which would have to scramble to accommodate parents. That burden was meant to be a lever that would pressure the districts to shape up those ailing schools. But parents are the only ones who have the power to use that lever. If they don't bother, the federal law won't have any teeth and a useful experiment in school choice won't have had any real chance to get off the ground.

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To find out whether your school is in "Program Improvement" status, visit the California Department of Education Web site at www.cde.ca.gov. Click on your county, then your school district and scroll down to see the list of Title I-receiving schools in PI status.