Foundation analysis · Education
Expanded edition · September 20, 2026
Foundation draft · Not enacted law
An expanded education proposal connecting early learning, K–12, college, and adult pathways with research integrity, paid educator preparation, student supports, safe facilities, affordability, and enforceable data and AI safeguards.
Learning, from the first years through every next chapter.
Expanded federal legislative discussion draft · 30,957 words · 17 titles · 129 sections + nonoperative counsel’s companion
Foundation model docket. Identifiers and proposed referrals are internal and are not official congressional or legislative assignments.
A guide to this proposal
The proposal would invest in the people, places, and supports that make education usable throughout life. It links learning access to staff, transport, meals, disability support, family schedules, and affordability. New grants generally depend on voluntary participation, and federal curriculum selection remains prohibited.
Analysis is commentary. Model text is a proposal. Fiscal scenarios, where provided, are illustrative.
Foundation Analysis
The expanded edition replaces the earlier seven-title proposal with 17 titles and 129 sections. It links early childhood, schools, postsecondary access, and adult learning to education administration, scientific integrity, professional judgment, enforceable rights, and a defined ten-year funding schedule.
In plain language: The proposal would invest in the people, places, and supports that make education usable throughout life. It links learning access to staff, transport, meals, disability support, family schedules, and affordability. New grants generally depend on voluntary participation, and federal curriculum selection remains prohibited.
The revision turns broad commitments into allocations, eligibility rules, service standards, deadlines, and remedies. New titles address early childhood, disability and language access, digital privacy, AI, college completion, and adult learning. An advisory scientific council replaces the earlier insulated executive commission; direct records, publication, and review duties carry the evidence safeguards.
Appropriations alone do not create qualified teachers, counselors, early-learning staff, transport, or construction capacity. Voluntary State participation and matching requirements could produce uneven access. Funded places need credible capacity and continuity plans; salary commitments, maintenance, and student cohorts may outlast federal funding.
Conditions on new voluntary assistance, preserved existing protections, and an express ban on federal curricular control make the proposal more precise. State curricular delegation, religious accommodations, speech, equal access, data rights, sovereign immunity, and limited private remedies remain sensitive to application. Advisory expertise does not remove constitutional executive supervision.
The draft would appropriate $5 billion for startup and phase annual programs from $96.5 billion to $144.75 billion to $193 billion in years 3–10: $1.79025 trillion in new nominal budget authority including startup. The companion’s $5.65025 trillion thirty-year figure assumes future flat nominal renewal; the bill does not fund that renewal. These are proposed amounts, not an official score.
the expanded draft is stronger where it joins access with the practical conditions needed to use it and makes funding, capacity, and remedies explicit. Evidence supports addressing learning, facilities, and disclosure problems, but does not establish the optimal size or nationwide effects of this combined package. Before introduction, the highest priorities are official scoring, workforce and procurement feasibility, a current legal crosswalk, sustainable State matches, and an explicit decision about the year-ten funding cliff.
Expanded Foundation discussion draft, dated September 20, 2026; not introduced or enacted. This edition replaces the earlier website version. The counsel’s companion is nonoperative analysis. Proposed appropriations and continuation scenarios are not current funding, guaranteed returns, or an official fiscal score.
Policy Brief
The earlier edition had seven titles and 38 sections. This replacement adds the full education pathway, specifies proposed appropriations, replaces the executive commission with advisory expertise, and withdraws unsupported package-wide return claims. The existing page and download now carry the expanded edition.
129 uniquely numbered sections, followed by a separate nonoperative counsel’s companion.
Proposed fixed nominal appropriations in program years 3–10; no automatic inflation increase.
Proposed new funding across ten program years, including the $5 billion startup appropriation.
Need-weighted school support and early-learning grants would prioritize underserved learners. Funded low-income early-learning places would be free; eligibility and capacity limits remain explicit. Research funding reserves space for replication and translation.
Paid year-long residencies, induction, mentoring, compensation, and planning time would support preparation and retention. Full-time residency cash compensation would be at least 70% of the district’s entry-level teacher salary, with health coverage or an allowance.
Tutoring, disability and language services, mental-health support, meals, after-school learning, safe facilities, and transport address barriers beyond tuition. Qualified staffing and funded capacity would determine how quickly services can expand.
Covered learner data could not be sold or used for targeted advertising or identifiable general commercial AI training. Consequential adverse decisions would need qualified human consideration; AI detectors alone could not establish misconduct.
Participating public two-year and Tribal college compacts would cover tuition and mandatory fees for eligible pathways. Need grants, completion supports, paid career pathways, and adult learning broaden options. The draft does not promise free tuition everywhere or cancel all student debt.
Published evidence, release calendars, professional curricular processes, conflict rules, due process, and independent review would support public trust. The scientific council is advisory; the Department remains an executive department.
Funding in the supplied draft
Sections 1701–1704 supply proposed direct appropriations in fixed nominal dollars. Budget authority is distinct from cash outlays. The proposal supplies no tax offsets and counts no speculative economic return as financing; debt service, other-account effects, and nonfederal commitments require official scoring.
Research & Scrutiny
Foundation analysis of the supplied September 20, 2026 draft, checked against the official sources linked below. These sources establish context; they do not validate every provision or estimate.
GAO’s September 2026 report estimates that 19% of districts canceled school because of facility issues during 2024–25, affecting about two million students. This nationally representative survey strengthens the case for addressing facilities and continuity. It does not establish the right appropriation for this bill or predict the effect of its construction program.
Official 2024 NAEP results show fourth-grade reading scores two points below 2022 and five below 2019. The What Works Clearinghouse reading guide assigns different evidence strengths to different practices. These sources support careful diagnosis, professional preparation, and evaluation; neither tests this combined Act or proves a nationwide fiscal return.
GAO’s 2022 review estimated that 91% of colleges omitted or understated net price in their financial-aid offers. That historical finding supports the draft’s clearer separation of total costs, grants, and loans. Disclosure reform and tuition assistance address different barriers; neither should be represented as universal debt cancellation.
The Department’s June 2026 announcement described additional partnerships with HHS and DOJ while retaining relevant statutory authorities. The bill’s restoration provisions should therefore distinguish administrative responsibility, records, staffing, and legal duties. An announcement alone does not establish the success or lawfulness of every implementation step.
In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court held the FTC’s for-cause commissioner-removal protection unconstitutional. The revised bill uses advisory expertise and direct agency obligations instead of the earlier protected executive commission. That is a design response to the decision, not a judicial endorsement of this education proposal.
Mahmoud v. Taylor required preliminary relief for parents challenging elementary instruction without the notice and opt-outs at issue. The draft’s public procedures and lawful accommodation provisions would need careful application alongside equal-access duties. The case does not establish a universal parental veto over materials used by every other learner.
Full Text
Read the legislation.
This reader preserves the entire supplied package in order, including its cover and contents. The proposed statutory text ends at section 1707. The following COUNSEL’S COMPANION is clearly labeled nonoperative explanation, with its own commentary, fiscal tables, research register, and quality check. Original DOCX page references remain as supplied.
Expanded Federal Legislative Draft
Early learning • K–12 • Postsecondary • Lifelong learning
17 TITLES / 129 SECTIONS
Full legislative text with a separate, nonoperative counsel’s companion.
September 20, 2026
United States federal model legislation
DISCUSSION DRAFT — NOT INTRODUCED OR ENACTED
No official bill number has been assigned. This document does not represent a government publication or an official fiscal score.
This package contains the complete proposed Enlightenment Act, followed by explanatory material that is not part of the legislation. The bill is written as standalone Federal legislation, with explicit funding and conditions on new assistance rather than a wholesale rewrite of every existing education statute.
The legislative text begins with the enacting clause. It contains operative duties, eligibility, program rules, protections, appropriations, remedies, and effective dates. The table of contents is a navigational aid, not an additional grant of legal authority.
The counsel’s companion contains the review of the earlier draft, title commentary, a crosswalk of the original 25 problems, constitutional and legal-risk analysis, a reproducible fiscal framework, implementation milestones, stakeholder and comparative lessons, a public FAQ, 28 research references, and a Quality-Check.
Restoration, not executive isolation. The Department remains an executive department. Scientific integrity and curricular safeguards are enforced through law, professional procedures, records, transparency, and review—not a promise of total immunity from constitutional supervision.
New appropriations, not merely authorizations. The draft supplies $5 billion immediately and phases recurring investment to $193 billion annually, for $1.79025 trillion in new nominal budget authority over 10 program years including startup.
A 30-year scenario is not enacted funding. Flat nominal renewal for years 11–30 would bring the total to $5.65025 trillion. The bill does not enact that renewal or claim that speculative economic gains finance its cost.
Scope is broad; capacity is finite. The proposal covers early childhood through adult learning. It does not promise every place or service to every person regardless of funded capacity, nor does it reduce existing legal entitlements.
Research and legal baseline: September 20, 2026. Dollar figures are proposed investments, not current-program appropriations. The companion identifies the assumptions and legal limitations that matter before introduction.
Legislative text • Section numbers are unique throughout the bill. Page references refer to this edition.
TITLE I—GENERAL PROVISIONS AND FEDERALISM 7
Sec. 101. Short title; organization. 7
Sec. 102. Findings and purposes. 7
Sec. 104. Constitutional basis; voluntary participation. 9
Sec. 105. Prohibition on Federal curricular control. 9
Sec. 106. Individual rights; nonpartisanship. 10
Sec. 107. Eligibility, public education, and nonpublic choice. 10
Sec. 108. Common grant administration. 11
TITLE II—RESTORATION, CONTINUITY, AND SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY 12
Sec. 201. Continued Department; restoration of statutory functions. 12
Sec. 202. Restoration plan; personnel and systems. 12
Sec. 203. No administrative abolition; continuity of appropriated programs. 12
Sec. 204. National data and research continuity. 13
Sec. 205. Scientific integrity and publication duties. 13
Sec. 206. Education scientific integrity council. 14
Sec. 207. Whistleblowers and researcher protection. 14
Sec. 208. Unlawfully interrupted awards and records. 15
TITLE III—PROFESSIONAL CURRICULAR GOVERNANCE AND FREEDOM TO LEARN 16
Sec. 301. Voluntary professional governance compacts. 16
Sec. 302. Professional curricular councils. 16
Sec. 303. Selection standards; no false balance. 16
Sec. 304. Material challenges; notice and review. 17
Sec. 305. Family information and lawful accommodation. 17
Sec. 306. Higher education academic freedom. 17
TITLE IV—EQUITABLE K–12 OPPORTUNITY AND PUBLIC-SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY 19
Sec. 401. Educational opportunity formula grants. 19
Sec. 402. State adequacy and equity plans. 19
Sec. 403. Allowable investments and targeting. 19
Sec. 404. School-level fiscal transparency. 20
Sec. 405. Public charters and management contracts. 20
Sec. 406. Integration, isolation, and community stability. 20
TITLE V—EARLY CHILDHOOD AND DEVELOPMENTAL FOUNDATIONS 21
Sec. 501. Early learning partnerships. 21
Sec. 502. Access and affordability. 21
Sec. 503. Developmentally appropriate quality. 21
Sec. 504. Early intervention and family support. 21
Sec. 505. Early educator workforce. 22
Sec. 506. Capacity, evaluation, and honest claims. 22
TITLE VI—DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCES, LEARNING RESEARCH, AND TRANSLATION 23
Sec. 601. National developmental and learning sciences initiative. 23
Sec. 602. Merit review and research access. 23
Sec. 603. Evidence grades and responsible use. 23
Sec. 604. Regional research-practice and translation partnerships. 24
Sec. 605. Open science; replication; negative results. 24
Sec. 606. Human subjects and cognitive privacy. 24
Sec. 607. Independent evaluation and translation review. 25
TITLE VII—EDUCATOR PREPARATION, COMPENSATION, AND RETENTION 26
Sec. 701. Education workforce partnerships. 26
Sec. 702. Paid teacher residencies and apprenticeships. 26
Sec. 703. Mentoring and induction. 26
Sec. 704. Preparation competencies. 27
Sec. 705. Compensation, workload, and retention compacts. 27
Sec. 706. Service scholarships and fair exit. 27
Sec. 707. Portable licensure and professional pathways. 28
Sec. 708. Evaluation and workforce data. 28
TITLE VIII—FOUNDATIONAL LEARNING, ENGAGEMENT, AND BROAD EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY 29
Sec. 801. Learning and engagement grants. 29
Sec. 802. Early literacy, numeracy, and timely support. 29
Sec. 803. High-impact tutoring and acceleration. 29
Sec. 804. Assessment burden and fair accountability. 29
Sec. 805. Curiosity, arts, sciences, and practical competence. 30
Sec. 806. Advanced learning and talent development. 30
Sec. 807. Developmentally appropriate school design. 30
Sec. 808. Student voice and educational experience. 31
TITLE IX—DISABILITY, LANGUAGE ACCESS, AND LEARNERS FACING BARRIERS 32
Sec. 901. Supplemental inclusion funding. 32
Sec. 902. Timely evaluation and service delivery. 32
Sec. 903. Accessible design and assistive technology. 32
Sec. 904. Disability procedural support. 33
Sec. 905. Multilingual learners and families. 33
Sec. 906. Homelessness, foster care, migration, and reentry. 33
Sec. 907. Transition to adult life and independent participation. 33
TITLE X—HEALTH, NUTRITION, SAFETY, AND ATTENDANCE 35
Sec. 1001. Whole-school support grants. 35
Sec. 1002. Counseling, mental health, and preventive care. 35
Sec. 1003. No-cost school meals and basic needs. 35
Sec. 1004. Bullying, harassment, and school climate. 36
Sec. 1005. Fair discipline and prohibited practices. 36
Sec. 1006. Safety without unnecessary criminalization. 37
Sec. 1007. Supportive attendance and reengagement. 37
Sec. 1008. Protecting confidential services. 37
TITLE XI—AFTER-SCHOOL, SUMMER, AND FAMILY LEARNING COMMUNITIES 38
Sec. 1101. Enlightenment community learning grants. 38
Sec. 1102. Access, affordability, and family schedules. 38
Sec. 1103. Meaningful enrichment and learner choice. 39
Sec. 1104. Safeguarding and program workforce. 39
Sec. 1105. Transportation, meals, and accessible space. 39
Sec. 1106. Family learning and resource centers. 40
Sec. 1107. Quality, evaluation, and public accountability. 40
Sec. 1108. Community access and nonduplication. 40
TITLE XII—HEALTHY FACILITIES, TRANSPORTATION, AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE 42
Sec. 1201. Modernization and mobility investment. 42
Sec. 1202. Facility inventories and health priorities. 42
Sec. 1203. Capital planning and public value. 42
Sec. 1204. Procurement, labor, and environmental compliance. 43
Sec. 1205. Reliable and accessible transportation. 43
Sec. 1206. Disaster and extreme-weather continuity. 43
Sec. 1207. Performance and operating savings. 44
TITLE XIII—DIGITAL ACCESS, STUDENT DATA, AND RESPONSIBLE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 45
Sec. 1301. Connectivity, devices, and accessible alternatives. 45
Sec. 1302. Data minimization and prohibited commercial uses. 45
Sec. 1303. Human judgment and automated decisions. 46
Sec. 1304. Vendor contracts and procurement accountability. 46
Sec. 1305. Security and incident response. 46
Sec. 1306. Access, correction, and retention. 47
Sec. 1307. Technology literacy and educator support. 47
Sec. 1308. Relationship to existing law and enforcement. 47
TITLE XIV—AFFORDABLE POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION AND COMPLETION 49
Sec. 1401. Postsecondary access and completion fund. 49
Sec. 1402. Public and Tribal college tuition compacts. 49
Sec. 1403. Additional need-based learning grants. 50
Sec. 1404. Completion, basic needs, and student parents. 50
Sec. 1405. Honest prices, aid offers, and recruitment. 51
Sec. 1406. Credit transfer and recognition of learning. 51
Sec. 1407. Program quality, closure, and learner protection. 52
Sec. 1408. Student-aid navigation and servicing assistance. 52
Sec. 1409. Flexible pathways and accessible campus life. 52
Sec. 1410. Transparency without simplistic rankings. 53
TITLE XV—CAREER PATHWAYS, ADULT LEARNING, AND SECOND CHANCES 54
Sec. 1501. Lifelong learning and career pathway grants. 54
Sec. 1502. Paid, safe, and portable work-based learning. 54
Sec. 1503. Career exploration without premature tracking. 54
Sec. 1504. Adult literacy, language, and recognition of experience. 55
Sec. 1505. Reentry, rural access, and educational continuity. 55
Sec. 1506. Outcome quality and continuous review. 55
TITLE XVI—ADMINISTRATION, ACCOUNTABILITY, RIGHTS, AND REVIEW 56
Sec. 1601. Common grant system and responsible administration. 56
Sec. 1602. Maintenance of effort and supplemental investment. 56
Sec. 1603. Transparent outcomes and public information. 57
Sec. 1604. Audits, records, and proportionate inspection. 57
Sec. 1605. Corrective action and grant remedies. 57
Sec. 1606. Civil enforcement in Federal court. 58
Sec. 1607. Judicial review of Federal action. 58
Sec. 1608. Express individual rights and limited civil action. 59
Sec. 1609. Rulemaking and limits on discretion. 60
Sec. 1610. Reporting, evaluation, and reauthorization review. 60
Sec. 1611. Interagency coordination and Tribal consultation. 60
TITLE XVII—APPROPRIATIONS, TRANSITION, AND GENERAL PROVISIONS 62
Sec. 1701. Immediate restoration appropriation. 62
Sec. 1702. Ten-year direct program appropriations. 62
Sec. 1703. Budget execution and no unstated revenue offset. 63
Sec. 1704. Long-term review and funding expiration. 63
Sec. 1705. Savings and limited preemption. 64
Sec. 1706. Severability and application-specific relief. 64
Sec. 1707. Effective dates and transition. 64
COUNSEL’S COMPANION — NONOPERATIVE
A. OVERVIEW AND PRINCIPAL REVISIONS 67
B. TITLE-BY-TITLE COMMENTARY 68
C. COVERAGE OF THE ORIGINAL 25 ISSUES 72
D. CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL-RISK ANALYSIS 74
E. FISCAL NOTE AND 30-YEAR FRAMEWORK 76
F. IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP AND MEASURES 80
G. STAKEHOLDERS, TRADEOFFS, AND COMPARATIVE LESSONS 81
H. PLAIN-LANGUAGE SUMMARY AND FAQ 82
A BILL
To restore the Department of Education's capacity to carry out its statutory responsibilities; protect educational inquiry, scientific integrity, and professional judgment from partisan and commercial interference; expand equitable access to high-quality education from early childhood through adulthood; strengthen the education workforce; provide safe, healthy, accessible, and enriching learning environments; make postsecondary education more affordable and portable; and provide sustained funding, accountability, and remedies.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
(a) Short title.—This Act may be cited as the “Enlightenment Act”.
(b) Organization.—This Act consists of titles I through XVII. A table of contents preceding the legislative text is provided for convenience and does not enlarge any authority conferred by this Act.
(a) Findings.—Congress finds that educational opportunity depends on access to qualified educators, appropriate instruction, safe facilities, adequate nutrition, disability and language supports, reliable transportation, affordable study, and meaningful opportunities for participation; that a child's circumstances should not determine the quality of that child's education; and that educational research must distinguish reliable findings from uncertainty without being manipulated to support a predetermined political or commercial conclusion.
(b) Purposes.—The purposes of this Act are to restore effective Federal administration; increase educational opportunity and attainment; support curiosity, reasoning, creativity, practical competence, civic understanding, and lifelong learning; reduce avoidable barriers and disengagement; strengthen developmental and learning sciences; improve the preparation and retention of educators; expand out-of-school and family learning environments; protect individual rights; and require transparent use and evaluation of public funds.
(c) Interpretation of findings.—A finding or purpose in this section does not independently create a cause of action, authorize a curriculum mandate, establish a scientific conclusion, or enlarge a spending authority.
In this Act:
(1) DEPARTMENT; SECRETARY.—The terms “Department” and “Secretary” mean the Department of Education and the Secretary of Education, respectively, except where another department or Secretary is expressly specified.
(2) STATE.—The term “State” means each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia. The term “territory” means Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Territorial eligibility is separately provided and shall not be excluded by a reference to a State.
(3) EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The terms “State educational agency” and “local educational agency” have the meanings given those terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. A public charter school is eligible on the same terms as another public school, subject to applicable public-school obligations.
(4) TRIBAL ENTITY.—The term “Tribal entity” means a federally recognized Indian Tribe, a Tribal organization authorized by such Tribe, a school funded by the Bureau of Indian Education, or a Tribal college or university. Eligibility does not diminish a Tribe's sovereignty or an existing Federal trust responsibility.
(5) INSTITUTION.—The term “institution” means an institution of higher education eligible to participate in title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. A provision limited to public, Tribal, or nonprofit institutions shall not be construed to include a proprietary institution.
(6) LOW-INCOME LEARNER.—The term “low-income learner” means an individual in a household with income not exceeding 200 percent of the applicable Federal poverty guideline, or an individual directly certified through a means-tested program using an equal or lower income threshold. Eligibility may be established by existing administrative records or a signed attestation, subject to proportionate verification and correction procedures.
(7) HIGH-NEED SCHOOL.—The term “high-need school” means a public school at which at least 40 percent of enrolled students are low-income learners, a school eligible to operate a schoolwide program under title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, or a Bureau of Indian Education-funded school. The Secretary may also designate a school for not more than 3 years upon documented disaster displacement or comparable concentrated educational deprivation, using public, objective criteria and a written decision.
(8) COVERED RECIPIENT.—The term “covered recipient” means an entity accepting a grant, subgrant, contract, or cooperative agreement under this Act. The term “recipient” means a covered recipient unless another provision specifies otherwise. A recipient condition applies to the funded program and its administration, except where the recipient expressly enters a broader compact under this Act.
(9) COVERED VENDOR.—The term “covered vendor” means a person that receives payment under this Act to provide educational goods, services, or technology, including a subcontractor handling learner information. Vendor duties shall be incorporated into enforceable procurement instruments.
