In its attempt to accommodate Muslim students' religious needs, a Maryland high school now allows those students who have parental permission and good grades to leave class every day to pray.

According to The Washington Post, about 10 Muslim students at Parkdale High School in Riverdale, Md., leave class for about eight minutes every day to pray. They are part of the school's Muslim Students’ Association, Principal Cheryl J. Logan told the Post, adding that another student is hoping to raise his grades so he can join the others.

Logan told the newspaper some teachers became upset when Muslim students began praying during the school day, but she explained that schools have to accommodate students who wish to practice their faith.

“I’ve been real happy with how we’ve been able to deal with it without it becoming an issue,” Logan told the Post.

While schools may restrict how students exercise their religious rights, the First Amendment guarantees they can practice their faith on school property.

Guidance provided by the Department of Education stipulates that schools "have the discretion to dismiss students to off-premises religious instruction, provided that schools do not encourage or discourage participation in such instruction or penalize students for attending or not attending.

"Similarly, schools may excuse students from class to remove a significant burden on their religious exercise, where doing so would not impose material burdens on other students," the guidance reads.

Courts have for years tried to determine when accommodation crosses the line into unconstitutional endorsement of religion, said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. The question of accommodating the Muslim faith, however, is relatively new.

"Public schools can't play favorites with religion," Mach said. "Whatever schools do to accommodate students' beliefs, it must be done fairly, equally and not to promote any one faith or encourage religious devotion in general."

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, said he has so far heard no complaints from Muslims about the school's policy. 

"We’re definitely in favor of the policy of allowing Muslim students or students of any faith to hold student-initiated and student-sponsored prayers, as the Constitution guarantees," he said.

If, however, the school begins to strictly enforce the high grades policy and denies a student who is struggling with his or her grades to pray, the organization would take a stand against that practice, Hooper said.

"As a parent, it sounds like a good idea, but I’m not sure that it conforms with what is required in terms of allowing students to pray in schools," he said. 

Some schools that have introduced similar policies to accommodate Muslim students have met challenges in the past. A San Diego, Calif., elementary school that had set aside prayer time stopped doing so after it received criticism. The school ultimately reconfigured the schedule so Muslim students could pray during lunch.

Hooper said his organization has dealt with similar cases in the past but managed to reach a compromise with the schools.

The nation's high school graduation rate is the highest since 1976, but more than a fifth of students are still failing to get their diploma in four years, the Education Department said in a study released Tuesday.

Officials said the steady rise of students completing their education is a reflection of the struggling economy and a greater competition for new jobs. 

"If you drop out of high school, how many good jobs are there out there for you? None. That wasn't true 10 or 15 years ago," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press. 

The national dropout rate was about 3 percent overall, down from the year before. Many students who don't receive their diplomas in four years stay in school, taking five years or more to finish their coursework. 

Some 3.1 million students nationwide earned their high school diplomas in the spring of 2010, with 78 percent of students finishing on time. That's the best since a 75 percent on-time graduation rate during the 1975-76 academic year. 

The only better rate was 79 percent in 1969-70, a figure the department wouldn't vouch for. 

There were tremendous differences among the states in 2010. Fifty-eight percent of students in Nevada and 60 percent in Washington, D.C., completed their high school education in four years. By comparison, 91 percent of students in Wisconsin and Vermont did, according to the report. 

Latino graduation rates climb 10 points since 2006

Graduation rates increased by more than a percentage point in 38 states between 2009 and 2010, the study found. Only the District of Columbia saw its graduation rates decline between by greater than a percentage point during those years. 

Among the most significant factors of the increase was the dire U.S. economy after the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. During the 2009-10 academic year, unemployment ranged from 9.4 percent to 10 percent. 

"When I grew up on the South Side of Chicago it wasn't great, but I had lots of friends who dropped out and they could go work in the stockyards or steel mills and they could buy a home, support a family, do OK," Duncan said. 

But those jobs are gone and won't come back, he said. 

California, the nation's largest public school system by enrollment, led the nation in new graduates in 2010, turning out almost 405,000. It also produced the most dropouts: almost 93,000. That translated to a rate of about 5 percent, above the national average. 

During the 2009-10 academic year, some 514,000 students dropped out of high school nationwide. Still, the rate declined from 4 percent during the seven previous academic years, when data was sometimes incomplete or represented averages of states that reported figures. 

Nationally, students were most likely to drop out of high school during their senior year, with roughly one in 20 quitting before graduation day. In every state, males were more likely to drop out. 

Arizona had the highest dropout rate, at 8 percent, followed by Mississippi at 7 percent. Washington, D.C., schools also posted a 7 percent dropout rate, the Education Department projected based on previous years' reporting. 

Mississippi, New Mexico and Wyoming had dropout rates rise more than one percentage point, while Delaware, Illinois and Louisiana saw noticeable decreases. Delaware dropped from about 5 percent to 4 percent. Illinois dropped from roughly 12 percent to 3 percent. And Louisiana dropped from 7 percent to 5 percent. 

