106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 800

AN ACT

To provide for education flexibility partnerships.
106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 800

AN ACT

To provide for education flexibility partnerships.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Education Flexibility

3 Partnership Act of 1999’’.

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

5 Congress makes the following findings:

6 (1) States differ substantially in demographics,

7 in school governance, and in school finance and

8 funding. The administrative and funding mecha9 nisms that help schools in 1 State improve may not

10 prove successful in other States.

11 (2) Although the Elementary and Secondary

12 Education Act of 1965 and other Federal education

13 statutes afford flexibility to State and local edu14 cational agencies in implementing Federal programs,

15 certain requirements of Federal education statutes

16 or regulations may impede local efforts to reform

17 and improve education.

18 (3) By granting waivers of certain statutory

19 and regulatory requirements, the Federal Govern20 ment can remove impediments for local educational

21 agencies in implementing education reforms and

22 raising the achievement levels of all children.

23 (4) State educational agencies are closer to

24 local school systems, implement statewide education

25 reforms with both Federal and State funds, and are

26 responsible for maintaining accountability for local
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1 activities consistent with State standards and assess2 ment systems. Therefore, State educational agencies

3 are often in the best position to align waivers of

4 Federal and State requirements with State and local

5 initiatives.

6 (5) The Education Flexibility Partnership Dem7 onstration Act allows State educational agencies the

8 flexibility to waive certain Federal requirements,

9 along with related State requirements, but allows

10 only 12 States to qualify for such waivers.

11 (6) Expansion of waiver authority will allow for

12 the waiver of statutory and regulatory requirements

13 that impede implementation of State and local edu14 cational improvement plans, or that unnecessarily

15 burden program administration, while maintaining

16 the intent and purposes of affected programs, such

17 as the important focus on improving math and

18 science performance under title II of the Elementary

19 and Secondary Education Act of 1965, (Dwight D.

20 Eisenhower Professional Development Program),

21 and maintaining such fundamental requirements as

22 those relating to civil rights, educational equity, and

23 accountability.

24 (7) To achieve the State goals for the education

25 of children in the State, the focus must be on results
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1 in raising the achievement of all students, not proc2 ess.

3 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

4 In this Act:

5 (1) ATTENDANCE AREA.—The term ‘‘attend6 ance area’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘school

7 attendance area’’ in section 1113(a)(2)(A) of the El8 ementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

9 (2) ED-FLEX PARTNERSHIP STATE.—The term

10 ‘‘Ed-Flex Partnership State’’ means an eligible State

11 designated by the Secretary under section

12 4(a)(1)(B).

13 (3) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY; STATE EDU14 CATIONAL AGENCY.—The terms ‘‘local educational

15 agency’’ and ‘‘State educational agency’’ have the

16 meaning given such terms in section 14101 of the

17 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

18 (4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

19 the Secretary of Education.

20 (5) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of

21 the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com22 monwealth of Puerto Rico, and each of the outlying

23 areas.

24 SEC. 4. EDUCATION FLEXIBILITY PARTNERSHIP.

25 (a) EDUCATION FLEXIBILITY PROGRAM.—
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1 (1) PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.—

2 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may

3 carry out an education flexibility program under

4 which the Secretary authorizes a State edu5 cational agency that serves an eligible State to

6 waive statutory or regulatory requirements ap7 plicable to 1 or more programs or Acts de8 scribed in subsection (b), other than require9 ments described in subsection (c), for the State

10 educational agency or any local educational

11 agency or school within the State.

12 (B) DESIGNATION.—The Secretary shall

13 designate each eligible State participating in the

14 program described in subparagraph (A) to be

15 an Ed-Flex Partnership State.

16 (2) ELIGIBLE STATE.—For the purpose of this

17 subsection the term ‘‘eligible State’’ means a State

18 that—

19 (A)(i) has—

20 (I) developed and implemented the

21 challenging State content standards, chal22 lenging State student performance stand23 ards, and aligned assessments described in

24 section 1111(b) of the Elementary and

25 Secondary Education Act of 1965, and for
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1 which local educational agencies in the

2 State are producing the individual school

3 performance profiles required by section

4 1116(a) of such Act; or

5 (II) developed and implemented con6 tent standards and interim assessments

7 and made substantial progress, as deter8 mined by the Secretary, toward developing

9 and implementing performance standards

10 and final aligned assessments, and toward

11 having local educational agencies in the

12 State produce the profiles, described in

13 subclause (I); and

14 (ii) holds local educational agencies and

15 schools accountable for meeting the educational

16 goals described in the local applications submit17 ted under paragraph (4); and

18 (B) waives State statutory or regulatory

19 requirements relating to education while holding

20 local educational agencies or schools within the

21 State that are affected by such waivers account22 able for the performance of the students who

23 are affected by such waivers.

