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Salt Lake City • The U.S. Department of Education has approved a one-year extension of Utah's waiver from requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Utah was among six states granted waivers on Thursday that exempt schools from the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements of the law.
Without the waiver, Utah schools would have been subject to sanctions unless every student in the state scored proficiently on statewide tests in 2014.
Sanctions included diverting funding for at-risk students, faculty and administrative changes, and the potential reopening of low-performing public schools as charters.
Forty-one states hold waivers granting flexibility from No Child Left Behind.
The Utah Board of Education voted in August to reapply for a renewal of the waiver, which allows the state to develop and implement its own accountability system.