"The trends are hopeful but our high school dropout rate is still unsustainably high and it's untenable in many of our African-American and Latino communities. We have a long way to go here," Duncan said. 

Nationally, white and Asian and Pacific Islander students were among the least likely to leave school without a degree, with only 2 percent dropout rates. Hispanic students posted a 5 percent dropout rate, followed by blacks at 6 percent and American Indians and Alaska Natives at 7 percent. 

"There's no young person who aspires to be a high school dropout," Duncan said. "When someone drops out, it's a symptom of a problem. It's not the problem itself. Something has gone radically wrong."

Nancy Lanza, in a 2012 photo that a relative saved from Facebook.

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- The mother of the suspected Sandy Hook Elementary School gunman, herself slain at the outset of the murderous rampage, was an avid gun enthusiast who liked to take her sons to the shooting range to practice their marksmanship, a friend tells NBC News.

Dan Holmes, a local landscaper and a friend of Nancy Lanza, mother of 20-year-old suspected gunman Adam Lanza, said she also was a collector.

 “She had a pretty extensive gun collection,” Holmes said. “She was a collector, she was pretty proud of that. She always mentioned that she really loved the act of shooting.”

Holmes recalled that she said she was able to “focus in” while shooting.

Federal officials tell NBC News that Adam Lanza took three weapons with him to the school – two pistols, a Glock and a Sig Sauer, and a Bushmaster .223-caliber semi-automatic assault-style rifle – all of which were registered to Nancy Lanza.

It is unclear whether all the guns were used in the attack. At a news briefing on Saturday, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, who led the team that autopsied the victims, said, “All the (injuries) … I know of were caused by the rifle.”

The Associated Press reported that authorities investigating the school shooting later recovered additional weapons -- a Henry repeating rifle, an Enfield rifle and a shotgun. It was not clear where those weapons were found.

Holmes, Nancy Lanza’s friend, said the 52-year-old single mother also frequently talked about how she was worried about Adam.

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She talked about “how he was an unstable kid,” he said. “She would talk about that. “She was very protective of him. I don’t … think she ever got major help for him. She just tried to handle it on her own. It was something she was definitely disturbed about.”

Meantime, federal agents visited a gun shooting range near Newtown, Conn., in an effort determine if Adam Lanza visited in the months before the attack, which could indicate he was planning or practicing for the bloodbath he carried out early Friday.

Dean Price, director of the Wooster Mountain Shooting Range near Newtown, told NBC News that he was visited by agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol ,Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Friday night and that they searched through his records for any evidence that the younger Lanza had signed in there in 2012. They also checked to see if he had used the name of his older brother, Ryan, Price said.

There was no indication that Adam Lanza had used the shooting range, which requires customers to sign in and show identification prior to using the facility, Price said.

Agents also have been checking local firearms dealers to see if Adam Lanza purchased or attempted to purchase weapons or ammunition prior to the shooting.

Law enforcement officials said members of the public reported they thought they saw Adam Lanza trying to buy a rifle at a Dick’s Sporting Good store in Danbury, but investigators have yet to confirm that.   

NBC News' Senior Investigative Correspondent Lisa Myers and Justice Correspondent Pete Williams contributed to this report.

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Updated at 10:17 p.m. ET: Forty-three students and six staffers at an Atlanta elementary school were rushed to the hospital early Monday after exposure to carbon monoxide fumes, fire officials told NBC News.

The students and staffers from Finch Elementary in southwest Atlanta exhibited mild and moderate symptoms related to carbon monoxide poisoning. Four more adults arrived at Grady Hospital by school bus, hospital spokeswoman Denise Simpson said.

The school was evacuated as a precaution, NBC affiliate WXIA reported.

The incident was first reported at about 8:35 a.m. ET, according to WXIA. No one was found unconscious at the scene, but the carbon monoxide reading was 1,700 parts per million, which an Atlanta Fire Rescue Department official said was high.

"Once we got inside, we started finding carbon monoxide readings way, way higher than we've ever experienced before, especially around the heating units and hallways, and the entire building turned out to be saturated," Atlanta fire Battalion Chief Todd Edwards told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Edwards also told the Journal-Constitution the school apparently doesn't have carbon monoxide detectors. However, state law does not require schools to have CO detectors, a spokesman for Georgia’s Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner told the newspaper.

Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that can cause sudden illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and confusion.

Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Students are evacuated from Finch Elementary School by members of the Atlanta Fire Department in Atlanta, Dec. 3, 2012. Almost 50 people were reportedly taken to the hospital for treatment following a carbon monoxide leak.

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A former teacher in Florida's Broward County who was accused of soliciting massages from students has lost her license to teach in the state.

Cheryl Grampa, 46, was barred by the state's Education Practices Commission in an order this month, the Sun-Sentinel reported Friday.

She had taught at Cooper City Elementary.

School district investigators said that during the 2009-2010 school year, one boy touched her breasts and vaginal area and she failed to notify the school administration about the inappropriate conduct, according to the state's complaint.