24 (3) STATE APPLICATION.—
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1 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each State educational

2 agency desiring to participate in the education

3 flexibility program under this section shall sub4 mit an application to the Secretary at such

5 time, in such manner, and containing such in6 formation as the Secretary may reasonably re7 quire. Each such application shall demonstrate

8 that the eligible State has adopted an education

9 flexibility plan for the State that includes—

10 (i) a description of the process the

11 State educational agency will use to evalu12 ate applications from local educational

13 agencies or schools requesting waivers of—

14 (I) Federal statutory or regu15 latory requirements as described in

16 paragraph (1)(A); and

17 (II) State statutory or regulatory

18 requirements relating to education;

19 and

20 (ii) a detailed description of the State

21 statutory and regulatory requirements re22 lating to education that the State edu23 cational agency will waive;
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1 (iii) a description of specific edu2 cational objectives the State intends to

3 meet under such a plan;

4 (iv) a description of the process by

5 which the State will measure the progress

6 of local educational agencies in meeting

7 specific goals described in subsection

8 (a)(4)(A)(iii); and

9 (v) an assurance that, not less than

10 30 days prior to waiving any Federal stat11 utory or regulatory requirement, or in ac12 cordance with State law, the State edu13 cational agency shall give public notice in

14 widely-read publications, such as large cir15 culation newspapers and community news16 papers, of its intent to grant such a waiv17 er, a description of the Federal statutory

18 or regulatory requirements that the State

19 educational agency proposes to waive, any

20 improved performance of students that is

21 expected to result from the waiver, and the

22 State official—

23 (I) to whom comments on the

24 proposed waiver may be sent by inter-
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1 ested individuals and organizations;

2 and

3 (II) who will make all the com4 ments received available for review by

5 any member of the public.

6 (B) APPROVAL AND CONSIDERATIONS.—

7 The Secretary may approve an application de8 scribed in subparagraph (A) only if the Sec9 retary determines that such application dem10 onstrates substantial promise of assisting the

11 State educational agency and affected local edu12 cational agencies and schools within such State

13 in carrying out comprehensive education re14 form, after considering—

15 (i) the comprehensiveness and quality

16 of the education flexibility plan described

17 in subparagraph (A);

18 (ii) the ability of such plan to ensure

19 accountability for the activities and goals

20 described in such plan;

21 (iii) the degree to which the State’s

22 objectives described in subparagraph

23 (A)(iii)—

24 (I) are specific and measurable;

25 and
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1 (II) measure the performance of

2 local educational agencies or schools

3 and specific groups of students af4 fected by waivers;

5 (iv) the significance of the State stat6 utory or regulatory requirements relating

7 to education that will be waived; and

8 (v) the quality of the State edu9 cational agency’s process for approving ap10 plications for waivers of Federal statutory

11 or regulatory requirements described in

12 paragraph (1)(A) and for monitoring and

13 evaluating the results of such waivers.

14 (4) LOCAL APPLICATION.—

15 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each local educational

16 agency or school requesting a waiver of a Fed17 eral statutory or regulatory requirement de18 scribed in paragraph (1)(A) and any relevant

19 State statutory or regulatory requirement from

20 a State educational agency shall submit an ap21 plication to the State educational agency at

22 such time, in such manner, and containing such

23 information as the State educational agency

24 may reasonably require. Each such application

25 shall—
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1 (i) indicate each Federal program af2 fected and the statutory or regulatory re3 quirement that will be waived;

4 (ii) describe the purposes and overall

5 expected results of waiving each such re6 quirement;

7 (iii) describe, for each school year,

8 specific, measurable, educational goals for

9 each local educational agency, school, and

10 group of students affected by the proposed

11 waiver;

12 (iv) explain why the waiver will assist

13 the local educational agency or school in

14 meeting such goals; and

15 (v) provide an assurance that, not less

16 than 30 days prior to submitting the appli17 cation to the State educational agency for

18 a waiver under this section, or in accord19 ance with State law, the local educational

20 agency or school shall give public notice in

21 widely-read publications, such as large cir22 culation newspapers and community news23 papers, of its intent to request the waiver,

24 a description of the Federal statutory or

25 regulatory requirements that will be
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1 waived, any improved performance of stu2 dents that is expected to result from the

3 waiver, and the name and address of the

4 local educational agency official—

5 (I) to whom comments on the

6 proposed waiver may be sent by inter7 ested individuals and organizations;

8 and

9 (II) who will make all the com10 ments received available for review by

11 any member of the public.

12 (B) EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS.—A

13 State educational agency shall evaluate an ap14 plication submitted under subparagraph (A) in

15 accordance with the State’s education flexibility

16 plan described in paragraph (3)(A).

