Parents will have to wait at least another month to find out whether their child’s school needs improvement.

Maine’s list of “failing schools” – public schools that failed to meet state standards – was supposed to be released over the summer so eligible parents would have time to transfer their children to more successful schools before fall. But the mid-August release date came and went. So did a second release date at the end of August.

Now Maine Department of Education officials say the list has been delayed until the end of September.

Under the federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act, states are required to publish a list of schools whose students performed poorly on state standardized tests, had poor daily attendance or didn’t graduate at a high rate. States must also list schools if fewer than 95 percent of students took and finished the required standardized test.

Last year, more than 100 Maine schools made a one-year monitor list because of poor student performance. Ten schools made the list for poor performance two years in a row.

Schools face a host of sanctions if students perform poorly for two years or more. In some cases, schools must bus students to another, more successful school in the same district, if that option is available.

Department officials said the list was delayed this year because schools sent in their attendance data late. Without that information, workers can’t determine which schools made the list.

Education officials said they have no idea how many schools might make the list this year, but they are contacting 11 schools that were on the monitoring list last year.

Because they serve many poor students and because they have other successful schools in their districts, those 11 schools are the only ones that would be forced to let students transfer if their parents choose to do that.

Last year, 27 schools from the region, including schools in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties, made the monitor list. Auburn had two schools on the list. Lewiston had three.