That is so reassuring to know. The school would rather cover their butts than help their students. More parents should know about this. I bet if they did, the school would lose some of those students.
I'm (theoretically) a big believer in public schools. If a diverse America is to survive, you've got to have the Irish kid, the black kid, and the Vietnamese kid all in the same classroom, all learning together.
But in reality, most urban public schools are way too broken to be fixed. So my advice to decent kids caught in those schools (and I teach at one) is this: Get out if you can. Go to a good charter school or a good private school.