(10) LEARNER.—The term “learner” includes a child, student, apprentice, and adult participating in an educational program. “Parent” includes a guardian or other person authorized under applicable law. Rights assigned to a parent transfer to an eligible student in accordance with applicable law, including the rules preserved in sections 1302(d) and 1306(a).
(11) EVIDENCE-BASED.—The term “evidence-based” means supported by a systematic investigation that identifies its population, methods, comparison where appropriate, uncertainty, limitations, and relevance to the proposed use. Evidence grades shall follow section 603. A promising innovation may be funded as research without being represented as an established intervention.
(12) MATERIAL ADVERSE DECISION.—The term “material adverse decision” means a decision denying or substantially limiting admission, a financial award, disability support, a credential, employment, or participation, or imposing exclusionary discipline or a comparable consequential restriction.
(13) POLITICAL APPOINTEE.—The term “political appointee” means an individual serving in a position filled by Presidential appointment, a noncareer Senior Executive Service appointment, or an appointment to a confidential or policy-determining excepted-service position. It does not include a career employee solely because that employee advises an appointee.
(14) PROGRAM YEAR.—The term “program year” means a Federal fiscal year beginning with the first Federal fiscal year that begins at least 180 days after enactment. References to program years 1 through 10 denote successive fiscal years beginning with that fiscal year.
(15) DISABILITY; ENGLISH LEARNER.—Disability eligibility shall be determined under the applicable Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, or Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 standard, rather than a new definition under this Act. “English learner” has the meaning given in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
(16) COUNCIL.—The term “Council” means the Education Scientific Integrity Council established under section 206.
(a) Authority.—Congress exercises its powers to tax and spend for the general welfare, administer Federal offices and property, regulate commerce as expressly provided in Federal law, and enforce constitutional rights within the limits of those powers.
(b) New-funds condition.—Except for duties imposed on Federal entities and expressly identified amendments to existing law, this Act establishes conditions on new assistance under this Act. A State's refusal to participate shall not, by itself, justify withholding preexisting title I, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Pell Grant, child nutrition, or other Federal assistance.
(c) No commandeering.—No State, territory, Tribe, or local government is required to administer a new program, enact legislation, levy a tax, or provide matching funds unless it voluntarily accepts the applicable award or compact. Conditions and any required non-Federal contribution shall be disclosed before acceptance.
(d) Independent remedies preserved.—A refusal to participate does not excuse a violation of a separately applicable civil rights, disability, labor, health, safety, or other law.
(a) Prohibition.—No Federal officer, employee, contractor, or advisory body may use authority or funds under this Act to prescribe, approve, disapprove, or require adoption of a particular curriculum, textbook, library work, lesson plan, academic viewpoint, or set of academic standards by a State, Tribe, institution, school, or educator.
(b) Indirect control.—The prohibition includes conditioning an award, accreditation-related action, waiver, investigation, or favorable administrative treatment on adoption or rejection of particular instructional content, and using an intermediary or nonbinding guidance to accomplish what this section prohibits directly.
(c) Permitted administration.—This section does not prohibit administering clearly stated service, accessibility, safety, fiscal, professional-competence, research-method, or nondiscrimination conditions in this Act; assessing student learning under otherwise applicable law; or supporting locally chosen educational materials. It does not authorize Federal endorsement or development of a national curriculum otherwise prohibited by law.
(d) Enforcement.—An eligible applicant or recipient suffering concrete injury from a Federal violation may seek relief under section 1607. No plaintiff need adopt or abandon instructional content to establish eligibility to challenge the condition.
(a) Political allegiance.—A covered recipient shall not require a learner or educator to affirm allegiance to a political party, candidate, religious belief, antireligious belief, or contested ideological proposition as a condition of an award or participation. Assessing understanding of an argument or a subject is not compelled personal affirmation.
(b) Inquiry.—No funded program shall penalize a person solely for a lawful viewpoint, a good-faith scientific disagreement, reporting misconduct, or declining partisan activity. Academic evaluation may consider relevance, evidence, professional competence, and compliance with neutral educational requirements.
(c) Equal access.—A covered recipient shall not deny a benefit under this Act because of race, color, national origin, disability, age where otherwise eligible, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or lack of religion. This subsection creates a condition of new assistance, not a definition of another statute. It does not determine eligibility for a sex-separated athletic category, override a constitutionally required accommodation, or require alteration of religious doctrine.
(d) Constitutional savings.—This Act shall be administered consistently with freedom of speech, free exercise, nonestablishment, equal protection, due process, parental rights, and the rights of students. A protected religious objection shall be addressed through a lawful accommodation rather than hostility toward the objector or a blanket exclusion of other learners.
(a) K–12 access.—A public school receiving funds under this Act shall not condition enrollment, access to compulsory instruction, or school-based meals funded under this Act on a child's or parent's citizenship or immigration status. It shall not collect immigration information that is unnecessary for a separately applicable lawful purpose.
(b) Postsecondary assistance.—Except as expressly provided, individual postsecondary aid under this Act follows the citizenship and eligible-noncitizen rules applicable under section 484 of the Higher Education Act of 1965. This Act does not silently enlarge or restrict eligibility under that section.
(c) Public-school funding.—Formula funds designated for public K–12 instruction shall support public schools and shall not be converted into private-school tuition vouchers. This does not prohibit lawful contracts for services, equitable services required by another law, private educational choice, or participation by eligible community providers under titles V and XI.
(d) Religious providers.—An otherwise eligible community provider shall not be disqualified solely because of religious status. Awards shall fund the described educational or family service; separately financed worship or devotional participation shall remain voluntary and shall not be a prerequisite for that service, subject to constitutional requirements.
(a) Awards.—Except where another section specifies a formula, the Secretary shall award assistance through a public notice stating eligibility, authorized uses, selection weights, the amount available, duration, matching requirements, and review procedures. Competitive awards may cover up to 5 years, with continuation dependent on appropriations, performance, and compliance rather than political agreement.
(b) Formula notices.—Proposed formula data and allocations shall be published at least 60 days before final allocation. Applicants shall have 30 days to correct factual errors. The Secretary shall issue written determinations within 30 days thereafter.
(c) Access to applications.—Applications shall be accessible, available through an offline alternative, and limited to information necessary to establish eligibility, program quality, financial controls, and compliance. An applicant may reuse previously verified information. No political-loyalty statement may be requested.
(d) Direct local access.—Unless a title makes State assumption of a guarantee indispensable, an otherwise eligible local public entity or Tribal entity may apply directly if its State declines to participate or fails to distribute an approved allocation within 120 days. Direct assistance shall not compel State administration, displace State law, or require State matching funds.
(e) Administrative costs.—Except for Federal operating accounts and research awards, not more than 2 percent of a title's annual appropriation may be used for Federal administration and national technical assistance, not more than 5 percent of a State award for State administration, and not more than 5 percent of a local award for general administration. Costs directly delivering counseling, interpretation, evaluation, transportation, or instruction are program costs. Properly allocable indirect costs count toward the applicable cap; the Secretary may allow a publicly justified combined cap of up to 10 percent for a small, rural, or Tribal recipient.
(f) Availability.—Administrative reservations are included within, not additional to, appropriated amounts. Requirements of title XVI apply to each award unless a provision expressly provides otherwise.
(a) Continuation.—The Department established by section 201 of the Department of Education Organization Act (20 U.S.C. 3411) shall continue as an executive department. The Secretary shall maintain the capacity to perform its statutory duties, including student aid administration, elementary and secondary education grants, special education, civil rights, privacy, research, and national statistics.
(b) Restoration inventory.—Within 45 days after enactment, the Secretary shall publish an inventory of those functions, their legal authorities, staffing and contractor capacity, records, operational backlogs, and administrative transfers made since January 20, 2025. The inventory shall distinguish an administrative agreement from a transfer enacted by statute.
(c) Administrative transfers.—Within 180 days after enactment, primary administration and decisional responsibility for a Department function delegated administratively to another department shall return to the Department. An interagency agreement inconsistent with this subsection is superseded to that extent. Functions assigned by statute to another department, including the operation of Bureau of Indian Education schools and Head Start, are not transferred by this subsection.
(d) Continuity.—Shared procurement, payroll, technical services, referrals, and lawful interagency cooperation may continue, but shall not transfer final statutory responsibility or conceal a de facto abolition of a Department office. Existing benefits and lawful obligations shall continue during transition.
(a) Plan.—Within 90 days after enactment, the Secretary shall publish a costed restoration plan identifying staffing by function, recruitment timelines, data recovery, cybersecurity controls, contract transitions, and measurable service standards. The Inspector General shall independently assess the completeness of the plan, without exercising an executive veto.
(b) Personnel.—The Secretary may recruit, reappoint, train, and detail personnel using applicable civil-service authorities and available funds. Selection shall be merit-based and comply with veterans' preference and collective-bargaining obligations. A prior employee may be considered without a political screening test. Nothing in this Act confers automatic reinstatement, back pay, or immunity from lawful personnel action.
(c) Service standards.—The plan shall set published targets for aid processing, grant payments, complaint triage, data releases, call-center response, and security incident resolution. The Secretary shall establish sufficient capacity to meet statutory deadlines and shall disclose any remaining shortfall and its funding requirement quarterly.
(d) Transition extension.—The Secretary may extend a particular transition under section 201(c) once, for not more than 90 days, upon a public finding that earlier transfer would materially endanger benefit continuity or data integrity. The finding shall specify interim Department supervision and a final date.
(a) Limitation.—No funds available to an executive agency may be used to abolish the Department, eliminate a statutory function, or transfer its final legal responsibility except pursuant to a subsequent Act of Congress expressly authorizing that action.
(b) Material reduction.—At least 60 days before implementing a reorganization, aggregate contract termination, or workforce reduction reasonably expected to prevent compliance with statutory duties or materially disrupt a national data series, the Secretary shall publish an operational impact assessment, mitigation plan, and legal basis and transmit them to Congress and the Inspector General. Notice does not substitute for legal authority or require congressional committee approval.
(c) Emergencies.—An immediate response to a documented cybersecurity threat, fraud, illegality, or imminent danger may precede notice. The Secretary shall publish a redacted explanation within 7 days and a recovery plan within 30 days. Political disagreement with lawful work is not an emergency.
(d) Funds.—Amounts appropriated by this Act shall be apportioned and made available consistently with fiscal law. A rescission proposal does not itself repeal a statutory duty or authorize withholding beyond the limits of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
(a) Protected functions.—The Secretary, acting through the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Center for Education Statistics, shall maintain legally required national assessments, statistical series, education surveys, longitudinal studies, evidence reviews, and public data archives, with methods appropriate to their statutory purposes.
(b) Schedules.—Within 120 days after enactment, the responsible statistical official shall publish a rolling 3-year release calendar. A material methodological revision shall identify its expected effect on comparability and include a bridge study where feasible.
(c) No fabrication.—No person acting under Federal authority may knowingly fabricate, falsify, conceal, or materially mischaracterize a covered result to obtain a predetermined political, personal, or commercial outcome.
(d) Data limits.—This section does not authorize a national identifiable student database or supersede a prohibition on such a database. Secure, approved research linkages shall be limited to the minimum data necessary and governed by title XIII.
(a) Direct duties.—For research, statistics, evaluations, and evidence summaries funded or issued by the Department, the responsible official shall require transparent methods, appropriate expert review, disclosure of material limitations and financial conflicts, a correction process, and preservation of the underlying administrative and scientific record.
(b) Research record.—Confirmatory evaluations shall preregister principal questions, outcomes, and analysis plans before outcome analysis. Exploratory work is permitted if identified as exploratory. Null results, adverse findings, deviations from protocol, and unsuccessful replications shall not be withheld merely because they are inconvenient.
(c) Publication.—A completed product accepted as scientifically ready by the responsible professional official shall be published within 30 days, or on a previously announced release date not more than 90 days later. A lawful privacy, security, human-subject, or specific methodological defect may justify a narrowly tailored delay. The responsible official shall issue a written reason and new date, reassess at least every 30 days, and release unaffected portions where practicable.
(d) Policy distinction.—An authorized executive official may determine lawful program priorities and may issue a separately labeled policy response. Such official may not secretly rewrite empirical results, remove contrary evidence, or present a policy preference as a scientific finding.
(e) Political contacts.—The Department shall preserve requests from political appointees or persons acting on behalf of elected officials to alter, suppress, or delay a covered product. Within 30 days of publication or a disputed delay, it shall release the substance and disposition of material requests, subject to valid privileges and confidentiality law. A privilege claim shall be identified in a public withholding log to the extent lawful.
(f) No indefinite clearance.—The responsible professional official shall determine scientific readiness within 60 days after receiving a substantially complete product, or issue a written identification of specific scientific defects and a review schedule. Any extension shall be limited to 60 days, supported by reasons, and disclosed in the release calendar. Additional delay requires a written finding under subsection (c). Vacancy, reassignment, or a pending policy announcement shall not suspend this duty; the Secretary shall designate a qualified acting reviewer.
(a) Establishment.—The Secretary shall establish an Education Scientific Integrity Council under chapter 10 of title 5, United States Code, to provide independent expert advice, public assessments, and methodological recommendations. The Council shall not exercise rulemaking, enforcement, adjudication, appointment, or grant-award power. The Council is established for a continuing statutory duration notwithstanding the 2-year termination rule otherwise applicable to an advisory committee; its charter shall be maintained as applicable law requires.
(b) Composition.—The Secretary shall appoint 15 members after an open nomination period of at least 45 days: 5 researchers in learning, development, or education; 3 specialists in statistics, causal inference, or research ethics; 3 practicing educators, including a special educator; 2 specialists in disability, language access, or student development; and 2 members with experience representing learners or families. The membership shall include rural, Tribal, and urban experience and a reasonable range of disciplinary approaches.
(c) Terms and conflicts.—Members shall serve staggered 4-year advisory terms and may be reappointed once. Initial appointments shall be divided as nearly equally as practicable among terms of 2, 3, and 4 years. Members shall disclose relevant financial interests, recuse from affected recommendations, and receive no compensation from a bidder for influencing a Council matter.
(d) Independence in advice.—The Council may publish its findings, minority views, and meeting materials without substantive alteration by the Secretary. The Secretary may append a response. Members remain subject to otherwise lawful appointment and removal authority; no new for-cause limitation on Presidential removal is created.
(e) Continuity.—Failure to appoint members or obtain a quorum shall not suspend the statutory duties in sections 204 and 205. Within 180 days after enactment, the Secretary shall issue initial procedures implementing those duties, with or without Council advice.
(a) Employees.—A disclosure reasonably believed to show a violation of sections 203 through 205, research misconduct, misuse of funds, or unlawful interference constitutes evidence of a violation of law or abuse of authority for purposes of applicable Federal whistleblower protections, including section 2302(b)(8) of title 5, United States Code.
(b) Contractors and grantees.—A covered recipient or vendor shall not discharge, demote, threaten, blacklist, or otherwise retaliate against a person for a good-faith disclosure to an Inspector General, the Office of Special Counsel, Congress, a regulator, an investigator, or another legally protected recipient. Contract and grant clauses shall preserve the procedures and remedies available under section 4712 of title 41, United States Code, where applicable.
(c) No secrecy waiver.—No agreement funded under this Act may require surrender of a protected reporting right. This section does not authorize unlawful disclosure of classified information, identifiable student records, or legally privileged material to the general public.
(d) Assistance.—The Department shall provide a confidential reporting channel and acknowledge an allegation within 10 business days. Investigative authority remains with the legally responsible office. Retaliation is also actionable as provided in section 1608, without duplicative recovery.
(a) Review.—Within 120 days after enactment, the Secretary shall provide a process for reviewing an education grant or research contract materially interrupted since January 20, 2025, where the recipient alleges that the interruption violated law, the award's terms, or required procedures.
(b) Decision.—An applicant shall receive notice of relevant reasons, access to the nonprivileged record, 30 days to submit evidence, and a reasoned determination within 90 days after a complete submission. The Secretary may reinstate an eligible unexpired award, issue a lawful replacement competition, reimburse allowable costs within available appropriations, or deny relief with reasons.
(c) Limits.—No award shall be reinstated automatically. Fraud, poor performance, changed feasibility, and valid final judgments shall be considered. This section does not erase a debt or create contract damages outside otherwise applicable jurisdiction, and does not disturb a final court judgment.
(d) Records.—The Department shall preserve relevant records under Federal records law and litigation holds. No official may destroy a record to frustrate this review or an investigation.
(a) Program.—The Secretary shall offer 5-year grants to States, territories, Tribal entities, and local public educational agencies that voluntarily adopt professional, transparent procedures for selecting instructional materials and reviewing curricular disputes. Awards under this title shall be separate from every other title.
(b) Acceptance.—A participating jurisdiction shall identify the public bodies legally responsible for curricular decisions and the legal mechanism by which it adopts the requirements of this title. A State constitutional obstacle shall not be treated as a waiver of this title; the applicant may instead propose a legally authorized local compact or decline this title without losing other assistance.
(c) Federal review.—The Secretary shall review governance procedures, conflicts, public access, and expenditures, not the merits of particular instructional content. No Federal curriculum certification is authorized.
(a) Council.—A participating jurisdiction shall designate an existing qualified public body or establish a public curricular council with final professional responsibility for material selection and curricular recommendations or adoption to the fullest extent lawfully delegated under the compact.
(b) Membership.—A majority of voting members shall be practicing educators, subject specialists, librarians, or developmental scientists with relevant experience. The body shall also include parents and, for secondary education, students with a meaningful opportunity to participate. Appointments shall use public qualifications and nominations, staggered terms, conflict disclosures, and recorded votes. Current elected officials, party officers, and vendors seeking adoption of their products may not serve as voting members.
(c) Protection.—The compact shall protect members from removal solely for a lawful professional conclusion. A removal shall require notice, stated grounds, an opportunity to respond, and review under applicable State law. This subsection concerns a voluntarily adopted State or local process, not a Federal officer's tenure.
(d) Public responsibility.—Elected bodies may establish budgets, enforce law, and adopt generally applicable educational objectives through lawful procedures. Under the compact, they shall not secretly direct individual adoptions or require a conclusion favoring a party or official. Any legally required elected-body review shall be public, reasoned, and subject to section 304; the Secretary may not dictate the outcome.
(a) Published criteria.—Before reviewing materials, a council shall publish criteria addressing accuracy, age and developmental appropriateness, accessibility, educational relevance, breadth of perspectives, evidence quality, cost, and the needs of learners. Criteria may differ among disciplines and grade levels.
(b) Inquiry.—Materials shall not be rejected solely because they examine a controversial subject, describe a protected group, criticize government or a historical figure, discuss religion or nonreligion academically, or present evidence inconsistent with a political preference. A decision may consider the work as a whole and its actual educational use.
(c) No compelled equivalence.—Neutral administration does not require presenting a discredited assertion as scientifically equivalent to well-supported evidence or allocating equal time to every viewpoint. A council shall distinguish empirical claims, scholarly interpretation, moral argument, and personal belief, and state the reasons for a contested judgment.
(d) Classroom judgment.—Teachers may adapt approved materials and methods within lawful professional standards and accommodations. This title does not create immunity for misconduct, failure to teach assigned subjects, or discriminatory treatment.
(a) Procedure.—A participating jurisdiction shall provide an accessible complaint identifying the material, relevant passage or activity, learner group, and claimed conflict with published criteria. A complainant may not be required to disclose political or religious affiliation.
(b) Review.—An impartial panel shall review the material as a whole, invite relevant professional and family input, and issue a written determination ordinarily within 60 days. A decision shall identify the governing criteria, evidence considered, and a less restrictive alternative where relevant. A further appeal to an impartial public decisionmaker shall be available within 30 days.
(c) Interim action.—A complaint alone shall not trigger systemwide removal. Temporary restrictions require a documented, specific risk of unlawful content or serious harm, shall be narrowly tailored, and shall receive review within 10 school days. Ordinary age-level assignment and individualized accommodations are not blanket removal.
(d) Participation safeguards.—Reasonable rules may consolidate duplicate complaints and limit disruption, but may not foreclose a materially different claim or discriminate by viewpoint. Access to courts and constitutional remedies is preserved.
(a) Information.—Participating schools shall make syllabi, descriptions of major instructional units, and material-review policies reasonably available to families, with accessible and translated summaries. Copyrighted works shall be made available for lawful inspection rather than unlawfully republished.
(b) Accommodation.—A request for a religious, disability-related, or other legally protected accommodation shall receive individualized review, timely notice, and an educationally meaningful alternative when required by law. No student shall be humiliated or academically penalized for using a lawful accommodation.
(c) Limits.—An accommodation for one learner does not ordinarily authorize suppression of the material for all others. The school shall consider the rights and educational access of affected learners and applicable constitutional standards. A student shall not be compelled to disclose private family beliefs publicly.
(d) Decision.—A written denial shall identify reasons and an expedited appeal route. Urgent requests shall be resolved before the activity where reasonably possible; temporary alternatives shall be provided during review when necessary to prevent irreparable harm.
(a) Condition.—An institution accepting new institutional assistance under this Act shall maintain published policies protecting good-faith research, teaching, publication, and lawful expression from partisan donor, vendor, or governmental retaliation, consistent with its lawful educational mission and constitutional obligations.
(b) Donors.—A gift or contract supporting a funded activity shall not secretly grant a donor control over grades, research findings, individual hiring, or suppression of publication. Restrictions and relevant conflicts shall be disclosed before acceptance.
(c) Process.—Academic sanctions shall follow published standards, notice, an opportunity to respond, and impartial review. A lawful scholarly disagreement alone is not research misconduct.
(d) Limits.—This section does not entitle a person to employment, admissions, a platform in every setting, or exemption from neutral academic competence requirements. An institution's religious identity and constitutionally protected autonomy are preserved.
(a) Allocation.—After the Federal reservation allowed by section 108, the Secretary shall reserve 2 percent of the remaining amount for Tribal entities and 1 percent for territories. The balance shall be allocated among States: 60 percent by each State's share of children ages 5 through 17 below the Census poverty threshold; 20 percent by its share of total children those ages; 10 percent by its share of rural public-school enrollment; and 10 percent by its share of English learners in public schools.