17 (C) APPROVAL.—A State educational

18 agency shall not approve an application for a

19 waiver under this paragraph unless—

20 (i) the local educational agency or

21 school requesting such waiver has devel22 oped a local reform plan that is applicable

23 to such agency or school, respectively;

24 (ii) the waiver of Federal statutory or

25 regulatory requirements described in para-
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1 graph (1)(A) will assist the local edu2 cational agency or school in meeting its

3 educational goals; and

4 (iii) the State educational agency is

5 satisfied that the underlying purposes of

6 the statutory requirements of each pro7 gram or Act for which a waiver is granted

8 continue to be met.

9 (D) TERMINATION.—If a local educational

10 agency or school that receives a waiver under

11 this section experiences a statistically signifi12 cant decrease in the level of performance in

13 achieving the objectives described in paragraph

14 (3)(A)(iii) or goals in paragraph (4)(A)(iii) for

15 2 consecutive years, the State educational agen16 cy shall, after notice and an opportunity for a

17 hearing to explain such decrease, terminate the

18 waiver authority granted to such local edu19 cational agency or school. If, after notice and

20 an opportunity for a hearing, the State edu21 cational agency determines that the decrease in

22 performance was justified due to exceptional or

23 uncontrollable circumstances such as a natural

24 disaster or a precipitous and unforeseen decline

25 in the financial resources of the local edu-
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1 cational agency or school, the waiver shall not

2 be terminated.

3 (5) OVERSIGHT AND REPORTING.—

4 (A) IN GENERAL.—

5 (i) OVERSIGHT.—Each State edu6 cational agency participating in the edu7 cation flexibility program under this sec8 tion shall annually monitor the activities of

9 local educational agencies and schools re10 ceiving waivers under this section. Such

11 monitoring shall include a review of rel12 evant audit, technical assistance, evalua13 tion, and performance reports.

14 (ii) REPORTING.—The State edu15 cational agency shall submit to the Sec16 retary an annual report on the results of

17 such oversight and its impact on the im18 provement of education programs.

19 (B) PERFORMANCE DATA.—

20 (i) STATE REPORTING.—Not later

21 than 2 years after a State is designated as

22 an Ed-Flex Partnership State, each such

23 State shall include, as part of their report

24 to the Secretary under clause (ii) of sub25 paragraph (A), performance data dem-
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1 onstrating the degree to which progress

2 has been made toward meeting the objec3 tives outlined in section 3(A)(iii). The re4 port to the Secretary shall, when applica5 ble, include—

6 (I) information on the total num7 ber of waivers granted, including the

8 number of waivers granted for each

9 type of waiver;

10 (II) information describing the

11 types and characteristics of waivers

12 granted and their relationship to the

13 progress of local educational agencies

14 and schools toward meeting their per15 formance objectives; and

16 (III) an assurance from State

17 program managers that the data used

18 to measure performance of the edu19 cation flexibility program under this

20 section are reliable, complete, and ac21 curate, as defined by the State, or a

22 description of a plan for improving

23 the reliability, completeness, and accu24 racy of such data.
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1 (ii) SECRETARY REPORT.—The Sec2 retary shall—

3 (I) make each State report avail4 able to Congress and the general pub5 lic;

6 (II) submit to Congress a report,

7 on a timely basis, that addresses the

8 impact that the education flexibility

9 program under this section has had

10 with regard to performance objectives

11 described in paragraph (3)(A)(iii).

12 The Secretary shall include in the report to

13 Congress an assurance that the data used

14 to measure performance of the education

15 flexibility program under this section are

16 complete, reliable, and accurate or a plan

17 for improving the reliability, completeness,

18 and accuracy of such data.

19 (6) DURATION OF FEDERAL WAIVERS.—

20 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall not

21 approve the application of a State educational

22 agency under paragraph (3) for a period ex23 ceeding 5 years, except that the Secretary may

24 extend such period if the Secretary determines

25 that such agency’s authority to grant waivers
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1 has been effective in enabling such State or af2 fected local educational agencies or schools to

3 carry out their local reform plans.

4 (B) PERFORMANCE REVIEW.—Three years

5 after a State is designated an Ed-Flex Partner6 ship State, the Secretary shall—

7 (i) review the performance of any

8 State educational agency in such State

9 that grants waivers of Federal statutory or

10 regulatory requirements described in para11 graph (1)(A); and

12 (ii) terminate such agency’s authority

13 to grant such waivers if the Secretary de14 termines, after notice and opportunity for

15 a hearing, that such agency has failed to

16 make measurable progress in meeting the

17 objectives outlined in paragraph (3)(A)(iii)

18 to justify continuation of such authority.

19 (7) AUTHORITY TO ISSUE WAIVERS.—Notwith20 standing any other provision of law, the Secretary is

21 authorized to carry out the education flexibility pro22 gram under this subsection for each of the fiscal

23 years 1999 through 2004.

