This article discusses legislative efforts to seek flexibility and to coax changes in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Even before U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings had been confirmed in her job on Inauguration Day, a few states had begun testing her pledge to work with them in carrying out the No Child Left Behind Act in a "sensible and workable" way. In a letter to Ms. Spellings, Betty J. Sternberg, Connecticut's commissioner of education, asked for greater flexibility in six areas of the law--including the ability to continue testing only in grades 4, 6, 8, and 10, instead of annually in grades 3-8 and once in high school as the federal law requires. The Virginia board of education voted to ask Ms. Spellings to exercise her authority to waive the law's statutory and regulatory requirements in 10 central areas. In fact, legislatures in at least nine states--Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, and Utah--have introduced bills challenging various aspects of the NCLB. Although Section 9401 of the NCLB states that the secretary of education "may waive any statutory or regulatory requirement" of the act for states or districts that request such waivers (provided they show how the waivers would increase the quality of instruction for students or improve their academic performance), a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education said that is it unlikely to grant any such waivers.