(b) Data.—The Secretary shall use the most recent comparable official data available at least 120 days before allocation, publish the source and reference year, and use a published population-based proxy when a comparable count is unavailable. No protected characteristic shall be imputed to an identifiable learner to calculate an allocation.
(c) Small-State floor.—A State shall receive at least 0.25 percent of the State pool. Amounts necessary for the floor shall be obtained by proportional reduction of amounts above the floor. The floor shall not increase the appropriation.
(d) Local allocation.—A participating State shall distribute at least 90 percent of its award to local educational agencies using a public formula assigning at least 60 percent of weight to low-income enrollment and additional weight to disability-related cost, language needs, geographic isolation, homelessness, and concentrated deprivation. The formula shall avoid rewarding unnecessary disability identification.
(a) Plan.—Within 1 year of accepting its first award, a State shall publish a 5-year opportunity plan identifying disparities in access to qualified teachers, coursework, supports, facilities, and reasonable instructional resources. It shall estimate the cost of a locally defined adequate education using transparent assumptions and an independently reviewed methodology.
(b) Action.—The plan shall state how new funds reduce identified gaps, preserve State effort, and reach schools rather than merely replace existing resources. A State is not required to adopt a federally selected tax system or expenditure level.
(c) Public review.—Students, educators, families, disability representatives, rural communities, and Tribal entities shall have at least 45 days to comment. The State shall respond to material comments and publish annual progress and unresolved gaps.
(d) Enforcement.—Failure to achieve an aspirational outcome is not itself a violation. Failure to distribute funds lawfully, implement promised access measures, or report honestly is subject to title XVI.
(a) Uses.—Local funds may support additional qualified staff; reduced class size where staffing and evidence support it; specialist and librarian access; instructional supplies; accessible course materials; school-based improvement teams; multilingual family communication; and removal of fees for required public-school instruction.
(b) Targeting.—At least 75 percent of local program expenditures shall directly serve high-need schools or objectively identified underserved learners. A recipient may use a schoolwide design where individual means-testing would produce stigma or administrative waste.
(c) No substitution.—New technology shall not be purchased as a routine substitute for legally required qualified teachers or disability services. Spending on general administration, branding, lobbying, and executive compensation unrelated to service delivery is not an allowable substitute for the uses in subsection (a).
(a) Disclosure.—Each local recipient shall publish annually its school-level allocation of State, local, and Federal resources; actual personnel and nonpersonnel expenditures; significant vacancies; contracted services; and the allocation methodology. Small cells and personnel information shall be protected.
(b) Comparability.—Reports shall distinguish recurring operating funds, capital funds, pension liabilities, and temporary assistance. A school serving costly needs shall not be labeled inefficient solely because of unadjusted spending per pupil.
(c) Community access.—A plain-language budget explanation and a public question-and-answer session shall accompany the report. Existing financial reports may satisfy this section if they contain the required information.
(a) Equal obligations.—A public charter school receiving assistance shall comply with the same applicable nondiscrimination, disability, privacy, fiscal, and learner-protection requirements as another public recipient. It shall not use counseling, unofficial exclusion, inaccessible enrollment, or disciplinary pressure to evade those requirements.
(b) Contracts.—A management agreement paid with funds under this Act shall identify beneficial ownership, related-party transactions, fees, educational deliverables, audit access, records ownership, and a termination and continuity plan. The public governing body shall retain access to all public-program records and responsibility for compliance.
(c) Closure.—An entity anticipating closure shall notify families and the authorizer, preserve and transfer records, arrange continuation of disability services, and account for public property and unspent funds. The Secretary may require a student-protection reserve from a financially distressed contractor within its contract price.
(a) Assistance.—Grants may support lawful voluntary efforts to reduce concentrated poverty and geographic isolation, including accessible magnet programs, transportation partnerships, shared advanced courses, and community-school services.
(b) Safeguards.—Admission criteria shall comply with constitutional equal-protection requirements and applicable civil rights law. No Federal official may order a racial quota or compulsory student assignment under this Act.
(c) Closures.—Before using funds under this Act for a school consolidation or replacement, a recipient shall assess transportation, disability access, neighborhood effects, Tribal interests, and continuity of relationships, and provide a meaningful public process. An imminent building hazard may require an emergency relocation with prompt review.
(a) Administration.—The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Secretary, shall administer this title through a single application coordinated with Head Start, child care assistance, and early-intervention programs. Funding remains a distinct supplemental account.
(b) Allocation.—After the section 108 reservation, 3 percent shall be reserved for Tribal entities and 1 percent for territories. The balance shall be allotted to States, 70 percent according to the share of children under age 6 below the Census poverty threshold and 30 percent according to the share of all children under age 6. The small-State floor and data-correction procedure in section 401 apply.
(c) State design.—A State may expand voluntary preschool for children ages 3 and 4, strengthen infant and toddler services, or combine those approaches. At least 20 percent of its program spending shall address infants, toddlers, or transition and family supports rather than preschool seats alone.
(a) Priority.—New places shall first serve low-income children, children with disabilities, children experiencing homelessness or foster placement, and communities with documented shortages. A provider may offer mixed-income classrooms while maintaining this priority.
(b) Fees.—A participating place shall be free for low-income children. For other families, total family payments for publicly subsidized early-learning and child-care services shall not exceed 7 percent of household income, with other public subsidies counted before assessing a payment. The State shall disclose that federally supported places are limited by its approved capacity.
(c) Stability.—Eligibility shall last at least 12 months absent voluntary departure, fraud after due process, or a child aging into another program. A temporary income fluctuation shall not cause abrupt exclusion. No family shall be required to accept a place or use a specified provider.
(a) Requirements.—Funded services shall use developmentally appropriate play, language-rich interaction, early numeracy experiences, movement, outdoor opportunities where safe, and responsive adult relationships. No Federal curriculum is prescribed.
(b) Staffing.—Providers shall comply with applicable licensing and health and safety requirements and publish age-specific staffing ratios. A preschool classroom funded under this title shall have not more than 20 children and a ratio not exceeding 10 children per qualified adult, unless a more protective requirement applies. Infant and toddler ratios shall follow applicable State or Tribal licensing requirements and shall not be weakened to obtain funds.
(c) Assessment.—Screening shall identify support needs, not rank young children for exclusion. No federally funded standardized test shall determine promotion, provider sanctions, or access for a child below compulsory-school age. Evaluation may use appropriate observation and protected sampling.
(a) Coordination.—Providers shall offer referrals for vision, hearing, speech, developmental, nutrition, and family-support services, with informed consent and without replacing IDEA child-find duties. Services shall be available in the family's preferred language to the extent necessary for meaningful access.
(b) Consent.—A refusal of an optional screening or home visit shall not result in loss of unrelated educational services. A clinical diagnosis shall be made only by a legally qualified professional.
(c) Transition.—At least 90 days before a child's planned transition into kindergarten or another setting, the provider shall offer a family transition meeting and, with required consent, transfer useful records and coordinate disability services.
(a) Uses.—Awards may provide paid preparation, supervised practice, benefits, coaching, and compensation improvements tied to qualifications and responsibilities. A new qualification requirement shall be accompanied by paid access to training and a reasonable transition period.
(b) Workforce protection.—A provider shall not use funds to replace a qualified worker with an unpaid trainee or impose a training debt for leaving employment. Wages and benefits earned shall not be recouped as a service penalty.
(c) Supply.—States shall plan for rural providers, family child-care homes, nonstandard work hours, and culturally and linguistically responsive services, without lowering child safety standards.
(a) Capacity plan.—A State shall publish the number of funded places, waitlists, provider vacancies, cost per place, and expansion schedule. It shall not promise universal access unless State or other committed funding covers the promise.
(b) Evaluation.—The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall evaluate both short- and longer-term outcomes, provider quality, family access, displacement of existing services, and variation among programs. Early test-score gains shall not be represented as proof of lasting benefits without supporting follow-up.
(c) Coordination.—No expenditure may be reimbursed twice by this title and another program. A shared application shall not merge distinct eligibility rights or reduce an existing entitlement.
(a) Establishment.—The Secretary, acting through the Institute of Education Sciences, shall establish a sustained initiative to advance developmental, cognitive, behavioral, social, language, and educational sciences across the lifespan. The initiative shall be coordinated with the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and other relevant agencies without transferring the Department's statutory responsibilities.
(b) Research priorities.—Eligible work includes early development; literacy, numeracy, and reasoning; motivation and belonging; executive function and self-regulation; learning disabilities; multilingual development; adolescent development; effects of sleep, movement, environmental conditions, and stress; teacher learning; adult learning; and implementation in actual educational settings.
(c) Allocation.—Of the amount available for this title after Federal administration, at least 25 percent shall support basic developmental and learning science, at least 25 percent rigorous evaluations and replication, and at least 25 percent research-practice partnerships and translation. The remaining amount may address emerging questions and research infrastructure. The categories shall be mutually exclusive for accounting purposes.
(d) No ideological test.—Selection shall consider scientific merit, practical relevance, research ethics, feasibility, and unmet knowledge needs, not a project's expected agreement with a political position. A lawful question shall not be excluded solely because it concerns a controversial topic.
(a) Review.—Competitive proposals shall receive review by qualified experts with disclosed conflicts and appropriate methodological expertise. The Secretary shall publish selection criteria and aggregate award information, and provide an unsuccessful applicant a substantive explanation sufficient to identify material weaknesses.
(b) Representation.—Sampling and recruitment shall reasonably reflect the populations about which conclusions are made, including learners with disabilities, multilingual learners, rural communities, and historically underrepresented settings. Inclusion shall comply with constitutional requirements and protect individual consent.
(c) Researcher development.—Awards may fund paid research training, educator fellowships, community research partnerships, and accessible participation by institutions with limited research infrastructure. No unpaid labor requirement shall be used to exclude otherwise qualified trainees.
(d) Procurement integrity.—A vendor whose product is evaluated shall not control the research design, final analysis, or publication. Relevant assistance and funding shall be disclosed.
(a) Grades.—Within 270 days after enactment, the Secretary shall publish an evidence framework, informed by the Council, distinguishing strong causal evidence, moderate causal evidence, promising evidence, descriptive or correlational findings, mixed evidence, and insufficient evidence. The framework shall identify relevance, effect sizes where meaningful, uncertainty, implementation conditions, and risk of bias.
(b) Innovation.—An intervention without established evidence may receive pilot or research funds if it has a plausible rationale, safeguards, and a prospective evaluation. It shall not be described to families or purchasers as proven.
(c) No rigid hierarchy across questions.—A randomized trial is not required for every scientific question. Qualitative, observational, design-based, and other methods may be appropriate to particular questions, but causal claims shall not exceed the design's capacity to support them.
(d) No automatic mandate.—An evidence rating shall inform, not automatically determine, an individual accommodation, teacher evaluation, curriculum selection, or funding sanction. The framework shall be revised at least once every 3 years through a public process.
(a) Awards.—The Secretary shall support regional partnerships among educational agencies, educators, researchers, families, libraries, and community organizations to test and translate findings into voluntary, usable practice.
(b) Deliverables.—Each partnership shall provide accessible professional-development materials; implementation and cost information; feedback channels for educators and learners; and public reports distinguishing successful, unsuccessful, and unresolved approaches.
(c) Coordination.—Existing Regional Educational Laboratories and other qualified networks may perform this work. The Secretary shall avoid creating duplicative administrative organizations solely to rename an existing function.
(d) Materials.—Recipients may create openly licensed resources for locally chosen use. Federal dissemination shall identify authorship and evidence without certifying a national curriculum or granting a commercial exclusivity right.
(a) Access.—A funded research agreement shall require timely public access to final reports, analysis code, protocols, and nonproprietary instruments, with exceptions for privacy, human-subject protection, valid intellectual-property rights, and security. A recipient shall provide a lawful access plan for any restricted component.
(b) Publication.—A recipient shall submit a final findings report within 12 months after the research period ends and publish a public version within 90 days after acceptance. A journal's commercial embargo shall not indefinitely prevent access to the federally funded accepted manuscript or equivalent report, consistent with applicable law and award terms.
(c) Replication.—At least 10 percent of the title's research-award funding shall support independent replication, reproducibility, or long-term follow-up. This amount is included within the allocation in section 601(c), not additional to it.
(d) Corrections.—A material error shall be publicly corrected promptly after verification. A good-faith error corrected transparently is not, without more, research misconduct.
(a) Protection.—Federally supported research shall comply with applicable human-subject rules, including additional protections for children and other protected populations. Participation shall not be a condition of receiving education, financial aid, or a legally required service.
(b) Consent.—Legally required parental permission, age-appropriate assent, and adult consent shall be obtained without coercion. Any lawful waiver shall be documented by the authorized review body. Compensation shall reimburse burden without exploiting financial hardship.
(c) Prohibited uses.—Funds shall not support genetic ranking for educational access, compelled neurological or biometric surveillance, experimental deprivation of legally required services, or manipulation intended to secure political or commercial allegiance.
(d) Data.—Brain, biometric, disability, mental-health, and family data shall receive heightened minimization and access controls. An approved research exception does not authorize subsequent disciplinary, immigration-enforcement, employment-screening, advertising, or insurance use.
(a) Evaluation plan.—Each major demonstration exceeding $10,000,000 shall include an independently reviewed evaluation, a comparison strategy where feasible, implementation measures, cost data, and a publication schedule. Research participation shall preserve applicable rights and consent.
(b) Scale decisions.—Before recommending nationwide expansion of a demonstration, the Secretary shall publish evidence on effectiveness, costs, representativeness, staffing, and unsuccessful sites. A favorable average effect shall not conceal substantial harm to a subgroup.
(c) Research agenda.—At least every 3 years, the Secretary shall publish a research agenda informed by educators, learners, families, and scientific experts, identifying unanswered questions rather than only preferred interventions.
(a) Allocation.—After Federal administration, 2 percent of funds shall be reserved for Tribal entities and 1 percent for territories. Of the remainder, 60 percent shall support State workforce grants using the section 401 State formula and 40 percent competitive partnerships among public educational agencies, accredited preparation institutions, and registered apprenticeship sponsors. States may use their awards for the same activities.
(b) Needs assessment.—An applicant shall identify shortages by assignment and geography, vacancy duration, turnover, compensation, preparation capacity, and barriers to entry. Emergency credentials shall not be counted as equivalent to full preparation without disclosure.
(c) Priorities.—Awards shall prioritize special education, bilingual education, early childhood, school-based mental-health professions, rural and Tribal communities, and other documented shortage fields. No nationwide political or ideological certification is authorized.
(a) Program requirements.—A supported residency shall include at least one full academic year of progressively responsible supervised practice, integrated coursework, demonstrated subject competence, assessment by more than one qualified evaluator, and placement support. A registered apprenticeship shall meet applicable Federal or State registration standards and the protections of this title.
(b) Compensation.—For full-time clinical participation, a resident shall receive cash compensation not less than 70 percent of the employing district's entry-level full-time teacher salary, with access to health coverage or an equivalent coverage allowance. Part-time participation may be prorated. Tuition support shall be separately disclosed and shall not be represented as cash wages.
(c) Supervision.—A resident shall not be the sole teacher of record unless independently qualified under State law and the program documents continued mentoring. A district shall not use residents to conceal persistent vacancies or replace qualified employees solely to lower labor costs.
(d) Access.—Programs shall provide reasonable disability accommodations, flexible pathways for working adults, and paid routes for paraprofessionals and community educators. Prior relevant learning may be recognized without excusing essential clinical competence.
(a) Induction.—Each supported new teacher shall receive at least 2 years of structured induction, including a trained mentor, observation and feedback, paid professional learning, and protected collaboration time.
(b) Mentors.—Mentors shall demonstrate relevant professional competence and coaching skill through multiple measures. A test-score ranking alone shall not determine selection. Mentors shall receive compensation or release time and ordinarily supervise no more than 2 residents or novice teachers simultaneously.
(c) Confidential improvement.—A program shall distinguish coaching records from formal disciplinary records. Confidentiality shall not prevent mandatory reporting, investigation of misconduct, or the novice teacher's access to information used for a consequential employment decision.
(a) Competencies.—Supported preparation shall address child and adolescent development; subject knowledge; evidence-based literacy and numeracy; language acquisition; disability identification and referral; accessible instruction; classroom management without abuse; assessment interpretation; family partnership; digital and artificial-intelligence literacy; and professional ethics.
(b) Literacy.—Preparation shall address the evidence concerning oral language, phonological awareness, sound-symbol relationships, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and appropriate interventions. This requirement concerns professional competence, not Federal selection of a commercial program or lesson sequence.
(c) Practicum assessment.—A candidate shall have notice of competency expectations, formative feedback, an opportunity to improve, and a fair appeal of an adverse completion decision. Disability accommodations shall preserve essential professional requirements without imposing irrelevant barriers.
(a) Allowable support.—Workforce grants may increase compensation, provide shortage-area supplements, improve benefits, fund paid planning time, reduce excessive caseloads, provide substitute coverage, strengthen school leadership, and reimburse reasonable relocation or housing costs in hard-to-staff areas.
(b) Plan.—A participating employer shall publish a funded 5-year plan addressing compensation relative to comparable occupations, turnover, required unpaid work, planning time, and safety. The plan shall identify how recurring commitments will be financed after a Federal award ends.
(c) Protected time.—A grant paying for additional planning time shall provide not less than 5 compensated hours per full-time teacher per week, averaged over a month, free of routine substitute duties and meetings unrelated to preparation or collaboration. An emergency exception shall be recorded and missed time restored within 30 days.
(d) Labor rights.—Nothing in this Act displaces collective bargaining, permits wage theft, or exempts an employer from applicable labor law. Federal incentives shall not be conditioned on surrender of lawful employee organizing rights.
(a) Agreement.—A tuition scholarship may require up to 3 academic years of service in an eligible public or Tribal educational setting within 5 years after qualification. Terms shall be stated before acceptance. Earned wages, benefits, and mentor compensation shall never be repayable for failure to complete service.
(b) Waivers.—The Secretary shall waive or proportionately reduce an unfulfilled tuition obligation for death, disability, serious illness, caregiving hardship, military service, involuntary unemployment, school closure, unsafe or unlawful working conditions, or inability to obtain a qualifying position despite reasonable efforts.
(c) Repayment.—Any otherwise repayable amount shall be limited to the unearned proportion of tuition assistance, excluding interest and collection penalties. Monthly payments shall not exceed 5 percent of income above 200 percent of the applicable poverty guideline. No professional license, transcript, or earned credential may be withheld solely to collect the amount.
(d) Review.—The recipient shall receive notice, relevant records, at least 60 days to seek a waiver or correction, and an independent administrative review before collection. A timely good-faith appeal shall suspend collection.
(a) Reciprocity.—Grants may support voluntary interstate and Tribal licensure agreements recognizing substantially equivalent credentials and supervised experience, with targeted bridging requirements rather than duplicative full retraining.
(b) Safeguards.—Agreements shall preserve criminal-background requirements, due process, disclosure of final professional discipline, subject competence, and disability accommodations. An unresolved allegation alone shall not be treated as a final disciplinary finding.
(c) Other professionals.—Comparable paid preparation and induction support may be provided for school counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, librarians, instructional aides, interpreters, and early educators, within applicable licensing requirements.
(a) Measures.—Recipients shall report completion, licensure, placement, compensation, working conditions, and retention at 1, 3, and 5 years, disaggregated where privacy permits. Reports shall distinguish voluntary departure, involuntary separation, and movement to another educational employer.
(b) No single measure.—No Federal condition under this title shall require dismissal, pay reduction, licensure loss, or program closure based solely on student test scores or an algorithmic rating.
(c) Quality review.—A program with persistent placement or completion failures shall receive technical assistance and a corrective plan before new awards are restricted, unless immediate action is necessary for safety, fraud, or serious legal violations. Current trainees shall receive a continuity plan.
(a) Allocation.—The Secretary shall allocate funds using section 401, except that local spending under this title shall address learning access, academic support, or engagement. At least 50 percent of program expenditures shall support foundational instruction and tutoring; at least 25 percent shall support broad-course access, enrichment, or advanced opportunities. The remainder may support other activities in this title.
(b) Plan.—A local applicant shall identify learner needs through more than one measure, choose interventions in consultation with educators and families, and publish costs and intended outcomes. Learners shall not be labeled permanently deficient because of a single score.
(a) Support.—Funds may support evidence-aligned instruction, teacher coaching, accessible materials, language development, early screening, and targeted intervention. Screening shall be valid for the learner's language and disability needs and shall not replace an individualized evaluation required by law.
(b) Timeliness.—A participating school shall notify a family of a material support need within 30 school days after identification and offer an intervention plan within the following 30 school days. The plan shall identify the responsible educator, frequency, progress measures, and review date.
(c) Safeguards.—A child shall not be denied grade promotion, disability evaluation, enrichment, or the regular curriculum solely because of one screening result. A school shall not require a child to fail an intervention before initiating a legally required disability evaluation.
(a) Design.—A tutoring program funded as high-impact tutoring shall ordinarily provide at least 3 sessions weekly, with a consistent trained tutor, groups no larger than 4 learners, instruction aligned to identified needs, and regular progress checks. A materially different design requires an evidence-based explanation and evaluation.
(b) Access.—Tutoring shall be free to the learner and, where possible, scheduled during the school day without routinely removing the learner from arts, physical education, or required disability services. Transportation and accessible remote or in-person alternatives shall be available when sessions occur outside school hours.
(c) Quality.—Tutors shall receive preparation, supervision, and appropriate background screening. Artificial-intelligence tools may assist but shall not alone satisfy the trained-tutor requirement.
(d) Review.—A learner's plan shall be reviewed at least every 8 instructional weeks. Lack of progress shall trigger adjustment and consideration of unmet disability, language, attendance, or instructional needs, not an automatic disciplinary sanction.
(a) Inventory.—A participating agency shall publish an annual inventory of required standardized and benchmark assessments, purpose, frequency, time, accommodations, and how results are used. Redundant assessments that produce no actionable information shall be reviewed for elimination.