No criminal charges were filed, but the Broward School Board voted to suspend her for five days and ordered her to undergo classroom management training, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Two psychological evaluations later found her "unfit for duty as a classroom teacher" and she resigned last December, according to state records.

Grampa, who is listed as living in Bellaire, Texas, did not attend the state discussion of her case on Sept. 27 in Orlando, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie, who was not in the district when the case was investigated, said he did not know why Grampa was not fired, but believed that revoking her license was appropriate.

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A man narrowly escaped abduction charges after he mistakenly picked up the wrong girl from a New Jersey school.

Courtney Durr was waiting to be picked up by her mom's friend after school in Gloucester City, N.J., on Tuesday. At the same location, Art Deaner was supposed to pick up his friend's daughter, Courtney Fetters.

When Deaner arrived and saw Courtney Durr, who looked vaguely like the girl he was told to pick up, he called for her to come inside his vehicle.

"I told her I was looking for Courtney,'" said Deaner. "And the young girl said her name was Courtney."

"I got off the bus and he pulled up and he asked if there was a Courtney," said Courtney Durr. "I said, 'Yeah.' My crossing guard let me go and I went with him."

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Courtney Durr knew she was being picked up by her mom's friend so she reluctantly went inside. There was only one problem: Deaner was supposed to pick up 6-year-old Courtney Fetters, not 9-year-old Courtney Durr.

Deaner hadn't seen Fetters in some weeks and the girl recently got a haircut so he assumed Durr was the Courtney he was looking for.

"My girlfriend called me and said, 'Where's Courtney?'" said Courtney Durr's mother, Pam Durr. "I said, 'Well she's supposed to be at the bus stop waiting for you.' She said, 'She's not here.'"

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Deaner said he started to realize something wasn't right when he talked with the girl about a recent vacation.

"He was like, 'You weren't with Aunt Mary in Maine?'" said Courtney Durr. "No, I would never have been in Maine."

"I know Courtney was in Maine for two weeks," said Deaner. "I had to turn around and take her back. I got the wrong Courtney."

Police, however, were already on his trail. They pulled Deaner over and arrested him.

The crossing guard noticed that Durr went inside a vehicle that she didn't normally go in. Fearing an abduction, the crossing guard recorded Deaner's license number and alerted police. After asking him several questions, however, police say they realized it was all a mix up and didn't file charges.

Courtney Fetters was found safe and sound while Courtney Durr was reunited with her mother.

"I forgive them!" said Pam Durr. "They didn't know any better because they haven't seen her in a while."

There was also a lesson learned.

"Don't go in someone's car when you don't know 'em," said Courtney Durr.

While Deaner had trouble recognizing the right Courtney, he tells NBC10 he'll always remember what she looks like now.

"I won't forget," said Deaner. "I'll take a picture."

A Florida state senator is calling for an investigation into the payout of more than $500,000 to the principal of a failed Orange County charter school.

A school board chairman blasted the payout of taxpayer money, which has sparked outrage in Orlando, as “immoral and unethical.” 

Kelly Young, principal of NorthStar High School in Orlando, received a check for $519,453.96 in June, about the same time the Orange County School Board accepted the school’s plan to close in lieu of being forced to shut down based on declining student achievement, The Orlando Sentinel reported.

The Sentinel also reported that Young was “still being paid thousands of dollars a month” at the time to complete the school’s affairs. The school serves about 180 students in east Orange County.

Young's payment was authorized by the charter school's independent board, which is separate from the Orange County School Board, in June. At the time, the independent board called it "well-deserved and earned for her years of dedicated service at a below-market rate of compensation," the Sentinel reported.

Attempts by NBC News to contact Young on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Orange County School District officials say they were unaware of the principal's payment because the school isn’t required to report it under Florida's charter school law, according to the Sentinel.

Young’s attorney, Larry Brown, said the payment was justified. "Here's a lady with no retirement, who at that point had put six years of her life into the school, feeling like she had to make provision for retirement in her contract," Brown told the Sentinel.

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While the payout appears to be legal, it has sparked outrage from State Sen. David Simmons and Orange County School Board Chairman Bill Sublette.

"There's no room for abuse by charter or traditional schools," Simmons told the Sentinel. He called for an investigation. "All it does is hurt children."

"The law is very clear that school boards cannot put limits or control how a charter school spends their money, including payouts like this" Sublette told the Sentinel. He called the payment "a shameful abuse of public tax dollars" and "immoral and unethical."

Charter schools are privately run public schools with fewer regulations than traditional public schools. Charters, like public schools in Florida, receive state money based on student population.

Money leftover from charter schools is supposed to funnel back to school districts upon closure.

According to the Sentinel,

NorthStar, which had a balance of $717,293 at the end of the 2011 school year, has not turned over any money to Orange County Public Schools.

A statement provided to the district by the charter school showed a balance of less than $10,000 on June 29.

Young's payout was based on a contract that called for her to be paid about $305,000 per year through 2014, even though the school's contract was up for renewal in 2012. She was paid 85 percent of her remaining contract.

Young's salary was more than 2 1/2 times that of the highest-paid principal at a traditional Orange County public school in 2011: $116,565.

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