24 (b) INCLUDED PROGRAMS.—The statutory or regu25 latory requirements referred to in subsection (a)(1)(A) are
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1 any such requirements under the following programs or

2 Acts:

3 (1) Title I of the Elementary and Secondary

4 Education Act of 1965.

5 (2) Part B of title II of the Elementary and

6 Secondary Education Act of 1965.

7 (3) Subpart 2 of part A of title III of the Ele8 mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965

9 (other than section 3136 of such Act).

10 (4) Title IV of the Elementary and Secondary

11 Education Act of 1965.

12 (5) Title VI of the Elementary and Secondary

13 Education Act of 1965.

14 (6) Part C of title VII of the Elementary and

15 Secondary Education Act of 1965.

16 (7) The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Tech17 nical Education Act of 1998.

18 (c) WAIVERS NOT AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary

19 may not waive any statutory or regulatory requirement of

20 the programs or Acts authorized to be waived under sub21 section (a)(1)(A)—

22 (1) relating to—

23 (A) maintenance of effort;

24 (B) comparability of services;
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1 (C) the equitable participation of students

2 and professional staff in private schools;

3 (D) parental participation and involve4 ment;

5 (E) the distribution of funds to States or

6 to local educational agencies;

7 (F) the selection of schools to participate

8 in part A of title I of the Elementary and Sec9 ondary Education Act of 1965, except that a

10 State educational agency may grant waivers to

11 allow schools to participate in part A of title I

12 of such Act if the percentage of children from

13 low-income families in the attendance area of

14 such school or who actually attend such school

15 is within 5 percentage points of the lowest per16 centage of such children for any school in the

17 local educational agency that meets the require18 ments of section 1113 of the Act;

19 (G) use of Federal funds to supplement,

20 not supplant, non-Federal funds; and

21 (H) applicable civil rights requirements;

22 and

23 (2) unless the underlying purposes of the statu24 tory requirements of each program or Act for which
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1 a waiver is granted continue to be met to the satis2 faction of the Secretary.

3 (d) APPLICATION.—

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para5 graphs (2) and (3), this Act shall not apply to a

6 State educational agency that has been granted

7 waiver authority under the following provisions of

8 law:

9 (A) Section 311(e) of the Goals 2000:

10 Educate America Act.

11 (B) The proviso referring to such section

12 311(e) under the heading ‘‘EDUCATION RE13 FORM’’ in the Department of Education Appro14 priations Act, 1996 (Public Law 104–134; 110

15 Stat. 1321–229).

16 (2) EXCEPTION.—If a State educational agency

17 that has been granted waiver authority, pursuant to

18 paragraph (1)(A) or (B), applies to the Secretary to

19 extend such authority, the provisions of this Act, ex20 cept subsection (e)(1), shall apply to such agency.

21 (3) EFFECTIVE DATE FOR EXISTING ED-FLEX

22 PROGRAMS.—This Act shall apply to a State edu23 cational agency described in paragraph (2) begin24 ning on the date that such an extension is granted.

25 (e) ACCOUNTABILITY.—
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1 (1) EVALUATION FOR ED-FLEX PARTNERSHIP

2 STATES.—In deciding whether to extend a request

3 for a State educational agency’s authority to issue

4 waivers under this section, the Secretary shall review

5 the progress of the State educational agency to de6 termine if such agency—

7 (A) makes measurable progress toward

8 achieving the objectives described in the appli9 cation submitted pursuant to subsection

10 (a)(3)(A)(iii); and

11 (B) demonstrates that local educational

12 agencies or schools affected by such waiver or

13 authority have made measurable progress to14 ward achieving the desired results described in

15 the application submitted pursuant to sub16 section (a)(4)(A)(iii).

17 (2) EVALUATION FOR EXISTING ED-FLEX PRO18 GRAMS.—In deciding whether to extend a request for

19 a State educational agency described in subsection

20 (d)(2) to issue waivers under this section, the Sec21 retary shall review the progress of the agency in

22 achieving the objectives set forth in the application

23 submitted pursuant to subsection (a)(2)(B)(iii) of

24 the Goals 2000: Educate America Act.
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1 (f) PUBLICATION.—A notice of the Secretary’s deci2 sion to authorize State educational agencies to issue waiv3 ers under this section shall be published in the Federal

4 Register and the Secretary shall provide for the dissemina5 tion of such notice to State educational agencies, inter6 ested parties, including educators, parents, students, advo7 cacy and civil rights organizations, other interested par8 ties, and the public.

9 (g) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act shall be effective

10 during the period beginning on the date of the enactment

11 of this Act and ending on the date of the enactment of

12 an Act (enacted after the date of the enactment of this

13 Act) that reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary

14 Education Act of 1965 in its entirety.

Passed the House of Representatives March 11,

1999.

Attest:

Clerk.