(b) Time protection.—Testing not independently required by Federal or State law shall not consume more than 2 percent of annual scheduled instructional time for an individual learner, excluding ordinary classroom assignments and tests selected by the teacher for immediate instruction. A public, time-limited exception may be adopted for a documented educational need after family and educator consultation. Disability-related extended time shall not reduce instruction owed to a learner.
(c) Multiple measures.—A Federal-funded improvement decision shall consider learning growth, opportunity to learn, attendance, course access, student experience, and other relevant evidence, rather than a single score.
(d) Existing requirements.—This section does not repeal assessments required by section 1111 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 or waive disability participation and accommodation requirements. The Secretary shall report recommendations for reducing statutory burdens without concealing disparities.
(a) Uses.—Funds may expand access to music, theater, visual arts, literature, history, civics, laboratory science, libraries, debate, journalism, outdoor education, physical education, financial literacy, media literacy, computational thinking, entrepreneurship, and practical daily-living skills selected under lawful local processes.
(b) Student agency.—Programs shall offer age-appropriate opportunities for learner choice, project work, inquiry, collaboration, and demonstration of learning. No learner shall be required to endorse a political viewpoint or participate in partisan advocacy for academic credit.
(c) Breadth.—A recipient shall not remove a learner from enrichment as a routine punishment for poverty, disability, limited English proficiency, or need for academic support. Equipment, instruments, supplies, and participation fees may be funded where they otherwise limit access.
(a) Access.—Awards may support advanced coursework, dual enrollment, accelerated learning, academic competitions, specialized arts and technical study, and teacher preparation for advanced learners.
(b) Identification.—A participating agency shall use multiple entry routes and periodic review rather than teacher nomination or a single test alone. Universal opportunity screening may be funded if it is accessible, valid for the intended use, and does not replace services for other learners.
(c) Barriers.—Funds may remove examination fees, prerequisites unrelated to demonstrated competence, transportation costs, inaccessible scheduling, and other unnecessary barriers. Dual-enrollment costs shall be disclosed before enrollment, and a student shall not incur undisclosed college debt.
(a) Pilots.—Grants may support later secondary-school start times, reasonable homework policies, movement breaks, outdoor learning, advisory periods, and schedules that account for sleep, disability needs, transportation, and family work patterns.
(b) Conditions.—A pilot shall include consultation with students, families, employees, transport providers, and after-school operators; a costed plan; baseline measures; and a review within 2 years. It shall preserve required instructional time unless a lawful waiver is obtained under existing authority.
(c) No one-size-fits-all rule.—This section does not establish a Federal school calendar or uniform daily schedule. A schedule change shall not strand a learner without transportation or discontinue an individualized service without lawful process.
(a) Participation.—Recipients shall provide students age-appropriate opportunities to advise on school climate, accessibility, course offerings, enrichment, and improvement plans. Participation shall be voluntary, accessible, and protected from retaliation.
(b) Feedback.—Schools may use brief voluntary surveys of belonging, safety, relevance, and workload. Survey instruments shall respect parental and eligible-student rights and shall not require disclosure of protected sensitive information contrary to law.
(c) Accountability.—Recipients shall report how they responded to material concerns without identifying individual complainants. Satisfaction alone shall not replace measures of educational access, competence, or rights compliance.
(a) Allocation.—After Federal administration, 80 percent of funds shall support disability services, 10 percent language access, and 10 percent the populations and activities in sections 905 and 906. Of each category, 2 percent shall be reserved for Tribal entities and 1 percent for territories before State allocation.
(b) State shares.—Disability funds shall be allocated 70 percent by the State's share of children ages 3 through 21 and 30 percent by its share of those children below the Census poverty threshold. Language-access funds shall be allocated by English-learner enrollment. Other barrier-removal funds shall use the section 401 State formula.
(c) Existing duties.—This title supplements, and does not replace, amounts or obligations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Insufficient funds under this Act do not excuse an existing duty to provide a free appropriate public education.
(d) Funding gap.—Annually, the Secretary shall separately publish the Federal contribution under IDEA's existing formula and the additional contribution under this title. The Secretary shall not characterize this title as meeting IDEA's maximum Federal share unless the actual statutory calculation supports that conclusion.
(a) Capacity.—Funds may support qualified special educators, related-service professionals, interpreters, accessible evaluation, assistive technology, accessible transportation, early intervention, and implementation of individualized education programs and section 504 plans.
(b) Tracking.—A recipient shall maintain a secure record of requests for evaluation, consent, applicable deadlines, decisions, and service delivery. It shall alert the responsible administrator before a deadline is missed and provide the family a clear point of contact.
(c) No delay.—A lack of staff, use of a general intervention process, or procurement delay shall not extend a statutory deadline. The agency shall seek qualified interim services and determine compensatory relief where legally required.
(d) No quota.—Funding or performance measures shall not reward reducing identification, refusing costly learners, changing disability categories, or substituting generic software for an individualized service.
(a) Access.—Instructional materials, facilities, communication, assessments, digital tools, and extracurricular activities purchased or operated with these funds shall be accessible to the learners served. Accessibility shall be built into procurement and acceptance testing.
(b) Individualization.—Universal design shall complement, not replace, individual accommodations and specialized instruction. An agency shall not deny necessary assistive technology because another learner does not use it or because a general-purpose product is cheaper.
(c) Continuity.—A learner using essential assistive technology shall have a repair, replacement, and training plan. Ownership or return requirements shall not cause an avoidable interruption of a required service during transfer or graduation planning.
(a) Assistance.—Funds may support independent parent training, plain-language notices, interpretation, early dispute resolution, advocacy assistance, and accessible complaint submission. An agency responsible for a disputed service shall not control the substance of independent family advice.
(b) Existing process.—IDEA evaluation, consent, notice, mediation, due-process hearing, stay-put, exhaustion, and judicial-remedy rules remain applicable according to their terms. Nothing in this Act narrows rights under those provisions.
(c) Settlement.—A settlement involving services shall be written in accessible language and identify implementation deadlines. A recipient shall not condition a legally owed service on waiver of unrelated future rights, public silence about systemic conditions, or surrender of a protected complaint.
(a) Services.—Funds may support qualified bilingual personnel, evidence-informed language instruction, newcomer orientation, interpretation, translated vital documents, and recognition of multilingual skills.
(b) Communication.—A recipient shall provide competent interpretation and translated essential information necessary for meaningful family participation. A minor child shall not serve as the routine interpreter for a consequential educational or health decision.
(c) Assessment.—Language differences shall not be treated automatically as disability, and disability shall not be dismissed as merely a language difference. Evaluation shall use qualified personnel and appropriate linguistic information.
(d) Choice and transition.—This title does not mandate a particular bilingual or English-language instructional model. Placement and exit decisions shall be transparent, periodically reviewed, and subject to correction and appeal.
(a) Uses.—Assistance may support educational continuity for learners experiencing homelessness, foster placement, migration, displacement, incarceration, or reentry, including transportation, records transfer, supplies, enrollment assistance, mentoring, and coordination with an authorized caregiver.
(b) Enrollment.—A recipient shall implement applicable immediate-enrollment and school-stability protections and shall not create an additional documentation barrier through this Act. Missing records shall prompt assistance to obtain them, not automatic exclusion.
(c) Credit.—A learner changing schools shall receive prompt review of completed coursework and a reasonable opportunity to demonstrate partial or equivalent credit. A recipient shall not require unnecessary repetition solely because the learner changed custodial placement or jurisdiction.
(d) Reentry.—Funded correctional-education partnerships shall plan for record transfer, disability services, credit recognition, and an educational contact before release where feasible. Education shall not be withheld as a routine punishment for unrelated institutional behavior.
(a) Planning.—Funds may support transition planning, supported postsecondary participation, accessible career exploration, independent-living skills, and coordination with vocational rehabilitation and other lawful services.
(b) Agency.—Planning shall meaningfully involve the learner and respect supported decision-making and applicable parental or legal authority. A disability diagnosis shall not by itself justify guardianship, segregated placement, denial of advanced study, or exclusion from work-based learning.
(c) Employment.—Supported work shall comply with applicable wage, safety, and nondiscrimination law. No placement funded by this Act may pay below the otherwise applicable minimum wage solely on the basis of disability.
(a) Allocation.—After Federal administration, 50 percent of funds shall support mental-health and student-support capacity, 30 percent school nutrition access under section 1003, and 20 percent attendance, safety, and preventive health activities. Each category shall use the section 401 allocation process, subject to subsection (b).
(b) Nutrition administration.—The Secretary shall transfer the nutrition share to the Secretary of Agriculture for administration as a separate capped supplemental program, using existing child nutrition systems where lawful. No transfer shall increase the total appropriation or diminish Department responsibility for the other categories.
(c) Coordinated plan.—A participating public educational agency shall identify the services funded, qualified staff, referral arrangements, family consent procedures, and access barriers. It shall not diagnose students through an unvalidated algorithm or condition instruction on purchase of private treatment.
(a) Uses.—Grants may fund school counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, qualified interpreters, crisis response, referrals, and voluntary partnerships for vision, hearing, dental, and other preventive care.
(b) Staffing plans.—A recipient shall publish staff-to-student ratios, actual access and wait times, shortage areas, and a funded improvement plan. A ratio of 250 students per school counselor is a planning benchmark, not an unfunded universal staffing mandate or a substitute for a needs assessment.
(c) Clinical boundaries.—Clinical services shall be provided by persons legally qualified to provide them, with informed consent and applicable confidentiality. Educators shall not be required to function as unlicensed therapists. Counseling personnel shall not routinely be diverted to unrelated testing coordination or clerical duties at the expense of funded services.
(d) Noncoercion.—No learner shall be required to take medication or undergo optional treatment as a condition of receiving education, except as independently permitted by applicable law. Emergency intervention and mandatory reporting duties are preserved.
(a) Participating schools.—A State may designate public schools for free breakfast and lunch for all enrolled students, prioritizing high-need schools and underserved areas. The State shall commit, before designation, to finance the approved school-year service from this title, existing nutrition reimbursements, and other committed funds.
(b) Supplemental payment.—Payments shall reimburse the documented gap between allowable meal costs and existing Federal and other reimbursements, not exceed the cost of the meals actually provided, and remain within the State's allocation. The Secretary of Agriculture shall publish payment and reconciliation procedures within 270 days after enactment.
(c) No midyear cutoff.—A designated school shall not withdraw free meal access during the committed school year because its supplemental allocation has been spent. The State shall cover the agreed remaining cost or arrange equivalent uninterrupted service.
(d) Dignity and quality.—A participating school shall not shame a learner for meal debt, deny a meal because of an adult's unpaid balance, or use meal debt to bar graduation. Meals shall meet applicable nutrition and food-safety standards and reasonable disability accommodations. Schools shall provide adequate seated eating time, drinking water, and safe handling of food allergies.
(e) Other needs.—The nonnutrition share under section 1001 may support hygiene supplies, menstrual products, emergency clothing, and referrals for food and housing assistance. Such assistance shall not become a covert immigration-status or family-policing inquiry.
(a) Policy.—A recipient operating a school or youth program shall maintain an accessible policy addressing violence, threats, targeted harassment, discriminatory exclusion, retaliation, and bullying that materially interferes with access to education or safety.
(b) Response.—The policy shall identify reporting channels, prompt protective measures, impartial investigation, notice appropriate to the affected persons, a written outcome, and appeal. The recipient shall respond to credible immediate safety risks promptly and ordinarily conclude an investigation within 45 days, with written reasons for necessary extensions.
(c) Expression.—A policy shall not classify protected disagreement, discussion of public affairs, religious expression, or a good-faith academic argument as harassment solely because it is offensive. Regulation of off-campus expression shall require a constitutionally sufficient connection to the school and the harm addressed.
(d) Support.—Measures shall protect affected learners without automatically removing them from educational opportunities. A complainant shall not be compelled to participate in mediation or a face-to-face restorative process with an alleged aggressor.
(a) Notice and hearing.—Before a material exclusion from a funded program, a learner shall receive timely notice of the alleged conduct, a meaningful opportunity to respond, and an impartial appeal proportionate to the sanction. An immediate safety removal shall receive prompt post-removal review. IDEA and other more protective procedures remain applicable.
(b) Prohibited practices.—A funded school or youth program shall not use corporal punishment, involuntary seclusion in a space the learner cannot freely leave, prone restraint, or restraint that impairs breathing or communication. Physical restraint may be used only to prevent imminent serious physical injury, when less restrictive measures are inadequate, for the shortest necessary time, and by trained personnel except in a genuine unforeseen emergency.
(c) Exclusions from definition.—Ordinary vehicle safety restraints, a consensual medical or therapeutic device lawfully prescribed, and brief noncoercive physical guidance are not prohibited solely because they restrict movement. They may not be used as a pretext for punishment or convenience.
(d) Reporting.—A restraint incident shall trigger medical attention when indicated, notice to the authorized parent or eligible student as soon as practicable and within 24 hours unless law prohibits that notice, a written account within 2 school days, and review of prevention and support needs within 5 school days. Repeated incidents require an independent professional review.
(e) Continuity.—Exclusion shall not eliminate required educational and disability services. Attendance problems, poverty-related conduct, or inability to pay shall not alone justify police referral or exclusionary discipline funded under this Act.
(a) Eligible measures.—Funds may support emergency communication, safe entry, threat assessment by trained multidisciplinary teams, de-escalation, suicide prevention, and coordination with emergency services.
(b) Limits.—No funds under this Act may purchase firearms for routine educator use, facial-recognition surveillance of learners, predictive criminal-risk scoring, or intrusive simulations of violence involving students. A safety drill shall be announced, age-appropriate, accessible, and sensitive to trauma.
(c) Law enforcement.—A recipient using a school law-enforcement partnership shall have a written agreement distinguishing school discipline from criminal investigation, preserving disability and due-process protections, and limiting access to education records to lawful purposes. This Act does not obstruct response to an actual emergency or compliance with a valid judicial order.
(a) Identification.—A funded attendance initiative may identify students absent for at least 10 percent of enrolled instructional days or otherwise at risk of disengagement, using accurate records and a correction process. Protected medical absences and disability needs shall be identified rather than treated as moral failure.
(b) Response.—Before imposing a program-related adverse consequence, the initiative shall attempt supportive contact and assess transportation, health, safety, housing, caregiving, language, and school-climate barriers. It shall offer a written reengagement plan proportionate to the learner's needs.
(c) Prohibitions.—Funds shall not support fines against families solely for poverty-related absence, automated law-enforcement referrals, or removal from enrollment to improve attendance statistics. Existing judicial authority is not enlarged by this Act.
(d) Evaluation.—Recipients shall report attendance and reengagement using consistent denominators and shall not count a transfer or dropout as an attendance improvement.
(a) Records.—Health and counseling records shall be governed by the applicable education-record, health-privacy, and State confidentiality rules; agencies shall not assume that all school-held health records are governed by the same statute.
(b) Access.—Parental and eligible-student access shall be respected, including applicable rights of minors to confidential services and exceptions for abuse, safety, court orders, and mandatory reporting. No new unrestricted parental access or unrestricted secrecy right is created by this section.
(c) Separation.—A recipient shall not give routine discipline staff unrestricted access to clinical records. Necessary emergency disclosures shall be documented and limited to the information and recipients appropriate to the emergency.
(a) Establishment.—The Secretary shall make grants for accessible, developmentally appropriate out-of-school-time programs and family learning centers. Grants shall supplement, and shall not replace or consolidate, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program or other existing education and child-care programs.
(b) Distribution.—After Federal administration, Tribal and territorial reservations, and State allocations under section 401, each State shall distribute at least 90 percent of its allotment through publicly announced competitions among local educational agencies, Indian Tribes, libraries, local governments, institutions of higher education, and qualified nonprofit organizations, including partnerships of such entities. A faith-based organization shall not be excluded solely because of its religious identity, subject to sections 106 and 107.
(c) Priorities.—At least 70 percent of a State's subgrant expenditures shall support programs principally serving learners from low-income families or high-need schools. Competitions shall consider unmet demand, accessibility, proposed hours, staff quality, transportation, and demonstrated community partnerships, rather than a provider's grant-writing capacity alone.
(d) Duration.—Awards shall be for up to 5 years, subject to the available funding and continuation conditions in title XVII. A recipient shall receive a written explanation before denial of continuation and a reasonable opportunity to correct a remediable deficiency.
(a) Affordable access.—A funded place shall be free to a learner from a low-income family. Charges for other funded places shall be on a published sliding scale, shall not exceed the allocable cost remaining after public assistance, and shall not exclude an otherwise eligible low-income learner through registration, equipment, transportation, or meal fees.
(b) Admissions.—Recipients shall disclose funded capacity and maintain accessible waiting lists. Where qualified demand exceeds capacity, selection shall use published need-based priorities followed, among equally situated applicants, by a documented lottery or other neutral process. Selection shall not depend on test scores, parental donations, family political or religious affiliation, or a learner's ability to participate without reasonable disability supports.
(c) Service models.—A comprehensive after-school center shall ordinarily operate at least 4 school days per week for at least 3 hours per day during at least 130 school days. A comprehensive summer center shall ordinarily offer at least 20 hours per week for at least 4 weeks. A recipient may operate either or both models. The State may approve a different schedule upon a public finding that local calendars, rural transportation, disability needs, or family employment patterns justify an equally useful service.
(d) Enrichment partners.—A specialized music, arts, sports, outdoor, cultural, or technical provider may receive a partnership award without independently meeting subsection (c), if its services supplement a comprehensive center or fill a documented unmet need and the award does not misrepresent intermittent enrichment as full family workday coverage.
(e) Consultation.—Programs shall consult learners and families at least annually concerning hours, safety, interests, accommodations, and access. Participation by a child or family shall be voluntary and shall not be a condition of access to unrelated public benefits.
(a) Activities.—Allowable activities include music, visual and performing arts, theater, writing, journalism, debate, libraries, science, computing, engineering, mathematics, making and repair, entrepreneurship, physical activity, outdoor learning, community service, age-appropriate career exploration, tutoring, and supervised recreation.
(b) Balance.—A comprehensive program shall provide regular opportunities for physical movement, social connection, creative activity, rest, and learner choice. It shall not consist predominantly of additional standardized-test preparation or unsupervised screen time. Academic assistance shall complement, rather than replace, instruction or legally required disability services during the school day.
(c) Access to culture and nature.—Funds may pay necessary admission, equipment, instrument rental, adaptive equipment, qualified instruction, and transportation expenses. Providers shall offer meaningful alternatives where an activity is inaccessible or conflicts with a legally protected accommodation.
(d) Youth leadership.—Adolescent programs shall offer compensated or otherwise meaningfully recognized leadership and mentoring opportunities, consistent with applicable child-labor and wage laws. Service shall not require agreement with a political position or participation in a religious exercise.
(a) Standards.—Before a funded program serves children, the recipient shall adopt written child-safeguarding, emergency, authorized-pickup, medication, mandatory-reporting, and staff-conduct procedures; verify applicable licenses; and train staff in age-appropriate supervision, disability inclusion, first aid, and prevention of abuse and harassment.
(b) Personnel screening.—A recipient shall conduct legally permitted criminal-history and child-abuse registry checks for staff with regular unsupervised access to minors. Findings shall be assessed individually under applicable law, with notice and a correction process. A mere arrest without disposition shall not establish disqualification. No person legally prohibited from the relevant child-care work may be placed in that work.
(c) Supervision.—Ordinary direct supervision shall provide at least one trained adult for each 12 elementary-age learners and each 18 secondary-age learners, or the stricter ratio required by applicable law or an individual accommodation. Higher-risk activities shall use activity-specific standards. Ratios shall not justify excluding a learner who requires additional support.
(d) Protective practice.—Programs shall minimize isolated adult-child encounters through observable spaces, authorized communication channels, and documented supervision. At least 2 screened adults shall be available on site while a comprehensive center serves children, except a documented emergency transition. This requirement does not prohibit lawful confidential clinical care or individually required educational services with appropriate safeguards.
(e) Compensation.—Funds may support competitive wages, benefits, preparation time, professional development, and paid pathways into teaching, youth work, and child development. Earned wages shall not be converted into a recoverable scholarship or service debt.
(a) Practical access.—Each comprehensive center shall assess transportation barriers and provide late buses, accessible vehicles, transit assistance, safe-route support, or another reliable means sufficient for its funded service area. A plan that assumes all families can provide a private vehicle shall not satisfy this subsection without evidence supporting that assumption.
(b) Nutrition.—Funds may provide meals and snacks, including necessary food preparation and allergy accommodations. Recipients shall first coordinate available child-nutrition reimbursements and shall not charge two Federal programs for the same cost.
(c) Facilities.—Allowable expenses include reasonable rent, utilities, accessibility improvements, storage, sanitation, and minor safety renovations. Major construction shall comply with title XII. Shared-use agreements shall identify responsibility for maintenance, insurance, supervision, and emergency response.
(a) Services.—A recipient may provide family literacy, language learning, digital skills, parent education, caregiving support, education and employment navigation, referrals for health or social services, and assistance completing public-benefit or financial-aid applications. Services may be offered during evenings, weekends, and school breaks.
(b) Accessible participation.—Funds may support interpreters, disability accommodations, transportation, and on-site child supervision enabling adult participation. No family shall be required to disclose unnecessary health, immigration, financial, or political information to obtain a referral.
(c) Independence from commercial recruitment.—A center shall not sell family leads, permit predatory credit solicitation, or condition assistance on purchasing a financial, educational, or health product. Neutral information about lawful services is permitted with disclosure of any financial relationship.
(d) Coordination.—Centers shall maintain current referral arrangements rather than promise services they cannot provide. Participation in parenting or family education shall not be a condition of a child's enrollment, meal, accommodation, or ordinary classroom instruction.
(a) Improvement.—Recipients shall document attendance, actual operating hours, staff turnover, safety incidents, accommodation delivery, family access, and learner experience. Evaluation shall distinguish offering a place from meaningful sustained participation.
(b) Outcomes.—Quality assessment shall consider safety, belonging, access, engagement, family schedule reliability, and appropriate educational outcomes. A single test score shall not determine program continuation. An evaluation shall not characterize association as causal impact without an adequate design.
