By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
School leaders said last week they hope parents of students in Beaufort County’s public schools did not follow one county commissioner’s advice to not fill out an ethnicity-and-race identification form or throw it in a trash can.
The re-identification of all public-school students in the state is required by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and the U.S. Department of Education for mandated achievement reports, such as federal No Child Left Behind legislation, and other policy matters, according to Patrick Abele, executive director for learning services for the Beaufort County Schools.
“With No Child Left Behind, we are measured on the academic performance of students based on these different groups,” he said. “It allows (the federal government) to measure how well schools are closing the achievement gap.”
But at a Beaufort County Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Hood Richardson said the form is just another example of the government trying to divide the nation.
“I advise parents not to fill out this form or throw it in the trash can,” Richardson said. “If you’re opposed to this sort of thing, fill it out for what you are not.”
Abele said that’s not a good idea.
Incorrect information could cause the county to miss out on some federal grants or students to fail to qualify for some scholarships, he said.
Changes in federal law — which now define “Hispanic” as an ethnicity instead of a race and which have discontinued the use of the term “multi-racial” on federal reporting forms, among other changes — resulted in school systems nationwide having to obtain information from students and staff members about their ethnicity and their race, Abele said.
The new categories were developed by the federal government to give educators a better snapshot of the ethnic and racial diversity of the nation, he said.
Beaufort County Schools began the re-identification process Nov. 17 with a letter sent to parents and guardians asking them to complete a one-page form that asked two questions about public-school students in the household as follows:
“Question 1: Are you Hispanic or Latino? (A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.)”
“Question 2: Please select the racial category or categories with which you most closely identify by placing an “x” in the appropriate box. Check as many as apply.” Respondents were asked to select one or more of American Indian or Alaska native, Asian, black or African-American, native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander or white from the list of races.
Parents and guardians were asked to return the form by Nov. 24. Those who did not return the forms were sent a second notice Dec. 8.
If the form was not returned or completed, school officials were required to complete the form on the student’s behalf using a third-party observer to identify students by observation. Principals also were authorized by state policy to have a student 10 years old and older to self-identify if the form was not returned or completed.
The deadline for the information to be submitted to the state was Thursday, Abele said.