PORTLAND – Maine educators welcomed new changes to a sweeping education reform law, but said more revisions may be needed to make the law work properly.

U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige said Monday that the No Child Left Behind Act will be changed to allow schools to average their participation rate among students over three years.

The changes add flexibility to the requirements, but Maine officials said the law still may need significant revisions.

“The federal Department of Education until the last few months has shown no interest in flexibility at all, and now they’re providing little bits around the edges,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat who represents Maine’s 1st Congressional District.

Allen said while “everybody believes in accountability and making sure that every child has a chance to do well,” No Child Left Behind “is a very rigid, inflexible system, and it needs to be changed.”

Maine Education Association president Rob Walker called the change “minor.”

“I appreciate the effort, but there’s a lot more to fix than just the attendance requirement,” he said.

Monday’s change had to with the percentage of students taking the tests. Under the law, at least 95 percent of students must be tested in math and reading. At least 95 percent of “subgroups,” such as minority and disabled students, also must be tested.

Paige said that schools will be allowed to average their participation rate among students over three years, and will not have to count students who miss testing because of medical emergencies.

Freeport Public Schools superintendent Robert Lyman said the town’s high school had to get a special waiver last year because it could not test 95 percent of its 11th-graders. About eight of the school’s approximately 100 juniors took their junior year abroad and were not available to be tested, he said.

“We’re going to keep kids from going on what we consider educationally valuable experiences so they can be here to take a test?” he asked. “I don’t think so.”

Maine’s U.S. senators have appointed a task force to review the No Child Left Behind Act. The group met for the second time Tuesday. It has not issued any findings.