(c) Feedback and correction.—Each recipient shall maintain a confidential complaint channel, acknowledge complaints within 10 business days, and ordinarily issue a reasoned response within 45 days. Urgent safety complaints shall receive immediate triage. Title XVI governs Federal grant remedies and retaliation.
(a) Community participation.—Community-based programs may include homeschooled learners and learners attending private schools, subject to grant priorities and the prohibition on using this title to pay ordinary private-school tuition. Public-school enrollment shall not be a prerequisite for family resource referrals.
(b) Coordinated accounting.—A recipient may combine schedules and coordinate services supported by different lawful funding sources, but shall maintain a cost-allocation plan identifying each source's share. Coordination shall not waive the eligibility, civil-rights, or fiscal requirements of another program.
(a) Allocation.—After Federal administration, 80 percent of funds for this title shall support facilities and 20 percent shall support transportation and safe access. The reservations and State allocation provisions of section 401 shall apply separately to each portion.
(b) Local distribution.—A State shall distribute at least 90 percent of its facilities allotment through a public needs-based process. At least 70 percent of its scoring weight shall reflect documented health, safety, accessibility, or severe physical-condition deficiencies and local fiscal need. A State shall not require the same local match from a high-need applicant as from an applicant with substantially greater fiscal capacity.
(c) Federal share.—The Federal share of an approved capital project shall not exceed 90 percent, except that the share may be 100 percent for a Tribal recipient or a recipient demonstrating high need and insufficient fiscal capacity under published criteria. State or local contributions may come from other non-Federal public funds; the same contribution shall not satisfy multiple matching obligations.
(a) Assessment.—Within 24 months after its first award, a State shall complete or update a public inventory of the principal condition, accessibility, capacity, and maintenance needs of funded public-school facilities. Existing professionally prepared assessments may be used. Immediate hazard remediation shall not await completion of the inventory.
(b) Priorities.—Eligible projects include safe drinking water, lead and asbestos hazard control, ventilation, filtration, heating and cooling, electrical and structural safety, sanitation, accessibility, laboratories, arts and technical-learning spaces, shade, heat protection, disaster resilience, and safe outdoor learning environments.
(c) Professional judgment.—Projects shall be designed and inspected by appropriately qualified professionals. The Secretary shall issue performance and documentation requirements for funded work, not a Federal curriculum or a replacement for generally applicable State building regulation.
(d) Notice.—A recipient shall notify affected families and staff promptly of a confirmed material health hazard, the protective measures being taken, and available alternatives, consistent with applicable law and protection of personal information.
(a) Project plan.—Before a major award, the recipient shall submit a lifecycle cost estimate, alternatives analysis, accessibility review, procurement plan, maintenance budget, and schedule. Replacement may be funded where a professionally supported analysis shows it is safer or more cost-effective than repair.
(b) Stewardship.—A publicly funded capital asset shall remain in public educational or closely related community use for at least 20 years after completion, unless the Secretary approves an equivalent public benefit, an unavoidable disaster-related change, or a proportionate repayment. Repayment shall reflect the unexpired useful-life commitment and the Federal share, not unrelated local investment.
(c) Maintenance.—The recipient shall identify a funded maintenance plan for at least 5 years and a longer-term asset-management strategy. A reasonable reserve for planned maintenance may be included in the approved project budget.
(d) Public process.—School replacement, consolidation, or relocation supported by this title shall include accessible public notice, analysis of transportation and disability effects, and at least 45 days for comment before an irreversible decision, except emergency relocation needed to protect life or health.
(a) Competitive procurement.—Recipients shall use transparent procurement, disclose beneficial ownership and material conflicts of interest of prime contractors, document change orders, and retain independent inspection authority. Splitting a project to evade competition or audit thresholds is prohibited.
(b) Labor standards.—Laborers and mechanics employed by contractors or subcontractors on construction assisted under this title shall be paid wages at rates not less than those prevailing on similar construction in the locality, as determined by the Secretary of Labor under subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title 40, United States Code. The Secretary of Labor shall have the enforcement authorities otherwise applicable to such standards.
(c) Other requirements.—Applicable domestic-preference, environmental-review, historic-preservation, occupational-safety, and accessibility requirements remain in effect. This title does not create a categorical exemption from such requirements or authorize the Secretary to disregard them by guidance.
(d) Contractor responsibility.—A recipient shall require insurance, performance security, or other proportionate financial protection appropriate to project size and risk, without needlessly excluding qualified small contractors.
(a) Uses.—Transportation funds may support qualified drivers and maintenance staff, safe and accessible vehicles, operating costs, route redesign, late buses, rural and Tribal mobility, public-transit passes, walking and cycling safety, and coordination with after-school or adult-learning services.
(b) Access plan.—A recipient shall identify missed service, excessive journey times, accessibility failures, and barriers created by routes or schedules. It shall adopt measurable corrective targets and a process for families to report unsafe or unavailable service.
(c) Existing duties.—This title does not reduce transportation required under disability, homelessness, foster-care, or other applicable law. A family shall not be charged for a service that such law requires to be provided without charge.
(d) Location data.—Transportation tracking shall be limited to legitimate routing, safety, and service purposes, with restricted access and a published retention schedule. Data shall not be used for commercial profiling or routine monitoring of a learner outside the transportation service.
(a) Planning.—A funded facility or transportation recipient shall maintain a proportionate continuity plan addressing extreme heat, smoke, flooding, loss of water or power, and other locally material hazards. Plans shall include accessible notification, safe relocation, nutrition continuity, and alternatives for learners without home connectivity.
(b) Rapid assistance.—The Secretary may make expedited awards from unobligated amounts within this title's existing ceiling to address a documented immediate threat to educational continuity. The Secretary shall publish the amount and rationale within 15 days and complete ordinary fiscal review within 90 days.
(c) Protection.—Emergency assistance shall not be conditioned on waiving a civil-rights claim, releasing an insurer from an existing obligation, or accepting an inaccessible substitute placement.
(a) Measurement.—Recipients shall report completed hazard remediation, accessibility improvements, project costs, schedule changes, and material operating-cost effects. Savings estimates shall identify baseline conditions, energy prices, maintenance assumptions, and uncertainty.
(b) No unsupported payback.—An energy or facilities contractor shall not describe a project as guaranteed to pay for itself unless an enforceable, financially secured contract specifies the guarantee and its exclusions. Educational and health benefits shall not be counted as cash available to service debt.
(a) Grants.—The Secretary shall distribute funds under section 401 for affordable learner connectivity, appropriate devices, assistive technology, repair, cybersecurity, digital accessibility, and educator and family training. Coordination with Federal Communications Commission and other broadband programs shall prevent duplicate payment without assuming that an expired program remains available.
(b) Practical access.—A funded program requiring digital participation shall provide a usable device and connectivity or an educationally equivalent accessible alternative for a learner unable to obtain them. Essential public-school participation shall not depend on a family's purchase of a device, paid software subscription, or home internet service.
(c) Accessibility.—Funded digital services shall provide effective access for persons with disabilities. Within 365 days, the Secretary shall adopt procurement criteria incorporating the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 Level AA or a demonstrably equivalent or more protective standard, with documented exceptions only where necessary and accompanied by effective alternative access. This new grant condition does not replace standards independently required by civil-rights law.
(d) Technology choices.—Procurement shall consider repairability, interoperability, security support, lifecycle cost, and the ability to retrieve education records in a usable format. Recipients shall not purchase technology solely because a vendor describes it as using artificial intelligence.
(a) Covered information.—For this title, covered learner information means identifiable or reasonably linkable information about a learner or family obtained through a program supported by this Act, including education records, communications, device identifiers, precise location, assessment responses, and inferences about health, behavior, or learning. Properly deidentified information shall be subject to subsection (e).
(b) Necessary collection.—A recipient and its covered vendors shall collect, use, and disclose covered learner information only to deliver, administer, secure, evaluate, or lawfully oversee the specified educational service, or as otherwise required by law. Collection shall be proportionate and shall not include unrelated contacts, browsing, biometrics, or household information merely because a device permits access.
(c) Prohibitions.—A recipient or covered vendor shall not sell or rent covered learner information; use it for targeted advertising, commercial behavioral profiling, or unrelated eligibility decisions; or use identifiable learner content to train a general-purpose commercial artificial-intelligence model. A vendor's own product-development objective is not, by itself, an educational purpose authorizing access.
(d) Consent.—Consent for a genuinely optional nonessential activity shall be specific, understandable, revocable, and separate from enrollment or access to an essential service. Neither parental consent nor a school contract shall waive subsection (c). Consent and record-access authority shall follow applicable parental, eligible-student, and confidential-service rules.
(e) Deidentification.—Permitted aggregate analysis shall use reasonable technical and contractual safeguards against reidentification, account for small groups and linkable datasets, and prohibit attempts to identify an individual. Removing a name alone is not sufficient.
(a) Assessment before deployment.—Before using an automated system materially affecting admission, grading, discipline, disability evaluation, educational placement, financial aid, or access to a funded service, a recipient shall document its intended use, validation, accessibility, error risks, data sources, safeguards, and the qualifications of human decision-makers. A summary shall be public without disclosing protected personal information or exploitable security details.
(b) Decision protection.—A material adverse decision shall not rest solely on an automated output. A qualified human shall consider relevant records, the learner's explanation, and limitations of the system and shall have authority to change the result.
(c) Notice and review.—The affected learner or authorized representative shall receive meaningful notice of material automated reliance, the principal reasons for the proposed decision, and a no-cost process for correction and human review. Review shall ordinarily conclude within 10 business days; urgent matters affecting safety, enrollment, or essential services shall be addressed sooner. Legally required services shall continue while a dispute is resolved, as applicable law requires.
(d) Prohibited uses.—Funds shall not support purported emotion recognition used to infer a child's truthfulness, engagement, or character; biometric identification for routine school surveillance; predictive criminality scoring; or unsupported genetic or neurological ranking of educational potential. Necessary, lawful assistive, medical, identity-security, and research uses remain subject to individualized consent, validation, and all other safeguards in this Act.
(e) Assessment integrity.—An automated plagiarism or artificial-intelligence detector shall not alone establish academic misconduct. The learner shall have a meaningful opportunity to respond to the actual evidence.
(a) Required terms.—A contract involving covered learner information shall specify permissible purposes, security controls, subcontractors, retention and deletion, breach response, record export, audit cooperation, and remedies. A vendor shall accept the duties imposed directly on covered vendors by this title as a condition of access.
(b) Subcontractors.—A vendor shall bind a subcontractor to equivalent safeguards, remain responsible for its own selection and oversight, and notify the recipient of a material change before transferring information. The recipient may prohibit a change presenting an unmitigated material risk.
(c) No evasion.—A vendor shall not obtain broader rights through a click-through agreement presented to a learner, unilateral policy change, merger, or sale of assets. Data access shall not be consideration for an ostensibly free service.
(d) Portability and termination.—Upon termination, the vendor shall provide authorized records in a reasonably usable interoperable format without a punitive exit fee and shall delete unnecessary remaining copies in accordance with section 1306.
(a) Baseline safeguards.—Recipients and vendors shall maintain risk-proportionate access controls, multifactor authentication for privileged access where technically feasible, encryption of sensitive data in transit and at rest, tested backups, patching, staff training, and incident response. Controls shall be reviewed at least annually and after a material incident.
(b) Notification.—A covered vendor shall notify the recipient without unreasonable delay, and not later than 72 hours after determining that an incident materially compromises covered learner information. A recipient shall notify the Secretary within the same period after its determination and affected individuals within 30 days, unless a shorter applicable deadline governs.
(c) Limited delay.—Individual notice may be delayed only to the extent a competent law-enforcement authority lawfully requests a documented delay or notice would itself create a specific immediate security threat that cannot reasonably be mitigated. The basis and duration shall be reviewed at least every 30 days. Embarrassment, financial exposure, or a pending public announcement is not a basis for delay.
(d) Assistance.—Notice shall describe the information involved, protective steps, available assistance, and a contact for correction or remedy, without requiring affected families to purchase a service. The Secretary may fund response assistance from existing amounts under this title.
(a) Access and correction.—An authorized learner or parent shall have a no-cost process to inspect covered learner information and seek correction of material inaccuracies. The recipient shall ordinarily respond within 30 days. This section does not authorize disclosure contrary to lawful confidentiality or reduce a shorter deadline or broader right under another law.
(b) Retention.—A recipient shall publish purpose-based retention periods. Vendors shall delete covered information within 90 days after the service relationship ends, unless a specified legal obligation requires retention or the recipient expressly directs limited retention for an ongoing lawful educational purpose. Retained information remains subject to this title.
(c) Necessary records.—This section does not require destruction of earned academic records, legally required financial or research records, evidence subject to a preservation duty, or records needed to provide an ongoing accommodation. Such records shall be separated from unnecessary telemetry and commercial profiles.
(d) Federal databases.—Nothing in this Act authorizes a Federal database prohibited by section 134 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1015c) or an unrestricted national repository of personally identifiable student information. Authorized evaluation shall use existing lawful data arrangements, secure linkage where permitted, and aggregate public reporting.
(a) Training.—Funds may support age-appropriate instruction and adult training concerning digital citizenship, online safety, source evaluation, fraud prevention, accessibility, data protection, and the capabilities and limitations of automated systems.
(b) Professional responsibility.—Training shall support, not replace, professional judgment and relationships. A funded institution shall not require an educator to place confidential student information in a public automated service contrary to this title.
(c) Evaluation.—Recipients shall evaluate educational usefulness and burdens, including distraction, unnecessary screen exposure, accessibility, vendor dependence, and actual operating costs. An unsupported claim of efficiency shall not justify eliminating a legally required service.
(a) Additional protections.—This title supplements the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, applicable health-privacy law, children's online privacy law, and more protective State law. It does not convert a prohibited disclosure into an authorized disclosure under another law.
(b) Remedies.—Sections 1605 through 1608 provide grant remedies, judicial enforcement, and the limited express civil action for duties imposed by this title. An existing statute shall not be construed to supply a new damages remedy merely because it is mentioned in this Act.
(c) Transition.—New and renewed contracts shall comply immediately upon the applicable effective date. Existing contracts shall be brought into compliance within 12 months thereafter; unlawful sale, targeted advertising, or knowingly harmful unauthorized disclosure shall not be permitted during the transition.
(a) Establishment.—The Secretary shall administer a Postsecondary Access and Completion Fund to reduce tuition and living-cost barriers, support completion, improve credit portability, and protect learners from misleading educational transactions.
(b) Allocation.—After Federal administration, four-sevenths of the amounts for this title shall support the public and Tribal college compact under section 1402, two-sevenths shall support need-based grants under section 1403, and one-seventh shall support completion and student-parent services under section 1404. These shares are within, and not in addition to, the appropriation for this title.
(c) Coordination.—Assistance shall be coordinated with, and shall not replace, Pell Grants, existing Federal student-aid entitlements, veterans' benefits, or institutional obligations. This Act does not establish a new Federal loan program or cancel an existing loan obligation.
(d) Equal access.—Eligible part-time, returning, working, disabled, rural, Tribal, and caregiving learners shall have meaningful access. An institution shall not require full-time enrollment unless an essential program requirement makes a less intensive course schedule impracticable and the requirement is disclosed before enrollment.
(a) Voluntary compacts.—The Secretary shall enter into 5-year renewable compacts with States and directly with eligible Tribal colleges to eliminate tuition and mandatory instructional fees for funded learners pursuing an initial associate degree, a recognized certificate, or a transfer pathway at participating public 2-year institutions and Tribal colleges. A State compact shall identify the public entity responsible for its financial commitments.
(b) Eligible learners.—A funded learner shall meet the applicable citizenship and eligible-noncitizen requirements for Federal student aid, be enrolled in an eligible program, and maintain satisfactory academic progress under standards incorporating required disability accommodations and a fair hardship appeal. A State may finance broader eligibility with its own funds. A prior unrelated short certificate shall not automatically bar a learner from a first associate degree.
(c) First-dollar tuition support.—Compact assistance shall cover the published tuition and mandatory instructional fees approved in the compact before applying a learner's Pell Grant or other need-based Federal grant. Those grants may support other lawful attendance costs, subject to applicable cost-of-attendance limits and coordination rules. A recipient shall not replace a waived fee with a new mandatory charge of substantially the same purpose.
(d) Duration.—Support shall ordinarily cover up to 3 full-time-equivalent academic years or 90 attempted semester credits, including their equivalent in clock or quarter hours. Reasonable extensions may be approved for disability, approved developmental coursework, interruption by military service, caregiving, illness, or transfer-credit error, within the compact's funded capacity.
(e) Financing.—The Federal share of an approved compact shall be 80 percent, or up to 90 percent for a State demonstrating limited fiscal capacity under published criteria. The share for a direct Tribal college compact may be 100 percent. No State shall receive credit for counting a learner's Pell Grant as its contribution. Federal payment shall not exceed the compact award or verified eligible costs.
(f) Allocation.—After a reservation of 3 percent for direct Tribal college compacts and 1 percent for territories, the Secretary shall allocate the available State compact funds among participating States according to 70 percent low-income undergraduate enrollment and 30 percent total undergraduate enrollment at their eligible institutions, using the most recent comparable data. An initial allocation shall not compel participation by a State.
(g) Cohort protection.—Before offering a funded learner a multiyear tuition guarantee, a compact participant shall demonstrate resources sufficient to honor that guarantee, including its non-Federal backstop for amounts beyond the Federal award ceiling. Public communications shall identify funded capacity, eligibility, duration, and exclusions. The Federal Government does not guarantee an unfunded future cohort or an institution's independent promise.
(h) Quality and cost controls.—Compacts shall include transparent tuition calculations, limits on substituting new fees, adequate course availability, transfer agreements, and annual review of instructional capacity. The Secretary shall not prescribe academic content as a condition of a compact.
(a) Awards.—The Secretary shall make additional grants through participating institutions for learners eligible for Pell Grants, with priority to those with the greatest unmet financial need. An award shall not exceed $4,000 per academic year for full-time study or an appropriately prorated amount for part-time study, and shall not exceed remaining lawful cost of attendance after other grant assistance.
(b) Available funding.—These grants are limited to amounts appropriated under this Act and are not an unlimited entitlement. Before each award year, the Secretary shall publish uniform allocation and proration rules, protect previously announced awards to the extent legally possible, and prohibit institutions from promising amounts not allocated to them.
(c) Institutional distribution.—Allocations shall be based primarily on the number and unmet need of eligible learners, rather than historical institutional participation alone. Institutions shall use existing financial-aid applications where available and provide accessible assistance to resolve documentation barriers without unnecessarily duplicating collection of sensitive data.
(d) Additionality.—An institution shall not reduce an otherwise available institutional need-based grant solely because a learner receives an award under this section. Adjustments necessary to comply with a lawful cost-of-attendance limit shall be disclosed and shall ordinarily reduce loan or work obligations before grant assistance.
(e) Appeals.—Learners shall receive notice of an adverse award decision and an accessible review process for material eligibility or calculation errors. An institution shall ordinarily decide a complete appeal within 30 days and shall avoid disenrollment while a timely appeal concerning its own processing error remains pending.
(a) Grants.—The Secretary shall make competitive grants to institutions and qualified partnerships for comprehensive advising, tutoring, accessible course scheduling, books and supplies, transportation, food access, housing referrals, emergency assistance, and child care that materially support persistence and completion.
(b) Priorities.—Priority shall be given to institutions serving substantial numbers of low-income or underserved learners and to proposals integrating academic and practical supports. Public, nonprofit, historically Black, Hispanic-serving, other minority-serving, and Tribal institutions may compete on the applicable need and quality criteria without imposing a racial quota on individual eligibility.
(c) Student-parent access.—Supported programs shall offer reasonable evening, weekend, or modular access where demand exists and may fund licensed child care or lawful child-care partnerships. A parenting learner shall not be excluded because the learner cannot attend an optional activity outside the published instructional schedule.
(d) Emergency grants.—Recipients may provide rapid grants for a documented expense threatening continued enrollment, with proportionate verification, a written decision ordinarily within 10 business days, and no conversion of the grant into a high-cost loan.
(e) Evaluation.—Evaluations shall report completion, credits earned, debt, transfer success, and time to credential using appropriate comparison groups where feasible. A participant's work, family, or disability circumstances shall not be excluded merely to improve reported completion rates.
(a) Standard offer.—Before a learner accepts an offer of funded assistance, a participating institution shall provide a readable aid offer distinguishing tuition and mandatory fees, estimated living and other attendance costs, grants and scholarships, optional loans, expected work, unmet need, renewal conditions, and program-specific charges. Loans and estimated future earnings shall not be presented as a price reduction.
(b) Comparability.—The Secretary shall prescribe a common core disclosure format after public consultation, allowing clearly labeled supplemental information. Estimates shall identify their assumptions and shall not imply guaranteed access to housing, employment, licensure, or a future aid award.
(c) Recruitment claims.—A participating institution and a recruiter acting on its behalf shall substantiate material claims about completion, transferability, accreditation, licensure eligibility, job placement, earnings, and total cost. Placement statistics shall identify the cohort, period, exclusions, response rate, and relationship of the job to the program. General labor-market projections shall not be described as the institution's demonstrated outcomes.
(d) Cooling-off information.—Before a learner signs a program contract requiring charges beyond ordinary public registration, the institution shall disclose cancellation, refund, withdrawal, and complaint procedures. This section does not authorize a shorter refund period than otherwise required by law.
(e) Remedies.—Knowing or reckless material deception concerning funds or services under this title is subject to title XVI. Existing Federal and State consumer-protection authorities remain available.
(a) Agreements.—A compact participant shall maintain published transfer pathways with relevant public institutions and identify, course by course or through a valid block agreement, the credits applicable to the receiving credential. No institution shall advertise guaranteed transfer without an enforceable agreement specifying its limits.
(b) Decisions.—An institution receiving funds under this title shall give a learner a reasoned decision on a complete transfer-credit request within 30 days, or within 45 days for a documented complex evaluation, and provide an academic appeal decided by qualified personnel not responsible for the initial denial where practicable.
(c) Academic judgment.—Denial shall rest on an articulated academic or program requirement, not solely on the source institution's sector, instructional modality, or a financial incentive to require repetition. This section does not require acceptance of non-equivalent learning or compel a particular curriculum.
