Georgia public schools would start the school year in late August under a proposal by State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox.

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The plan, which would not go into affect until the 2009-10 school year, is designed so that all public schools would give the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests and retests around the same time, said Matt Cardoza, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.

Scores from the retests, which typically produce better results, would then be used to determine if school made the federal testing goals required under the No Child Left Behind Act. The state recently received permission from the U.S. Department of Education to use retest data for its calculations.

Schools that repeatedly fail face increasingly severe sanctions, ranging from offering free tutoring to a possible takeover by the state.

The official start date for schools has yet to be determined, Cardoza said. Specifics will be developed after local superintendents agree to the plan.

Cox plans to present the proposal during Friday's Georgia School Boards Association meeting in Savannah, Cardoza said.

Many school districts already have set their calendars for 2009-10 year and would have to be willing to make changes. Every school district would have to sign off on the plan for it to work, he said.

"This is an all or nothing plan," Cardoza said. "This is up them."

The No Child Left Behind Act requires states to test students in grades 3-8 annually in reading and math and that a certain percentage of students pass these exams.

Scores from the CRCT help determine whether schools meet the law's testing goals, called adequate yearly progress and commonly referred to as AYP.

Most metro Atlanta schools now start in mid-August, and some parent groups have complained in recent years that starting dates are too early for various reasons ranging from truncated summer vacation seasons to hot weather.