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With another month passing and the first day of school just two weeks away, the No Child Left Behind waiver request from LAUSD and eight other California school districts remains unfinished. A final submission must go to the U.S. Department of Education for approval.

Last week, representatives from the California Office to Reform Education, which represents the nine districts, said they still believed DOE would ultimately approve the waiver, known as the School Quality Improvement System. The reps had flown to Washington to meet with federal officials to resolve lingering issues.

“We are still in the fine tuning phase of the process, expanding on various sections in response to the feedback we have received from the U.S. Dept. of Education,” said CORE Director of Communications Hilary McLean.

If the waiver is not approved, districts will be forced to comply with strict “No Child” sanctions if certain educational goals are not met by 2014. They could include limitations on Title I funding for low-income students and federal intervention in low-performing schools.

But the coalition “does not expect any public release of the updated version of the plan this week,” said McLean.

After California’s waiver request was rejected in January, CORE submitted its own application to the Department of Education, marking the first time districts filed a unified proposal. Typically, a request comes from a state, and the department has already granted waivers to most of the states and the District of Columbia.

Previous posts: Final Decision Close on CORE’s ‘No Child’ Waiver Request, Update: Federal Review “Going In the Right Direction” for LAUSD