Hawaii education officials are petitioning the U.S. Department of Education to reconsider some of the rules proposed under a new federal education law that takes effect next school year.

Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, Board of Education Chairman Lance Mizumoto and Gov. David Ige recently sent a joint letter to U.S. Education Secretary John King voicing concerns about draft regulations for the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA. The rules aim to guide the implementation of the 1,000-plus-page law, which was designed to devolve federal control over public education to states when it comes to school accountability, teacher evaluations, student testing and support for struggling schools.

“The draft regulations being put forward appear to be more prescriptive than the spirit of the law. ESSA was initially returning more control to the states,” Matayoshi said in an Aug. 2 statement. “In the letter, we shared our concerns over proposed regulations, which are overly restrictive and harken back to No Child Left Behind’s one-size-fits-all approach.”

The letter was sent as part of the public comment period for proposed federal regulations.

The federal ESSA law, which replaces and updates the No Child Left Behind Act, is scheduled to be implemented in the 2017-18 school year. It allows states to select “challenging” academic standards, create school accountability goals and intervene at low-performing schools — decisions that previously were heavily influenced or dictated by the federal government. The requirement that states test students annually remains.

Before states can implement the law, ESSA requires them to develop a comprehensive and collaborative educational plan with input from stakeholders ranging from governors and lawmakers to teachers, principals and parents. The state Department of Education said it’s taking advantage of the law’s flexibility by reviewing and updating its goal-oriented strategic plan in addition to preparing the state’s ESSA plan.