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WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Friday she is prepared to drop her call for a six-month suspension of foreign student visas after worried education officials promised to do a better job of working with immigration authorities. 

In a letter to Feinstein on behalf of 18 organizations representing colleges, universities and educators of foreign students, David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, pledged that schools would provide the Immigration and Naturalization Service with more information about their foreign students and act quickly to tell INS when a student who is expected does not enroll. 

One of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks apparently entered the country under the pretext of taking English language classes at a school in Oakland. He never showed up at the school. 

“The actions we propose will result in a much higher level of security,” wrote Ward, whose council includes most major U.S. colleges. “By adopting such steps, we believe it will be unnecessary to pursue more far-reaching actions.” 

Representatives of public and private California universities delivered a similar message in a meeting with Feinstein on Tuesday, said Chris Harrington, a spokesman for the University of California’s Washington office. 

Feinstein said she is willing to put the educators’ promise to the test. “If we can get cooperation from schools with regard to student visa reporting requirements, the moratorium will not be necessary,” she said in a statement. 

Feinstein will hold a hearing on student and other visa issues on Thursday in her Technology, Terrorism and Government Information subcommittee, spokesman Howard Gantman said. 

The proposal to bar temporarily new foreign students from the United States drew protests from college officials, international student and educator groups and directors of intensive English programs. The latter said their industry would be crippled by the moratorium. 

But Feinstein said INS needed time to implement a tracking system to curb what she said were widespread abuses in student visas. 

After the first World Trade Center bombing, in 1993, Congress ordered the INS to create a system to track the 514,000 foreign students in this country. When in use nationwide — expected by 2003 — it will give law enforcement officials electronic access to information about students’ names, universities, dates of attendance and academic majors. 

Educational groups have toned down or dropped their criticism of the program — particularly civil liberties and academic freedom questions — since the attacks. Feinstein is calling for $32.3 million to fund the program and eliminate educators’ concern that foreign students would be charged a $95 fee.