The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) alters federal-state relations by expanding the federal role further into a primary function of state and local governments and raises questions about how federal, state, and local policies interact--that is, conflict or reinforce each other. Early indications suggest that states are differently positioned to assume the additional responsibilities required under NCLB. While there has been some intergovernmental collaboration and cooperation, the ambitious expectations, strict timelines, and exacting set of regulations combined with the fiscal constraints operating on states imposed significant burdens on state and local implementation. It is the authors perspective that NCLB is testing the limits of the federal system with a fundamentally different model-one that assumes that by centralizing rules and educational policy, institutions and practice can be rapidly changed to accommodate new requirements. This research on the status of federal-state relationships during the first year indicates that many of the conditions that would facilitate implementation of NCLB are not there. A list of the "Required Elements for State Accountability Systems" is appended. (Contains 7 tables and 1 figure.) [The foreword for this report entitled, "Federal State Relationships," was written by Gary Orfield.]