(d) Prior learning.—Funds may support transparent assessment of relevant military, employment, apprenticeship, and other prior learning, with reasonable fees, low-income waivers, qualified assessors, and published limits on the credit that may be awarded.
(e) Records.—A participating institution shall not withhold an earned transcript or necessary transfer record solely to collect a debt. This prohibition does not cancel the debt or prevent lawful collection by other means, and does not require release of a record lawfully withheld for substantiated academic fraud.
(a) Quality review.—The Secretary shall evaluate material complaints of misrepresentation, inaccessible instruction, repeated inability to offer required courses, or failure to deliver funded services. Academic disagreement alone shall not establish a program defect.
(b) Financial risk.—Before making or renewing a substantial institutional award, the Secretary may require proportionate financial-responsibility information and, where a documented risk warrants it, a letter of credit, reserve, teach-out agreement, or comparable protection limited to the award and foreseeable learner disruption.
(c) Closure plan.—An institution anticipating closure of a funded program shall notify the Secretary and affected learners as early as practicable, preserve records, provide accurate transfer and refund information, and arrange a lawful teach-out where feasible. Learners shall not be required to waive claims as a condition of obtaining their records or participating in a publicly funded teach-out.
(d) Limited sanctions.—A sanction under this title concerns funds under this Act. It does not automatically terminate accreditation or eligibility under another Federal program, which remains governed by its own authority and procedures.
(a) Assistance.—The Secretary shall provide accessible, noncommercial assistance concerning grant eligibility, borrowing terms, repayment obligations, discharge or relief available under existing law, and correction of servicing errors. Assistance shall distinguish a pending application from an approved benefit.
(b) Complaints.—The Department shall acknowledge a complaint concerning a matter within its authority within 10 business days and ordinarily provide a substantive response or an explained status update within 45 days. A matter within another agency's authority shall be referred with the learner's knowledge and any legally required consent.
(c) Limitations.—This section does not enlarge statutory loan-cancellation authority, guarantee approval of a discharge, alter a loan's interest rate, or authorize the collection of a fee for government-provided assistance.
(a) Access plans.—Recipients shall review barriers facing adult, part-time, rural, disabled, caregiving, and returning learners and shall publish a plan addressing accessible registration, predictable scheduling, advising availability, and reentry after interruption.
(b) Reasonable continuity.—A learner taking an approved leave shall receive clear information concerning credits, financial aid, loan consequences, and requirements for return. A funded program shall not require unnecessary repetition of satisfactorily completed coursework merely because of an approved absence.
(c) Campus services.—Funds under section 1404 may support accessible libraries, study space, mental-health referrals, peer support, and noncoercive opportunities for civic, artistic, scientific, and cultural engagement. Academic freedom and the rights in sections 106 and 306 apply.
(a) Reporting.—The Secretary shall publish comparable aggregate information concerning net prices, completion, borrowing, transfer, and available employment outcomes, with disclosure of cohort definitions, missing data, sample size, and uncertainty.
(b) Context.—Reports shall distinguish association from program impact, account for differing learner populations, and avoid representing an earnings estimate as a guarantee. No program shall be sanctioned under this Act solely because graduates choose lower-paid public, artistic, caregiving, or community-serving work.
(c) Privacy.—Reporting shall comply with title XIII and shall not create an otherwise prohibited Federal student-level database.
(a) Administration.—The Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of Labor, shall make grants for high-quality career and technical education, registered apprenticeships, adult basic education, language learning, and reentry pathways. The Secretary shall retain accountability for amounts appropriated under this Act.
(b) Allocation.—After Federal administration and reservations of 3 percent for Indian Tribes and 1 percent for territories, 75 percent shall be allocated among States according to 40 percent of adults without a secondary credential, 40 percent of adults with incomes not exceeding 200 percent of the Federal poverty level, and 20 percent of the unemployed adult population. The remaining 25 percent shall support competitive partnerships addressing demonstrated gaps, including rural access and emerging occupations.
(c) Coordination.—Plans shall identify relevant activities under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, veterans' programs, and correctional education. This title does not repeal eligibility rules or permit duplicate payment under those laws.
(a) Quality agreement.—A funded placement shall have a written learning agreement specifying the skills to be developed, supervision, wages where an employment relationship exists, hours, safety protections, accommodations, complaint procedures, and the credential or credit available.
(b) Wages and protections.—Productive employment supported by this title shall comply with applicable wage, hour, occupational-safety, and child-labor law. Funds shall not support displacement of an existing employee, substitution for a worker in a labor dispute, or an unpaid placement that should lawfully be paid employment.
(c) Portability.—A credential shall identify the awarding body, assessed competencies, recognition by other institutions or employers, and any expiration or renewal requirement. A provider shall not imply occupational licensure where only a private certificate is awarded.
(d) Employment promises.—An employer or provider shall not condition participation on an unlawful noncompetition restriction or a penalty that recovers earned wages. Any separately funded tuition service agreement shall satisfy the protections in section 706.
(a) Choice.—School-age participants shall have opportunities to explore academic, artistic, technical, entrepreneurial, public-service, and skilled-trade pathways. Placement shall not be based on a protected characteristic or an unsupported prediction of fixed ability.
(b) Open pathways.—A career program shall preserve access to a secondary diploma, appropriate academic coursework, and further education. A learner shall be informed of requirements for changing pathways and shall not be permanently assigned to a track without a meaningful opportunity to reconsider.
(c) Partnerships.—Advisory partnerships may include educators, employers, labor organizations, community colleges, learners, and families. No employer shall control a public-school curriculum or receive exclusive access to learner records in exchange for equipment or sponsorship.
(a) Services.—Grants may support adult literacy and numeracy, English-language acquisition, digital skills, secondary equivalency preparation, accessible libraries, community learning hubs, and pathways connecting basic skills to recognized credentials.
(b) Flexible access.—Recipients shall offer reasonable evening, weekend, modular, hybrid, or accessible remote options based on local demand and may fund transportation and dependent-care assistance. A fully digital model shall include the access protections in section 1301.
(c) Assessment.—Placement shall use appropriate, accessible assessment and shall recognize demonstrated prior learning. An assessment shall not become a barrier requiring repeated enrollment in material the learner has already mastered.
(d) Noncommercial access.—A learner shall not be required to purchase an unrelated financial product, subscription, or proprietary device to obtain a publicly funded adult-learning service.
(a) Reentry partnerships.—Funds may support education during lawful custody where otherwise permitted, transition to community institutions, preservation and transfer of earned credits, and assistance obtaining identification and lawful financial aid. A partnership shall disclose the portability and accreditation of its courses.
(b) Individualized eligibility.—A prior conviction shall not automatically bar access to a funded educational opportunity unless a specific law or an individualized, documented safety or occupational-licensure requirement makes the restriction necessary. Such a requirement shall be disclosed before a learner incurs avoidable costs.
(c) Rural and Tribal access.—Allowable uses include mobile laboratories, shared instructors, local library partnerships, accessible distance learning, and travel assistance. Instructional quality shall not be reduced solely because a program serves a small population.
(a) Measurement.—Recipients shall report participation, credential completion, further education, employment quality, and available earnings outcomes at appropriate intervals, including 6 and 12 months after completion where lawful data are available.
(b) Interpretation.—Reports shall disclose missing data and labor-market conditions and shall not attribute all earnings changes to a program without an appropriate evaluation. A recipient shall not exclude higher-need learners to improve placement statistics.
(c) Review.—At least every 3 years, a funded pathway shall review its occupational relevance, employer and learner feedback, instructional quality, and total learner cost. Revision or closure shall include a transition plan protecting current learners.
(a) Integrated process.—The Secretary shall maintain a common application, award, payment, and reporting framework for this Act, with title-specific schedules only where necessary. A recipient shall not be required to submit the same information repeatedly to different offices when lawful reuse is practicable.
(b) Notice of conditions.—Before accepting an award, a recipient shall receive a written statement of the amount, allowable uses, duration, matching and maintenance obligations, performance measures, substantive rights, reporting requirements, and remedies. A materially new condition shall not be applied retroactively to an accepted award without statutory authority and fair notice.
(c) Technical assistance.—The Secretary shall provide accessible technical assistance, including for small, rural, Tribal, and newly participating organizations. A technical error that can be corrected without prejudice shall not automatically disqualify an otherwise eligible applicant.
(d) Central functions.—Amounts for this title shall be allocated 70 percent to the Department for common systems, cross-program evaluation, and enforcement; 20 percent directly to the Department's Inspector General for audit and investigation; and 10 percent directly to the Government Accountability Office for the reviews required by this Act. These amounts shall not reduce the independence or existing authorities of either oversight office. A cost paid from this account shall not also be charged to a program's administrative reservation.
(a) State maintenance.—Except as otherwise provided in a compact, a State receiving a formula allotment under this Act shall maintain non-Federal spending for the relevant category of educational service at not less than 95 percent of its inflation-adjusted average per-participant spending during the 3 fiscal years preceding the award. The Secretary shall prescribe consistent service categories and calculations, including treatment of enrollment changes, before the State accepts an award.
(b) Adjustment.—The Secretary may approve a time-limited waiver for a substantial revenue decline, major disaster, exceptional nonrecurring capital expenditure in the baseline, or another objectively comparable circumstance, upon public findings, a recovery plan, and protection of the highest-need learners. A waiver shall last no longer than 2 program years without a new finding.
(c) No replacement of required services.—A recipient shall not use this Act to avoid a non-Federal obligation that another law requires it to finance. Compliance shall be assessed through budgets and allocation methods, not an assumption that every federally funded cost must be entirely novel.
(d) Other maintenance requirements.—A waiver under this section does not waive an obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or another statute. The Secretary shall distinguish applicable funding streams in every decision.
(e) Price measure.—For this section, inflation shall be measured using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, United States city average, all items, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or its official successor. This measure does not index the dollar appropriations in title XVII.
(a) Dashboard.—Within 18 months after enactment, the Secretary shall publish an accessible dashboard identifying awards, recipient and contractor identities, service areas, expenditure categories, applicable performance measures, evaluation results, and material enforcement dispositions.
(b) Outcomes.—Measures shall include practical access, service quality, timely delivery, educational progress, completion, retention, and cost. Measures shall be appropriate to each title and shall distinguish a legal duty, an award condition, and an improvement target.
(c) Safeguards.—Public reporting shall use aggregate data with effective protection of small groups and individual identities. Necessary confidential oversight records shall not be placed on a public dashboard. Disaggregation for identifying disparities shall not establish a quota or require a learner to disclose an unnecessary sensitive characteristic.
(d) No statistical gaming.—A recipient shall not intentionally change denominators, exclude eligible higher-need participants, misclassify expenditures, or conceal adverse results to improve reported performance. Reasonable corrections shall be documented without penalizing honest disclosure.
(a) Audit standards.—Recipients shall comply with applicable Federal grant-management and single-audit requirements. The Secretary and Inspector General shall use risk-based oversight, coordinate requests, and avoid duplicative audits of the same matter where lawful reliance is available.
(b) Records.—Financial and award-compliance records shall be retained for 7 years after final expenditure, or longer where a pending audit, proceeding, or another law requires preservation. Identifiable learner data shall be retained only to the extent necessary under title XIII; this subsection shall not justify retaining unrelated surveillance or telemetry.
(c) Access.—Authorized officials shall have reasonable access to award-related records and funded premises, with reasonable notice except where lawful unannounced review is necessary to address a material risk. This Act creates no authority to enter a private home, conduct a search contrary to the Fourth Amendment, or compel privileged material without lawful process.
(d) Fraud referral.—Credible evidence of fraud, corruption, bribery, or intentional misuse shall be referred to the Inspector General and, where appropriate, the Department of Justice. This Act creates no new criminal offense.
(a) Notice.—Before imposing a nonemergency material sanction, the Secretary shall provide written notice describing the facts, violated provision, evidence, proposed remedy, and available review. The recipient shall have at least 60 days to cure a remediable violation or propose an adequate corrective plan.
(b) Hearing.—A recipient may request a hearing within 30 days after a proposed final sanction. A lawfully appointed hearing official without prior substantive participation in the investigation shall consider the record, permit presentation and rebuttal of material evidence, and issue a reasoned recommended decision. The Secretary or a lawful delegate shall issue a final agency decision, ordinarily within 90 days after the hearing record closes.
(c) Burden.—The Department shall establish a violation by a preponderance of the evidence. The decision shall address material defenses, the recipient's responsibility, the amount affected, proportionality, correction, and consequences for learners.
(d) Remedies.—The Secretary may require technical assistance, correction, repayment of misspent amounts, reasonable additional monitoring, suspension of the affected award, prospective conditions on a continuation award, or termination of the affected assistance. Recovery shall be limited to amounts legally recoverable and shall not treat an entire grant as misspent because of an unrelated or immaterial violation.
(e) Emergency action.—Where specific evidence establishes an imminent serious threat to health, safety, protected information, or the lawful custody of funds, the Secretary may temporarily suspend the affected activity or payments. Written reasons shall be provided within 7 days and an opportunity for prompt review within 30 days. Any continued suspension shall be supported by a renewed finding and a learner-continuity plan.
(f) Limits.—A remedy shall not withdraw unrelated preexisting Federal assistance, punish protected disagreement, compel curricular content, or penalize failure to meet a nonbinding outcome aspiration. Ordinary good-faith professional judgment shall not be treated as fraud. Existing authorities outside this Act remain governed by their own substantive and procedural requirements.
(a) Authority.—The Attorney General may bring a civil action in an appropriate United States district court against a recipient or covered vendor that knowingly or recklessly—
(1) makes a materially false statement to obtain or retain assistance under this Act;
(2) sells covered learner information, uses it for prohibited targeted advertising, or makes a materially harmful unauthorized disclosure in violation of section 1302;
(3) retaliates against a person for a protected complaint or disclosure under this Act; or
(4) systematically falsifies records to conceal denial of a funded service required by an express award condition.
(b) Relief.—The court may order appropriate prospective relief, restitution of amounts unlawfully obtained, and a civil penalty not exceeding $100,000 for a nonduplicative course of conduct, or $1,000,000 for a willful course of conduct involving concealment or repeated violation after final notice. A continuous common scheme shall not be multiplied into separate penalties solely by counting each affected learner, record, or day.
(c) Proportionality.—In setting a penalty, the court shall consider seriousness, culpability, duration, actual and threatened harm, financial benefit, ability to pay, corrective action, prior final violations, and the constitutional prohibition on excessive fines. A civil penalty shall not be imposed on an individual classroom educator solely for a good-faith instructional or disciplinary judgment.
(d) Procedure.—The Government shall prove liability by a preponderance of the evidence. The right to jury trial shall be preserved as the Constitution requires. The Secretary shall not adjudicate a punitive monetary penalty under this section administratively.
(e) Coordination and limitation.—The Government shall prevent duplicative recovery for the same loss under this Act and another statute. An action under this section shall be commenced within 5 years after the violation, subject to otherwise applicable rules concerning fraudulently concealed conduct. This section does not create a bounty or a private right to collect a Government penalty.
(a) Review.—A person satisfying constitutional standing and applicable statutory review requirements may obtain review of final agency action under this Act, or of a discrete agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed, under chapter 7 of title 5, United States Code. The waiver of sovereign immunity in section 702 of that title shall apply to relief other than money damages.
(b) Express duties.—The prohibitions and publication duties in sections 105, 203, 204, and 205 are legal constraints on the responsible agency and its officers, not unreviewable statements of aspiration. Review shall remain subject to applicable jurisdiction, standing, privilege, and remedial limitations.
(c) Proper defendants.—Relief shall run against an agency or appropriate executive officer within the court's lawful jurisdiction. This Act does not authorize an injunction against the President in the performance of official duties, create a damages action against a Member of Congress, override the Speech or Debate Clause, or curtail lawful congressional oversight.
(d) Existing jurisdiction.—Nothing in this Act displaces exclusive jurisdiction or remedial procedures governing Federal employment, procurement protests, contract claims, or another matter assigned by law to a specialized tribunal. A party may not obtain a different forum merely by relabeling such a claim as a violation of this Act.
(a) Rights.—A learner, parent, educator, researcher, or other individual directly protected by section 106, 207, 304, 305, 1005, 1302, 1303, 1305, or 1306 has the individual right to compliance with the express prohibitions or procedural duties in those sections to the extent applicable to that individual and the defendant. A violation of another provision creates a private action under this section only where this Act expressly so provides.
(b) Prospective relief.—An individual suffering a concrete actual or imminent injury from such a violation by a recipient or covered vendor may bring an action for declaratory or injunctive relief in an appropriate United States district court. An action against a State officer shall be limited to prospective relief for an ongoing violation within the court's lawful jurisdiction. This Act does not abrogate State or Tribal sovereign immunity or authorize retrospective monetary relief against a State, an arm of a State, or an Indian Tribe without a valid independent waiver.
(c) Limited compensation.—Against a defendant not entitled to sovereign immunity, a court may award proven, causally related economic loss for a knowing or reckless violation of a right expressly identified in subsection (a). Punitive damages, presumed damages, and damages for emotional distress are not authorized by this section. Existing remedies under other law are not reduced.
(d) Notice and opportunity to resolve.—Except where immediate relief is needed to prevent irreparable harm, a plaintiff shall first give the recipient or vendor written notice and 30 days to provide a reasoned response or correction. A plaintiff shall not be required to exhaust an additional administrative process created by regulation. Existing exhaustion requirements under other statutes are unchanged for claims subject to those requirements.
(e) Retaliation.—A recipient or covered vendor shall not intimidate, threaten, discharge, exclude, reduce a benefit, or otherwise materially retaliate against a person for good-faith reporting, participation in an investigation, refusal to falsify a record, or exercise of a protected right under this Act. Knowingly false statements are not protected. Federal employment and Federal contractor disclosures remain governed by their applicable exclusive remedial schemes to the extent section 1607(d) requires.
(f) Fees and limitation.—The court may award reasonable attorney's fees and costs to a prevailing plaintiff, and to a prevailing defendant only where the action was frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation. An action shall be filed within 2 years after the plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known of the violation, subject to equitable tolling and tolling during minority. Courts shall preserve jury-trial rights where required.
(g) No generalized taxpayer action.—Disagreement with an appropriation, a research conclusion, or a lawful curricular judgment, without the required individual injury and violated duty, does not establish a cause of action or standing under this section.
(a) Schedule.—The Secretary shall publish proposed rules needed for the initial grant cycle within 270 days after enactment and final rules within 365 days, except a shorter express deadline in this Act. Consultation shall include learners, families, educators, disability and language-access experts, States, Indian Tribes, institutions, community providers, and relevant Federal agencies.
(b) Procedure.—Rulemaking shall comply with the Administrative Procedure Act and other applicable law. Interim guidance may explain the statute, existing procedures, and voluntary best practices; it shall not impose a substantive condition that requires notice-and-comment rulemaking without satisfying a lawful exception.
(c) No delay of clear duties.—Failure to issue a rule shall not suspend a self-executing statutory protection or permit diversion of an appropriation. The Secretary may use existing lawful grant procedures for an initial award where consistent with this Act and fair notice.
(d) Bounded authority.—Rules may implement eligibility, allocation, administration, evidence review, safety, privacy, and enforcement specified by this Act. They shall not establish new categories of prohibited curricular viewpoints, create criminal offenses, increase the appropriation ceiling, or condition unrelated Federal funding on participation.
(a) Annual report.—Beginning 18 months after enactment and annually thereafter while funds remain active, the Secretary shall report allocations, obligations, outlays, participation, service quality, subgroup access, material adverse findings, corrective action, privacy incidents in aggregate, and administrative burden. Estimates shall distinguish modeled benefits from observed outcomes.
(b) Independent review.—The Comptroller General shall report to Congress at the end of program years 2, 5, and 9 concerning implementation, financial controls, educational and family access, scientific integrity, unintended consequences, and the adequacy of available evaluation evidence. The Inspector General retains independent investigative authority.
(c) Research integrity report.—The Secretary shall publish annually the scheduled and actual release dates of covered evidence products, documented delays, substantiated interference findings, and corrective action, with lawful confidentiality protections. The advisory council may publish a separate assessment.
(d) Reauthorization.—The year-9 review shall identify options for continuation, modification, consolidation, or termination of funded initiatives, including future staffing and maintenance liabilities. No recommendation automatically changes an appropriation or sunsets an independent legal right.
(a) Accountability.—Each interagency agreement under this Act shall identify the statutory authority, responsible official, service standard, data safeguards, funding source, and reporting obligation. Administrative cooperation shall not transfer a statutory decision-making duty contrary to section 201.
(b) Consultation.—The Secretary shall conduct timely, meaningful government-to-government consultation with Indian Tribes concerning rules and allocations materially affecting Tribal education. Direct Tribal awards shall respect Tribal sovereignty, applicable Federal civil-rights obligations, and the terms of the accepted award.
(c) Joint administration.—The Secretaries of Education, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Labor, and the Interior shall coordinate their assigned responsibilities without creating an additional cabinet department or an executive body insulated from constitutionally required supervision.
(d) Avoiding duplication.—The Secretary shall publish a crosswalk of programs under this Act and related existing programs within 1 year. Any proposed consolidation requiring statutory change shall be submitted as a recommendation, not implemented through guidance alone.
(a) Appropriation.—There is appropriated to the Secretary of Education, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $5,000,000,000, to remain available for obligation until the end of the third fiscal year beginning after enactment, for restoration, lawful recruitment, data and records recovery, research continuity, systems repair, and contract transition under title II.
(b) Limits.—This amount is in addition to the recurring title II amounts in section 1702. It shall not fund an unlawful reinstatement, an automatic payment on an unverified claim, or a transfer of a function assigned by Congress to another department. Costs shall be documented and shall not also be charged to an annual program appropriation.
(c) Reporting.—The Secretary shall report obligations and expenditures from this appropriation quarterly until all amounts are expended or canceled under applicable law.
(a) Appropriation.—For each of program years 1 through 10, there is appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to the official administering the applicable title, the amount determined under subsection (c) for the following full-phase annual amounts:
(1) For title II, $3,000,000,000.
(2) For title III, $1,000,000,000.
(3) For title IV, $20,000,000,000.
