Harrington has assured Utah would remain in compliance with federal mandates and therefore keep more than $100 million in funding that largely benefits low-income children.

But Spellings, as lawmakers began their final debates on the bill, warned that while the bill itself would not pull Utah from compliance, resulting actions could.

Meanwhile, Utah has petitioned the federal government for more flexibility on key points of No Child Left Behind — a focus of Tuesday's discussion.

Requests focus on special education student testing, rural and special education teacher qualifications.

Harrington also wants sanctioned Title I schools to be able to give students extra help before offering transfers to higher-performing schools. The law requires the school choice option be extended first. But Utah struggles to turn around spring test data before the new school year starts, especially for year-round schools that start in the summer.

The federal department has allowed Virginia to offer student help first, but only in a small pilot group of schools to see if it works, Aspey said. "The secretary explained her reasoning for this pilot and told the superintendent that she is open-minded to additional pilot projects next year."

Harrington reports a dozen staff members flanked Spellings at the meeting, including two representatives from the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch who were expected to assist in No Child Left Behind's reauthorization in 2007. Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Rob Bishop, both R-Utah, also attended the meeting. She briefed Hatch, R-Utah, afterward.

Harrington also reported Spellings was interested in seeing how Utah's fledgling accountability system U-PASS might work with No Child Left Behind and "seemed to be supportive of the notion" of holding schools accountable for student growth.

"We share so much in common as it relates to children that just sitting down and seeing eye-to-eye and talking about some of those issues. . . . It was very good, very healthy," Harrington said.

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