Juanita Morning's daughter is supposed to report to summer school on Monday to get extra help to pass the math retest required for promotion to high school.

But the eighth-grader from Chamblee Middle School will be in Paris and miss opening day of DeKalb County's summer school. She'll be back by Thursday.

LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC (ENLARGE)

Cheryl Hughes and Overton Wright deliver reading and math supplies to classrooms at Indian Creek Elementary. CRCT summer school is not mandatory for students who need to retake tests, but attendance could increase chances of promotion if they fail a retest.

LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC (ENLARGE)

Antoinette Hunter prepares a classroom for reading instruction in CRCT summer school at Indian Creek Elementary School in Clarkston. An atmosphere of urgency pervades campuses this summer because of unexpectedly high CRCT failure rates.\uFEFF

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Parent Eddie Bruce said his daughter will miss part of her summer math classes because of a family vacation in Florida. Bruce said they already paid $1,000 to rent a house and can't change their plans. "I hope this vacation doesn't come back to bite us, but what can you do?"

Hundreds of other metro Atlanta families are caught up between long-laid vacation plans and an unexpected summons from their child's school to attend summer school because they didn't pass a portion of state exams for promotion.

On June 2, hundreds of DeKalb and Fulton County students who failed reading or math sections of the CRCT report to CRCT summer school to bone up for a critical retest or face repeating the grade. Cobb County starts Wednesday, Atlanta and Clayton County on June 9, and Gwinnett County on June 26.

Attendance at the intensive review courses isn't mandatory, leaving administrators guessing how many students will actually show up.

On the eighth-grade math exam, about 50,000 students across Georgia didn't score well enough for promotion. For many parents, it's a shock.

"Summer school and retesting were not in our summer plans," said Coweta County parent Tammy Beasley.

Her eighth-grade daughter at Lee Middle School was in accelerated classes, on honor roll and recommended for accelerated classes in ninth grade. She missed the CRCT math portion by five points.

"Summer school starts tomorrow, but we are supposed to be going on vacation from June 3 through the 11th and then again on the day of retesting," Beasley said. "Now, things have to change."

Fulton County Schools is prepared today for a full house. It will increase CRCT summer school class sizes up to the state maximum of 18 students, compared to 15 last summer.

Cobb has rounded up more math teachers for the eighth-grade review course, said Kathy Annis, the district's summer school coordinator.

"We could always use a few more teachers for math although we're pretty happy with the class sizes we have now. We're not sure how many students will actually come. We're expecting that some won't show up," Annis said.

Fulton also is waiting to see how many materialize. "We don't have an exact idea ... until they actually show up. If adjustments to class sizes are needed, we'll make them then,' said spokesman Susan Hale.

DeKalb County Schools is expecting about 8,000 students for summer school this year. But at least 3,000 more students are now expected because of the low math test scores. With that influx, the system has hired 100 more summer school teachers.

Superintendent Crawford Lewis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday that he estimates the system will spend an extra $500,000 for teachers and transportation of students.

DeKalb officials developed new, customized teaching kits strictly for students re-taking fifth- and eighth-grade math courses over the summer. The kits lay out day-by-day instruction points for teachers as well as hands-on lessons for students.

The kits are brand new because of the introduction of the state's new math curriculum in those grades.

"I can't believe how tight this is," Kelli Harris-Wright, DeKalb's elementary schools director, said of the kits. "We know exactly what we're going to do every day."

Cobb middle school math teachers were expected to get their materials at a meeting today at Campbell Middle School, said Dodgen Middle School math teacher Fred Veeder. He will be teaching an eighth grade review session at Dodgen beginning Wednesday.

Principal Jim Snell said about 220 students are expected this summer at the Dodgen site, which also draws from three other east Cobb middle schools. That's more than double last year's enrollment.

Summer classes in DeKalb for elementary and middle school students start today and run until June 26. Re-tests — which give students another opportunity to pass the test — will be given June 25-26.

Gwinnett expects to hire more than 255 math teachers for the summer session, an increase over last year. Gwinnett students can tackle the retest before summer school begins or after the June 26-July 17 prep session ends.

This year's failure rate on the new state math exam for promotion to middle and high school has created a flood of summer students.

In Atlanta schools, 3,571 third-, fifth- and eighth- graders failed promotion-critical parts of the exam, a 23 percent increase on the math portion of the test, said spokesman Joe Manguno.

The district hired 29 more math teachers in addition to six math coaches to support instruction at the four middle school sites.

Atlanta planned for a 10 percent increase in math teachers over last year. The district had budgeted $5.3 million and had aggressively recruited more math teachers before the CRCT scores arrived.

The additional cost to the budget will be roughly $140,000 in salaries for the extra teachers and academic coaches.

CRCT summer school isn't mandatory, but attendance could increase students' chances of promotion even if they fail on retest. Cobb stresses the importance of summer school. "If parents appeal a retention decision, summer school attendance is often [an] important factor," it advises parents on the school district's Web site. No pass/no promote only applies to third-graders on reading and to fifth- and eighth-graders on reading and math.

Staff writers Laura Diamond, Kristina Torres and Michelle Shaw contributed to this article.