(4) For title V, $15,000,000,000.
(5) For title VI, $4,000,000,000.
(6) For title VII, $18,000,000,000.
(7) For title VIII, $8,000,000,000.
(8) For title IX, $20,000,000,000.
(9) For title X, $12,000,000,000.
(10) For title XI, $20,000,000,000.
(11) For title XII, $25,000,000,000.
(12) For title XIII, $5,000,000,000.
(13) For title XIV, $35,000,000,000.
(14) For title XV, $6,000,000,000.
(15) For title XVI, $1,000,000,000, allocated directly as provided in section 1601(d).
(b) Combined full-phase amount.—The combined full-phase annual amount under subsection (a) is $193,000,000,000. This statement confirms the sum of the appropriations and does not provide a second appropriation.
(c) Phase-in.—The amount appropriated for each title shall be 50 percent of its full-phase amount for program year 1, 75 percent for program year 2, and 100 percent for each of program years 3 through 10.
(d) Availability and subawards.—Each annual appropriation shall remain available for obligation for 3 fiscal years, except that no new grant or contract may be entered into after the end of program year 10 other than a modification, continuation within a previously awarded maximum, or closeout action for an award made before that date. A grant agreement shall ordinarily permit expenditure within 3 years after award, or within 5 years for a research or capital award upon a reasoned finding. Lawful payment and closeout of existing obligations may continue thereafter.
(e) Included costs.—Reservations, administration, evaluation, technical assistance, approved matching contributions paid by the Federal Government, and other allowable costs shall be paid within the applicable title amount. No provision of this Act authorizes an official to obligate amounts exceeding available budget authority.
(f) Additionality.—Amounts are additional to amounts otherwise provided under existing education and child-service statutes, subject to the terms of this Act. This subsection does not bind a future Congress or independently appropriate money for another law.
(a) Execution.—Appropriated funds shall be apportioned, obligated, and expended in accordance with applicable fiscal law, including the Antideficiency Act and the Impoundment Control Act. No executive official may withhold funds solely to frustrate an enacted program or because the official would prefer repeal of this Act.
(b) Budget enforcement.—This Act does not exempt its spending from otherwise applicable statutory pay-as-you-go, sequestration, or congressional budget-enforcement requirements. Enactment of an offset or other budget-enforcement treatment requires the authority otherwise provided by law.
(c) No tax change.—This Act does not impose a new tax or presume that projected increases in earnings, tax receipts, or social benefits constitute appropriated receipts available to finance its programs.
(d) Recoveries.—Recoveries and civil penalties shall be deposited as otherwise required by law. They shall not augment a program account without express statutory authority or be included in an award's promised funding before lawful availability.
(a) Fixed amounts.—The amounts in sections 1701 and 1702 are stated in nominal dollars and shall not automatically increase with inflation. The Secretary shall identify material purchasing-power erosion and service gaps in the annual report without increasing a statutory amount by regulation.
(b) End of new appropriations.—No recurring appropriation is provided by this Act for a program year after program year 10. A 30-year continuation requires subsequent legislation. Unexpended balances, valid obligations, and account closing shall be governed by the express availability provisions and applicable fiscal law.
(c) Continuing protections.—Expiration of new program funding does not abolish the Department of Education, terminate the Federal duties in sections 105 and 201 through 207, eliminate otherwise applicable civil-rights or privacy duties, or extinguish a timely claim arising during a funded activity. Recipient-specific grant obligations continue for the award and any expressly required asset, record, data, or legal-protection period.
(d) No automatic entitlement.—A statutory purpose, improvement target, projected participation level, or authorization to make a grant shall not be construed as an unlimited individual entitlement beyond the actual duty or funded guarantee expressly created by this Act.
(a) Existing protections.—Except for an express modification in this Act, nothing in this Act diminishes constitutional rights, Federal civil-rights enforcement, disability rights, lawful religious exercise, applicable labor rights, collective bargaining, child-protection duties, consumer protection, or more protective privacy and accessibility law.
(b) Limited displacement.—A State or local rule shall be displaced only to the extent it directly conflicts with an express requirement applicable to a voluntarily accepted award or a valid Federal duty under this Act. A State's decision not to accept a new award is not itself such a conflict.
(c) Professional judgment and governance.—Nothing in this Act creates a Federal license to teach, permits the Federal approval of textbooks, or deprives a State or local institution of lawful governance powers except the express conditions voluntarily accepted under this Act. A professional curricular council created under title III remains subject to applicable constitutional requirements and the public processes specified in that title.
(d) Existing remedies.—A person shall not recover twice for the same injury, but may invoke an independently available remedy under another law. A savings clause does not waive sovereign immunity or create jurisdiction absent a valid basis.
(a) Severability.—If a provision of this Act, or its application to a person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remaining provisions and their application to other persons and circumstances shall not be affected, to the extent they can operate consistently with congressional intent.
(b) Distinct conditions.—Each voluntary grant condition and each remedy is severable from the others. A court shall preserve lawful service delivery and remaining protections where possible rather than invalidate an unrelated appropriation or the Department's existence.
(c) Fair notice after judgment.—If a judgment materially changes an accepted award's conditions, the administering official shall notify affected recipients and provide a lawful transition or prospective adjustment without retroactively imposing a new obligation. This subsection does not authorize expenditure beyond available appropriations.
(a) Immediate provisions.—Title I; title II; sections 1607, 1609, 1611, and 1701; and this title shall take effect on enactment, except a provision expressly tied to acceptance of a new award. Immediate effectiveness does not itself accelerate a separately stated performance deadline.
(b) General effective date.—Other provisions shall take effect 180 days after enactment. Recipient and vendor grant conditions apply upon acceptance of assistance or covered access under this Act, subject to an express contract transition in section 1308.
(c) Initial grant cycle.—The first program year shall be determined under section 103. The Secretary shall publish the initial funding calendar within 120 days after enactment and make first-cycle awards as early in that program year as lawful procedures and recipient readiness permit.
(d) Continuity.—A transfer, reorganization, award revision, or funding expiration under this Act shall include reasonable continuity measures for learners and families. No provision authorizes interruption of a service independently required by law while an agency completes an administrative transition.
(e) Existing cases.—This Act does not reopen a final judgment or retroactively establish liability for conduct completed before the applicable provision took effect. Continuing conduct after that date is subject to the prospective requirements of this Act.
Nonoperative analysis accompanying the Enlightenment Act • Research cutoff: September 20, 2026
This companion explains the proposed legislation; it is not part of the operative bill. References in square brackets identify the research register at the end. The proposal is a Federal discussion draft, not enacted law, an official congressional bill, a formal legal opinion on every potential application, or a Congressional Budget Office score.
The revised Enlightenment Act contains 17 titles and 129 sections. It replaces the earlier narrow grant framework with a connected early-childhood, K–12, postsecondary, and adult-learning architecture. The operative text assigns administrators, defines eligibility and allocations, funds delivery, protects individual rights, establishes fair enforcement, and addresses the risks of transition and expiration.
The design distinguishes three different ideas that the earlier draft blurred: a functioning Department of Education; scientific work protected against falsification and suppression; and curricular judgments made through professional, public, rights-respecting State and local procedures. These are related but not interchangeable. The Department remains an executive department created by statute, and an ordinary Act cannot place its executive powers beyond constitutional supervision or prevent a future Congress from amending the law. [1–5]
Restoration now means an inventory within 45 days, a costed operating plan within 90 days, return of administratively delegated Department functions within 180 days subject to a narrow transition extension, continuity of benefits, and an immediate $5 billion appropriation. The June 2026 interagency announcements expressly retained Department statutory responsibility; the draft therefore addresses administrative capacity and assignments, rather than inaccurately declaring that Congress has already abolished the Department. [1, 6]
The previous executive commission with protected removal is replaced by an advisory scientific council, direct agency duties, release deadlines, preserved records, disclosed political requests, and judicial review. Independence is pursued through enforceable conduct and transparency rather than an unsupported promise of institutional insulation. [4]
The Federal curriculum prohibition now reaches indirect pressure through grants, investigations, intermediaries, and guidance. A separate, voluntary professional-governance title gives participating jurisdictions transparent selection standards, expert-majority councils, conflict rules, material-review procedures, and individual accommodations. Participation in that title is not a condition of receiving the other new grants, much less existing Title I or IDEA funding. [2, 3, 5]
The new substantive coverage includes early-childhood affordability; paid teacher preparation and retention; foundational and advanced instruction; arts and practical literacies; disability and language services; safe discipline; nutrition and mental health; after-school and summer access; family learning centers; facilities and transport; student-data and AI safeguards; public and Tribal college tuition compacts; additional need grants; credit portability; and paid career and adult-learning pathways.
The funding language is now an actual direct appropriation rather than an authorization that would still require a later appropriations law. It phases in to $193 billion annually, provides $1.79025 trillion in new nominal budget authority over 10 program years including startup, and does not silently assume a further 20 years of funding. This is a deliberately expanded policy envelope, not a claim that a needs assessment has established $193 billion as the uniquely correct national amount.
The previous projected economic returns and federal receipts are withdrawn as unsupported estimates for this particular legislation. The new fiscal analysis credits no speculative growth offset, separates budget authority from cash spending, and identifies what evidence would be required before claiming the proposal pays for itself.
Sections 101–108 define the proposal's scope, preserve voluntary participation, distinguish public-school funding from community-provider eligibility, and prohibit compelled political allegiance. Section 106 expressly establishes nondiscrimination conditions for the new assistance rather than claiming to settle contested interpretations of other statutes. The common application and administrative caps reduce repetitive compliance demands while recognizing that direct counseling, interpretation, and instructional services are not merely overhead. Existing Federal curriculum restrictions remain relevant background. [2, 3]
Sections 201–208 restore operations rather than requiring automatic rehiring or indiscriminate reinstatement of terminated contracts. Agency legal responsibilities, shared services, and statutory functions belonging to other departments are distinguished. Research methods, null results, release calendars, political editing requests, and the preservation of records are addressed directly. The expert council advises publicly but does not award grants or wield regulatory power. Constitutional removal and supervisory authority remain intact. [1, 4, 6]
Sections 301–306 establish a separate voluntary compact. Its expert-majority public councils cannot be controlled by current elected officials or interested vendors acting as voting members. Parents and students participate; final decisions and any legally necessary elected-body review must be public and reasoned. The statute does not equate neutrality with treating every assertion as equally well supported. Individual religious accommodations are distinguished from demands to remove material for everyone. [2, 3, 7]
Sections 401–406 direct funds toward poverty, rural access, language needs, and locally documented deprivation. The formula specifies reservations, source data, a small-State floor, and local pass-through requirements. State adequacy plans expose unmet need without imposing a federally chosen tax structure. Charter schools remain public schools with public obligations; management contracts cannot conceal ownership, related-party transactions, or responsibility for learners.
Sections 501–506 support voluntary preschool, infant and toddler services, family support, and paid preparation of the early-childhood workforce. Funded low-income places are free; other subsidized family charges are capped. The bill makes capacity and waitlists visible rather than promising universal availability without sufficient seats. Developmentally appropriate interaction and screening for support are emphasized, not high-stakes ranking of young children. The National Academies' synthesis supports attention to development and learning contexts, not a single mandated teaching recipe. [14]
Sections 601–607 provide a dedicated research portfolio with basic science, rigorous evaluation, replication, and translation. Research may address the lifespan and diverse settings; a pilot need not pretend to have already-proven effects. Publication of failures and limitations matters as much as dissemination of favorable results. Federal evidence materials remain voluntary. Existing IES practice guides illustrate how recommendations can transparently carry different evidence strengths. [14–16]
Sections 701–708 fund full-year supervised preparation, compensation, mentors, induction, shortage-area recruitment, and retention. A residency stipend must reach at least 70 percent of the local first-year teacher salary, with health coverage or an allowance; tuition support is separate. The bill prevents recoupment of earned wages and limits service-related tuition repayment. Training in subject knowledge, development, disability, language access, and evidence is required without certifying a branded curriculum.
Sections 801–808 combine literacy and numeracy support with tutoring, arts, advanced coursework, practical literacies, and student voice. The testing provision caps a defined category of discretionary testing; it does not purport to repeal federally required assessments indirectly. Screeners are support tools, not automatic promotion or disability decisions. Advanced access uses multiple pathways rather than a single exclusionary test. NAEP is a diagnostic national reference, not proof that one proposed intervention will reverse every decline. [15–17]
Sections 901–907 provide a substantial supplemental allocation while preserving IDEA and other independently enforceable rights. They do not equate a chosen dollar amount with achieving the IDEA maximum Federal contribution. Staffing shortages do not excuse existing legal evaluation or service duties. The title covers assistive technology, interpretation, advocacy, transitions, homelessness, foster care, displacement, and reentry. [8, 9]
Sections 1001–1008 integrate qualified support staff, nutrition access, anti-bullying procedures, fair discipline, narrowly limited emergency restraint, and attendance support. Counselor ratios are planning benchmarks rather than an instantly enforceable unfunded national staffing mandate. Participating meal schools must be funded through the committed school year. The bill distinguishes harassment and threats from protected disagreement and clinical confidentiality from ordinary discipline records. Youth health and attendance sources identify concerns but do not establish that school services alone can solve them. [18, 19]
Sections 1101–1108 address the actual logistics of access: hours, predictable places, fees, transportation, meals, staff ratios, safeguarding, and family schedules. Comprehensive centers and specialized enrichment partners have different roles. Programs include music, theater, arts, sports, outdoor learning, science, making, tutoring, and youth leadership. Family centers offer practical referrals and adult learning without compulsory parenting classes or commercial lead generation. Evaluation follows quality, dosage, and participation rather than treating every nominally funded seat as an equal benefit. [20]
Sections 1201–1207 connect health and accessibility inventories to project selection, lifecycle costs, maintenance, construction standards, labor protections, and public-use commitments. The model emphasizes hazards and fiscal need rather than access to a sophisticated grant consultant. GAO's 2020 facilities survey is historical evidence of deferred needs, not a 2026 inventory or a score of this bill's capital requirements. [21]
Sections 1301–1308 fund connectivity while protecting offline and accessible alternatives. Identifiable learner data cannot become payment for a free product, targeted advertising, or general commercial model training. Consequential automated decisions require qualified human consideration, notice, and review. A detector alone cannot prove academic misconduct. The new protections supplement existing law and preserve the statutory restriction on a Federal student database. The procurement accessibility benchmark is a proposed grant condition, not a statement that every current Federal accessibility rule already uses that version. [10, 11, 24]
Sections 1401–1410 distinguish tuition from the living costs and practical barriers that prevent completion. The compact is first-dollar public and Tribal college assistance; it does not promise free study at every 4-year or private institution. Additional need grants and completion supports have separate funding shares. Aid offers separate grants from loans; credit decisions require reasons and appeals; closure plans protect records and learners. GAO documents disclosure and transfer problems, while the CUNY ASAP randomized evaluation supports examining integrated supports rather than assuming tuition alone is sufficient. Its particular study population limits generalization. [22, 23, 25]
Sections 1501–1506 support paid work-based learning, recognized credentials, flexible adult learning, and reentry. They do not force adolescents into permanent vocational tracks. Employer partnerships cannot confer exclusive learner-data access or curricular control. The German dual-training system supplies useful lessons about paid workplace learning and recognized skills, but its institutions and labor-market arrangements are not copied wholesale. [27]
Sections 1601–1611 provide common administration, transparent data, maintenance of effort, independent oversight, and proportionate enforcement. Grant recovery is distinguished from punishment. New punitive penalties go to Federal district court; the design does not assume agencies may resolve every such claim without a jury. The limited express private action identifies rights and defendants, preserves standing, and does not purport to abrogate State or Tribal immunity. These choices protect both learners and procedural fairness while leaving some injuries to existing-law remedies. [5, 12, 13]
Sections 1701–1707 state dollar amounts, phase-in, availability, closeout, and the end of new appropriations. There is no automatic inflation adjustment, no new tax, no automatic PAYGO exemption, and no pretense that a predicted earnings gain can be spent as public revenue. Core Federal integrity duties survive the grant-funding horizon. Program-year definitions avoid deadlines that become obsolete before enactment.
The crosswalk identifies operative responses, not a claim that every national problem will be eliminated. Most recipient obligations attach to new, voluntarily accepted funds.
| Original issue | Principal operative response |
|---|---|
| 1. Unequal school funding | Sections 401–404 and 1602: need-weighted allocations, adequacy plans, school-level reporting, maintenance of effort. |
| 2. Unsafe or aging facilities | Sections 1201–1204 and 1206: hazard assessment, modernization, accessible design, maintenance, resilience. |
| 3. Teacher shortages | Sections 701–704 and 707: paid pathways, mentoring, shortage targeting, voluntary reciprocity. |
| 4. Teacher burnout and turnover | Sections 703–706 and 708: induction, planning time, compensation, workload plans, retention evaluation. |
| 5. Limited individual attention | Sections 403, 803, 901, and 1002: staffing, small-group tutoring, disability capacity, support professionals. |
| 6. Boredom and low relevance | Sections 805, 807–808, 1103, and 1503: arts, projects, practical literacies, learner choice, exploration. |
| 7. Excessive testing | Sections 503, 804, and 808: protected early learning, testing inventory and defined cap, multiple measures. |
| 8. Weak contemporary and life skills | Sections 805, 1307, 1502–1504: financial, media, digital, civic, technical, and practical learning. |
| 9. Weak career alternatives | Sections 1501–1506 and 806: paid pathways, portable credentials, dual enrollment, open transitions. |
| 10. Special-education capacity | Sections 701, 901–904: targeted staffing, timely services, assistive technology, family advocacy. |
| 11. Language barriers | Sections 403, 504, 905, 1106, and 1504: qualified interpretation, language instruction, family access. |
| 12. Unfair or unsafe discipline | Sections 1004–1006 and 1608: fair procedure, limited restraint, reporting, individual remedies. |
| 13. Mental-health support gaps | Sections 1001–1002, 1008, and 1409: qualified staff, referral networks, confidentiality, campus access. |
| 14. Bullying and harassment | Sections 1004 and 1104: prevention, complaint process, safeguarding, fair investigation. |
| 15. Digital divide | Sections 1301 and 1307: connectivity, devices, repair, literacy, meaningful alternatives. |
| 16. Transportation barriers | Sections 1105 and 1205–1206: accessible routes, late buses, transit assistance, continuity plans. |
| 17. Childcare and family schedule mismatch | Sections 501–506, 1102, 1106, 1404, and 1504: funded places, suitable hours, dependent-care support. |
| 18. Hunger and nutrition | Sections 1003, 1105, and 1404: funded free-meal access, no shaming, snacks, basic-needs support. |
| 19. Chronic absence | Sections 1007 and 1205: barrier assessment, reengagement, transportation, no statistical exclusion. |
| 20. Uneven academic recovery | Sections 801–803 and 604: evidence-aligned tutoring, targeted support, implementation partnerships. |
| 21. Weak literacy and numeracy foundations | Sections 503, 601–605, 704, and 802–803: preparation, screening, instruction, evaluated support. |
| 22. Unequal advanced opportunity | Sections 805–806: multiple entry routes, advanced courses, fee removal, dual-enrollment clarity. |
| 23. Disability accessibility | Sections 903, 907, 1104–1105, 1202, and 1301: individual and universal access, transition, transport. |
| 24. Postsecondary cost and debt risk | Sections 1401–1410: tuition compacts, grants, total-price disclosures, transfer and servicing help. |
| 25. Bureaucracy and low trust | Sections 108, 204–208, and 1601–1611: common applications, public records, scientific integrity, review. |
Additional issues addressed include commercial capture of research, misuse of student data, automated decision error, unpaid training, abusive service-debt clauses, misleading recruitment, lost transfer credit, closure disruption, disaster continuity, and false claims of universal coverage or fiscal self-financing.
The principal mechanism is a new, separately funded, voluntary program with clear conditions. The Supreme Court's Medicaid-expansion decision limits the use of threatened loss of existing funding to induce acceptance of a substantially new undertaking. Sections 104, 108, 301, and 1605 therefore preserve old assistance, disclose obligations in advance, and separate the governance compact from other awards. This reduces, but cannot eliminate, litigation over coercion, relatedness, or the clarity of particular conditions. Direct-local alternatives cannot commandeer a State or override its constitution merely by calling participation voluntary. [5]
In Trump v. Slaughter, No. 25-332 (June 29, 2026), the Court invalidated the FTC's for-cause removal protection and rejected continued reliance on Humphrey's Executor to insulate executive power. The earlier proposed executive commission should not be retained. The replacement council is advisory; publication and integrity duties bind the agency by statute, subject to lawful supervision and judicial review. This does not guarantee compliance, protect every officer from removal, or prevent a future Congress from changing the law. [4]
Existing restrictions on Federal curricular control inform the design. The new compact regulates process, conflicts, reasons, and rights; it does not require a Federal official to choose historical interpretations or certify ideological balance. The 2025 Mahmoud decision, arising in a particular elementary-school religious-opt-out dispute, counsels meaningful notice and legally required individual accommodation. It should not be restated as an unrestricted parental veto over material taught to everyone. Sections 106, 304, and 305 preserve both individual rights and other learners' access. Application will require fact-sensitive legal review. [2, 3, 7]
An expert council is not inherently free of bias. Its own risks include professional groupthink, vendor influence, insulation from families, and procedural capture. Public appointments, conflicts, recorded reasons, accessible challenges, minority views, and judicial review are intended to constrain those risks. Democratic budgeting and lawful general educational objectives remain public responsibilities; secret partisan direction of individual adoptions is different.
