Even if Wilson and Wiggins were cleared for tutoring, it does not appear that Camden has enough money to get services to the students.

About 9,700 students - roughly half of Camden's public-school students - are eligible for tutoring under the federal law because 23 of its 29 schools failed to meet language-arts and math benchmarks.

But the $2.6 million in Title 1 funds earmarked for tutoring is enough for only about 1,300 students to enroll in the supplemental programs expected to begin next month, officials said.

The state is requiring the district to come up with a plan to improve academics at all of its schools.

That could mean tutoring at Wilson and Wiggins as early as February and summer school district-wide for the first time for all elementary students, Fitts said.

Fitts said curriculum and personnel changes have been made at both schools, and he believes students will eventually catch up and perform on grade level.

"We will make a difference. They will overcome the losses, and they will accomplish the gains over time," he said.

In hopes of getting better results with new programs, the district has put on hold at least six computer-learning programs launched by then-Superintendent Annette D. Knox, Fitts said.

Those programs, which came with million-dollar price tags, have been replaced with state-recommended programs. There are also new elementary literacy and math programs, and Rowan University is training math teachers to serve as coaches, Fitts said.

The New Jersey Department of Education says its hands are tied in supplying tutoring.

Kathryn Forsyth, a department spokeswoman, said that the tutoring is handled under federal regulations of No Child Left Behind. The federal government would have to waive an NCLB provision in order to provide tutoring or other supplemental services.

Forsyth said the "adult interference" finding by the state does not qualify the schools for a waiver. And even if the state wiped out the 2004-05 test results, Forsyth said, Wilson and Wiggins would not qualify for tutoring. A school needs to be in the third year of failing to meet adequate yearly progress. Wilson and Wiggins would be in only the second year if the scores were wiped clean.

"Supplemental [tutoring] is not the panacea," Forsyth said. "You have to do a lot of other things in a district like Camden than offering tutoring two or three hours a week. You need a systemic change."

State education officials, who have vowed increased oversight in Camden, have assigned an intervention team headed by Penelope Lattimer, the commissioner's chief of staff, to help the district.

More oversight gives little comfort to parents who are worried that their children have already fallen behind. Lucinda Mitchell, whose two grandchildren are first-graders at Wilson, said students need help with the basics.

"There's a lot of parents who tell me, 'My child just doesn't get it,' " said Mitchell, who is active with the PTA. "I just don't feel they're on the right levels."

She looks at one of her grandchildren, an honor-roll student, and wonders.

"I'm happy she's on the honor roll. But there's stuff that she should be doing that she's not," she said.

Carmen Pintor said the problems stretch beyond the two elementary schools under scrutiny. She has misgivings about the good reports from teachers about her son Juan, an eighth grader at Hatch Middle.