The bill does not replace IDEA eligibility, evaluation timelines, individualized services, or procedural safeguards. It adds capacity and certain new award conditions while preserving independently enforceable duties. It also avoids representing a new nondiscrimination clause as a definitive interpretation of all existing civil-rights statutes. Religious accommodations, protected classifications, and institution-specific obligations may overlap and will require tailored implementation. [8, 9]
Jarkesy held that the Seventh Amendment required a jury for the SEC fraud-penalty claim before the Court; it did not resolve the validity of every administrative monetary remedy. Section 1606 takes a cautious route by placing the new punitive penalties in court, while grant correction and repayment retain notice, evidence, hearings, proportionality, and judicial review. [12]
The private action deliberately distinguishes prospective relief, limited economic-loss compensation, and Government penalties. It does not supply a universal damages action against States or Tribes. Federal agency review uses the APA's existing waiver for nonmonetary relief, preserves constitutional standing, and leaves specialized employment and contract jurisdiction intact. Consequently, a harmful event does not automatically yield damages under this Act; a plaintiff must establish the specified right, injury, defendant, and remedy. [13]
FERPA compliance alone is not a complete new technology contract. The bill adds specific limits on commercial use, model training, retention, and consequential automated decisions, while preserving existing access and confidentiality rules. Secure evaluation must stay within the statutory Federal database restriction and lawful data-sharing authorities. More data are not automatically better evidence; unnecessary identification increases privacy risk without necessarily improving causal inference. [10, 11]
Mandatory appropriations make the proposal operationally stronger than an authorization-only bill but materially increase its budget-enforcement consequences. The bill neither supplies tax offsets nor waives applicable budget rules. State tuition and meal guarantees must have an explicit non-Federal backstop because a capped Federal grant cannot honestly promise unlimited benefits. Counsel should obtain formal budget scoring and committee-jurisdiction review before introduction; no provision can guarantee its own enactment, future renewal, or immunity from later amendment.
All figures below are calculations from the proposed appropriations, not estimates of existing Federal education spending. The $193 billion full-phase annual envelope is a policy design choice across the expanded scope. No evidence reviewed establishes that exact figure as a national adequacy threshold. Some areas may need more, while implementation capacity may initially constrain useful spending.
The earlier version specified $50 billion in recurring annual authorizations plus a $1.5 billion continuity authorization in each of the first 5 years: $507.5 billion over its stated 10-year window. It did not itself appropriate those amounts or enact 30 years of renewal. The later $1.246 trillion cost and $1–$3.4 trillion benefits assertions depended on additional assumptions and lacked a reproducible program-level return model. Those figures should not be used as a score of either version.
Amounts are billions of nominal dollars before administrative reservations. All reservations and title-specific allocations are included, not added again.
| Title | Account | Annual amount |
|---|---|---|
| II | Department capacity and integrity | $3.00 |
| III | Professional curricular governance | $1.00 |
| IV | Equitable K–12 opportunity | $20.00 |
| V | Early childhood | $15.00 |
| VI | Developmental and learning sciences | $4.00 |
| VII | Educator workforce | $18.00 |
| VIII | Instruction, engagement, advanced access | $8.00 |
| IX | Disability, language, and continuity | $20.00 |
| X | Health, nutrition, and safety | $12.00 |
| XI | After-school, summer, and family centers | $20.00 |
| XII | Facilities and transportation | $25.00 |
| XIII | Digital access, privacy, and AI safeguards | $5.00 |
| XIV | Postsecondary affordability and completion | $35.00 |
| XV | Careers and adult learning | $6.00 |
| XVI | Common administration and oversight | $1.00 |
| Total | Full-phase annual appropriation | $193.00 |
Section 1701 separately supplies $5 billion immediately. Recurring program funding is $96.5 billion in year 1, $144.75 billion in year 2, and $193 billion in each of years 3–10. Arithmetic: $5 + $96.5 + $144.75 + (8 × $193) = $1,790.25 billion.
The legal amount is budget authority: permission to incur obligations. Outlays occur as salaries, grants, construction, and other obligations are paid. The statute does not establish a uniform cash-payment schedule.
For illustration only, the table assumes operating awards pay 60 percent in their first program year, 30 percent in the next, and 10 percent in the third. The capital share—80 percent of title XII—pays 10, 25, 30, 25, and 10 percent over 5 years. The $5 billion startup amount is illustrated as paid 40, 40, and 20 percent in the first 3 program years. This startup convention simplifies the table; actual restoration payments may begin before program year 1. All amounts are assumed fully obligated, without rescission, sequestration, or unused balances.
| Cumulative window | Enacted new budget authority | Illustrative outlays |
|---|---|---|
| Through program year 1, including startup | $101.50 billion | $54.90 billion |
| Through program year 5, including startup | $825.25 billion | $699.25 billion |
| Through program year 10, including startup | $1,790.25 billion | $1,663.75 billion |
| Through program year 30, no further enactment | $1,790.25 billion | $1,790.25 billion |
The final row does not mean 30 years of full services are financed. It means the law provides 10 program years of new funding, with later payments and closeout. Permanent legal duties remain, but future operating appropriations or continuation legislation may be necessary. Debt-service costs, induced savings in other Federal accounts, and changes in State or private spending are not included in these direct appropriation totals.
| Scenario | 30-year nominal budget authority | Legal status |
|---|---|---|
| Act as written, with no renewal | $1.79025 trillion | Ten funded program years plus startup; no new appropriation after year 10. |
| Renew years 11–30 at $193 billion each year | $5.65025 trillion | Hypothetical future legislation; real purchasing power declines. |
| Renew years 11–30 with 2.2 percent annual increases from the year-10 amount | $6.67942 trillion | Hypothetical future legislation preserving year-10 purchasing power under the stated inflation assumption. |
The 2.2 percent assumption is a modeling input, not a forecast or a statutory escalator. Under that same assumption, converting annual budget authority to program-year-1 purchasing power yields approximately $1.615 trillion for the enacted funding, $4.160 trillion for flat nominal renewal, and $4.788 trillion for indexed renewal. These are purchasing-power comparisons of budget authority, not cash-outlay estimates or welfare measures. The startup amount is held at $5 billion as a simplifying base-period convention.
A further illustrative 3 percent real discount rate, with annual program amounts treated at year-end, gives present values of approximately $1.370 trillion, $2.809 trillion, and $3.127 trillion, respectively. Formula: $5 billion + the sum over each program year y of its nominal appropriation divided by 1.022^(y−1) and then by 1.03^y. Discounting does not reduce the Treasury's nominal legal payment obligation.
The fiscal baseline credits $0 of speculative new revenue or savings. That is a scoring convention for this draft, not a prediction that benefits will be zero. The Act creates no new tax. No defensible single dollar estimate of its total economic return is supplied by the studies reviewed.
Potential channels to evaluate include additional educational attainment and earnings; parents' ability to work; improved teacher retention; reduced duplication of coursework; avoided capital failures; and health, safety, and civic benefits. These channels overlap. Higher earnings, GDP gains, tax receipts, and social benefits cannot all be added as if they were independent revenue streams. Results from one intensive demonstration cannot simply be multiplied by every funded learner. [20, 22, 23, 25]
A transparent break-even calculation illustrates the scale of the question without pretending to predict an outcome. To recover the $1.79025 trillion appropriation solely through additional Federal receipts, an assumed effective Federal capture of 15, 20, or 25 percent would require approximately $11.935 trillion, $8.951 trillion, or $7.161 trillion in genuinely additional taxable earnings over the same accounting horizon. These capture rates are assumptions, not estimates of marginal tax treatment. The calculation excludes discounting, financing costs, displacement, and other fiscal savings; it is not an impact forecast.
Applying the average Federal revenue-to-GDP ratio to an unspecified hypothetical output gain is not a substitute for a program-level fiscal model. A serious return estimate would require measured incremental effects, realistic coverage and take-up, wages and tax treatment by cohort, timing, spillovers, displacement, overlap adjustments, and uncertainty. The evaluation requirements in titles VI and XVI create the information needed to improve that estimate later.
The principal downside scenario is low-quality expansion: shortages of mentors, counselors, licensed child-care staff, drivers, or construction capacity could turn nominal spending into higher prices rather than proportionate service growth. The base implementation scenario phases in awards, prioritizes need, documents unit costs, and withholds claims of universal access. The favorable scenario combines high-quality implementation, strong participation, and genuinely additional learning and family access. The bill's dollar ceilings are the same in all three; the difference is useful output, not an invented automatic change in legal spending.
For scale only, $20 billion divided by an assumed comprehensive after-school service cost of $8,000 per child-year would equal 2.5 million child-years before administration and any separately allocated family services. At $6,000 the arithmetic is about 3.33 million; at $12,000 it is about 1.67 million. These are illustrative unit-cost inputs, not researched national prices or promised seats. The statute requires local cost and capacity reporting before expansion claims.
The Federal ledger also omits non-Federal compact matches and ongoing operating obligations. At an 80 percent Federal share, a fully used $1 of Federal compact funding requires $0.25 of non-Federal contribution, absent a higher-share exception. State matching is therefore a real distributional and participation issue, not free leverage. Facility maintenance, salary continuation, and tuition-cohort guarantees may outlast initial awards. Procurement competition and published costs help, but do not eliminate supply constraints.
| Period | Responsible actors and required work | Measures and failure response |
|---|---|---|
| Enactment to day 90 | Department, OIG, OMB, existing program offices: preserve records; inventory functions by day 45; publish restoration plan by day 90; begin lawful startup obligations. | Inventory completeness, missing records, payment backlog, critical vacancies; disclose gaps and prioritize continuity rather than symbolic hiring counts. |
| Months 3–6 | Department and partner agencies: return administrative responsibility; publish funding calendar; adopt initial integrity procedures; consult Tribes and establish advisory nominations. | Transfer readiness, data security, benefit interruption, release-calendar compliance; one narrow transition extension where necessary. |
| Months 6–12 | Department, HHS, USDA, States and local partners: propose rules by day 270; finalize by day 365; publish formulas, contracts, eligibility and match obligations; prepare first grant cycle. | Application completion, appeal times, rural and Tribal access, recipient readiness; technical assistance before avoidable exclusion. |
| Program year 1 | Recipient agencies and providers: launch funded cohorts, residencies, learning centers, safety and privacy systems; verify obligations against capacity. | Actual seats and hours, mentor capacity, transport reliability, accommodations, costs per delivered service; do not count an announced slot as delivery. |
| Program year 2 | Department and GAO: assess phase-in; complete required facilities inventories where deadlines apply; report procurement and staffing bottlenecks. | Timely IDEA services under existing law, tutoring participation, teacher retention, privacy incidents, delayed capital projects; corrective plans and targeted support. |
| Program years 3–5 | Full-phase recipients, evaluators, GAO: evaluate educational and family outcomes, retention, transfer, completion, implementation fidelity, and equitable access. | Compare like populations where possible; publish null or adverse findings; revise ineffective practices without suppressing evidence. |
| Program years 6–10 and closeout | Congress, GAO, administering agencies: year-9 reauthorization review; assess maintenance and cohort liabilities; make any renewal explicit; protect valid obligations and records. | Separate continuation proposals from enacted money; prepare service transitions; retain permanent Federal integrity duties and timely legal claims. |
Program-year dates depend on enactment. For example, enactment on October 1, 2026 would make fiscal year 2028 the first fiscal year beginning at least 180 days later. A statutory 365-day rulemaking period could still overlap the first funding cycle for other enactment dates; section 1609 allows existing lawful procedures but not an invented exception from notice-and-comment requirements.
Priority operational metrics include actual vacancy duration rather than job postings; teacher retention at 1, 3, and 5 years; on-time evidence publication; hours of delivered after-school service; cost and availability of accommodations; absence and reengagement using stable denominators; completed facility hazard remediation; avoided course repetition; debt and completion; and the rate at which complaints receive a reasoned decision. Aggregate measures should be published without exposing individual children or turning outcome targets into incentives to exclude them.
Families and learners gain access and procedural protections but may still face waiting lists and State nonparticipation. Clear capacity disclosures, low-income priorities, direct-local alternatives where lawful, and individual complaint rights reduce that risk. Parents are participants in professional governance, not mere observers; they also do not acquire an unrestricted veto over everyone else's education.
Educators and support workers gain paid entry routes, induction, planning support, and safer working conditions. They also face competency, safeguarding, and reporting requirements. The design protects good-faith professional judgment, collective bargaining, and earned pay while preserving consequences for actual misconduct. Implementation must include educator workload, not assume every new reporting task is costless.
States and local agencies receive substantial resources with new conditions and some matching obligations. They may object to Federal conditions or State-law complications in the curricular compact. Separate participation choices, preacceptance notice, limited sanctions, and State-law implementation mechanisms reduce coercion and confusion, but they also mean access will not be uniform nationwide.
Colleges and training providers gain tuition and completion support while accepting disclosure, credit-review, record-access, and closure protections. Vendors gain procurement opportunities but lose the ability to monetize learner data or obscure the cost of exit. Small community providers benefit from simplified administration and partnership models; safeguarding and licensed-care requirements still impose real costs.
Taxpayers and fiscal institutions face a large new commitment without an enacted revenue offset. The response is explicit appropriations, transparent costs, public evaluation, and a candid renewal decision—not an unsupported claim that the investment is free. The most difficult political choices are the scale of spending, offsets, Federal-State allocation, and whether to extend funding beyond year 10.
Finland offers a useful caution as well as a lesson. Its official framework includes a national core curriculum and local curricula; it is not proof of education wholly free of government influence. The transferable ideas are professional implementation, multidisciplinary learning, and attention to how assessment supports learning, not importing a Federal national curriculum. [26]
Germany's dual vocational approach joins company training and vocational education within its own legal and institutional setting. The transferable elements are paid supervised experience, recognized qualifications, and coordination among employers and educational partners. This draft rejects rigid early tracking or a promise that importing one feature reproduces another country's outcomes. [27]
The Education Endowment Foundation's toolkit illustrates a usable evidence-summary approach: accessible information can support local judgment without becoming a mandatory product list. Evidence ratings require context and implementation judgment. Sections 603 and 604 adopt that distinction rather than treating a summary rating as a legal command. [28]
The Act would rebuild the Department's ability to do its assigned work, make manipulation of Federal education evidence harder to conceal, fund more accessible education and practical supports, and create clear duties for recipients of the new money. It connects classroom quality to the conditions needed to participate: transport, food, disability access, safe facilities, family schedules, affordable study, and trustworthy technology.
No. Section 105 prohibits direct and indirect Federal curricular control under this Act. A separately funded State or local compact can establish professional, transparent material-selection procedures. Learning about a viewpoint is distinguished from being required to affirm it personally.
No. That is not a legally sound promise for this executive department under the governing constitutional structure. The bill instead protects honest research, publication, records, professional procedures, and enforceable rights. Congress retains lawmaking and appropriations authority; the President retains constitutional executive authority. [1, 4]
No. Funded low-income early-learning and after-school places are free, participating meal schools provide the committed service without charge, and participating public and Tribal college compacts cover specified tuition and fees for funded learners. Capacity, eligibility, duration, and Federal award limits remain. The bill does not promise universal child care or free tuition at every college.
No. It reduces some new costs, improves price and loan information, supports completion and transfer, and helps learners navigate relief available under existing law. It does not create a general loan-cancellation power.
A recipient or covered vendor subject to the new title cannot sell covered learner information or use it for targeted advertising or unrelated general commercial model training. A material adverse automated decision requires meaningful human consideration and review. These duties apply within the Act's defined funding and service relationships; they are not an assertion that the bill regulates every app used anywhere.
The text supplies $1.79025 trillion in new nominal budget authority over 10 program years including startup. Renewing at the full annual amount for 20 more years would bring the 30-year total to $5.65025 trillion before any future inflation adjustment. No such renewal is enacted by this draft, and no reliable claim of fiscal self-financing is made.
Sources were consulted for the design and accompanying analysis through September 20, 2026. Historical studies are identified by date and are not presented as current prevalence estimates. Judicial holdings are read with their particular facts and procedural posture. The register is selective; it is not a complete 50-State survey, a comprehensive litigation citator, or a substitute for an introduction-date check of current appropriations and agency assignments.
[1] Department of Education Organization Act, § 201, 20 U.S.C. § 3411. Establishment and appointment structure. Primary statutory text.
[2] 20 U.S.C. § 1232a. Existing restriction on Federal direction, supervision, or control of education. Primary statutory text.
[3] 20 U.S.C. § 7907. Existing prohibitions concerning Federal curriculum, standards, instructional content, and related funding conditions. Primary statutory text.
[4] Trump v. Slaughter, No. 25-332 (U.S. June 29, 2026), slip opinion. Removal protection and executive power; basis for replacing the earlier commission design. Official Supreme Court opinion.
[5] National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012), opinions concerning the Medicaid expansion and remedy. Conditional spending, existing-funding coercion, and severability; not a numerical safe harbor for every grant. Supreme Court opinion text.
[6] U.S. Department of Education, “Additional Partnerships to Strengthen Coordination for Individuals with Disabilities Programs, Bolster Civil Rights Enforcement,” June 16, 2026. Administrative agreements and retained statutory responsibilities. Official announcement.
[7] Mahmoud v. Taylor, No. 24-297 (U.S. June 27, 2025), slip opinion. Religious exercise and an elementary-school opt-out dispute; application requires attention to the actual holding and facts. Official Supreme Court opinion.
[8] Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1412. State eligibility, free appropriate public education, and related requirements. Department's statutory text.
[9] Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1415. Procedural safeguards and existing dispute-resolution rights. Department's statutory text.
[10] U.S. Department of Education, Student Privacy Policy Office, FERPA materials. Existing education-record framework and access rules; not a complete commercial technology-governance regime. Official FERPA resource.
[11] Higher Education Act § 134, 20 U.S.C. § 1015c. Statutory restriction on a Federal database of student information, with the provision's own scope and exceptions. Primary statutory text.
[12] Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, No. 22-859 (U.S. June 27, 2024), slip opinion. Jury-trial requirements for the SEC fraud civil-penalty action at issue. Official Supreme Court opinion.
[13] Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 701–706, particularly § 702. Review of agency action and waiver for relief other than money damages, subject to statutory and constitutional limits. Primary statutory text.
[14] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures (2018), doi:10.17226/24783. Broad synthesis of learning and development; not a guaranteed program effect or prescribed curriculum. National Academies report.
[15] Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse, Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (2016; revised 2019). Practice recommendations with differing evidence levels. Official practice guide.
[16] Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse, Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades (2021). Evidence-informed intervention practices. Official practice guide.
[17] National Center for Education Statistics, 2024 Nation's Report Card, Reading, Grades 4 and 8. National assessment results; descriptive evidence rather than evaluation of this proposal. Official NAEP report.
[18] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary and Trends Report, 2013–2023. Youth health surveillance; not proof that a specific school-service expansion produces a given outcome. Official CDC report resource.
[19] U.S. Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism resource. Attendance definitions and support-oriented resources; local diagnosis remains necessary. Official Department resource.
[20] RAND Corporation, Investing in Successful Summer Programs: A Review of Evidence Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (2019), RR-2836. Program evidence and implementation; no blanket financial return assigned to all out-of-school programs. RAND research report.
[21] U.S. Government Accountability Office, K–12 Education: School Districts Frequently Identified Multiple Building Systems Needing Updates or Replacement, GAO-20-494 (2020). Historical national facilities survey; new inventories are still required. GAO report.
[22] U.S. Government Accountability Office, Financial Aid Offers: Action Needed to Improve Information on College Costs and Student Aid, GAO-23-104708 (2022). Evidence for comparable aid and price disclosures. GAO report.
[23] U.S. Government Accountability Office, Higher Education: Students Need More Information to Help Reduce Challenges in Transferring College Credits, GAO-17-574 (2017). Historical evidence of transfer barriers, not a mandate to accept academically non-equivalent courses. GAO report.
[24] World Wide Web Consortium, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, W3C Recommendation. Technical reference adopted prospectively as a funded-procurement benchmark in the proposal, subject to effective-access rules. W3C technical standard.
[25] MDRC, Doubling Graduation Rates: Three-Year Effects of CUNY's Accelerated Study in Associate Programs for Developmental Education Students (2015). Randomized evaluation of an integrated support model in its study population; not a national forecast. Original evaluation report.
[26] Finnish National Agency for Education, National Core Curriculum for Primary and Lower Secondary Basic Education. National and local curricular responsibilities and professional implementation. Official Finnish source.
[27] Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Germany's Dual Vocational Training System, current institutional overview consulted September 20, 2026. Paid workplace and vocational-school coordination in its national context. Official BIBB source.
[28] Education Endowment Foundation, Teaching and Learning Toolkit, consulted September 20, 2026. Accessible evidence summaries to inform professional decisions rather than mandate particular products. EEF toolkit.
Consistency.—The bill has 17 titles and 129 uniquely numbered sections. The funding schedule reconciles to $193 billion at full phase and $1.79025 trillion for the enacted 10-year program window plus startup. Allocations and administrative reservations are within the stated ceilings. “Program year” is defined relative to enactment; convenience analysis does not amend operative text.
Authority.—The design uses Federal administrative authority and clearly identified conditions on new voluntary assistance. It does not claim a general Federal police power over schools, automatic control of State curriculum, or an ability to bind future Congresses.
Constitutional risk.—The executive commission from the earlier version is replaced; speech, religious exercise, disability, sovereign-immunity, and jury-trial issues are expressly addressed. State curricular delegation and individual accommodations remain application-sensitive. No promise of litigation immunity or absolute political neutrality is made.
Enforceability.—Administrators, recipients, vendors, deadlines, evidence burdens, notice, cure, appeals, court review, and remedies are specified. Existing IDEA and other statutory duties are not reduced. The limited private action identifies its covered rights and does not manufacture universal standing or damages against immune governments.
Fiscal assumptions.—The statute contains direct, fixed nominal appropriations with no new tax or automatic budget-rule exemption. Long-term renewal, inflation, discounting, unit costs, and outlay schedules are labeled assumptions. Speculative economic benefits are not used as pay-fors. Debt service, official baseline interactions, and non-Federal contributions require additional fiscal scoring.
Implementation risk.—Staffing, licensing, procurement, data recovery, State participation, construction capacity, privacy compliance, and the year-10 funding cliff are material constraints. Phasing, service-continuity rules, transparent capacity, and independent reviews address but cannot eliminate them.
Open decisions before introduction.—Congress must decide whether to retain this investment scale, enact revenue or spending offsets, adjust Federal-State shares, and commit to funding beyond year 10. Introduction counsel should update the statutory and litigation baseline, confirm committee and budget treatment, and obtain formal scoring. Those are explicit policy and enactment decisions; the attached text contains no unresolved drafting placeholders.
