S. 1580 

One Hundred Fifteenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and eighteen 

An Act 

To enhance the transparency, improve the coordination, and intensify the impact 

of assistance to support access to primary and secondary education for displaced 

children and persons, including women and girls, and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Girls’ Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act’’. 

SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

Congress finds the following: 

(1) As of June 2018, more than 68,000,000 people have 

been displaced by disasters and conflicts around the world, 

the highest number recorded since the end of World War II, 

of which more than 25,000,000 people are refugees. 

(2) More than half of the population of refugees are children 

and, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for 

Refugees, nearly 4,000,000 school-aged refugee children lack 

access to primary education. 

(3) Education offers socioeconomic opportunities, psychological stability, and physical protection for displaced people, 

particularly for women and girls, who might otherwise be 

vulnerable to severe forms of trafficking in persons (as such 

term is defined in section 103(9) of the Trafficking Victims 

Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102(9)), child marriage, 

sexual exploitation, or economic disenfranchisement. 

(4) Displaced children face considerable barriers to 

accessing educational services and, because the duration of 

such displacement is, on average, 26 years, such children may 

spend the entirety of their childhood without access to such 

services. 

(5) Despite the rising need for educational services, as 

of 2016, less than two percent of humanitarian aid was directed 

toward educational services. 

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

It is the sense of Congress that— 

(1) it is critical to ensure that children, particularly girls, 

displaced by conflicts overseas are able to access educational 

services because such access can combat extremism and reduce 

exploitation and poverty; and 
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(2) the educational needs of vulnerable women and girls 

should be considered in the design, implementation, and evaluation of related United States foreign assistance policies and 

programs. 

SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

It is the policy of the United States to— 

(1) partner with and encourage other countries, public and 

private multilateral institutions, and nongovernmental and civil 

society organizations, including faith-based organizations and 

organizations representing parents and children, to support 

efforts to ensure that displaced children have access to safe 

primary and secondary education; 

(2) work with donors to enhance training and capacitybuilding for the governments of countries hosting significant 

numbers of displaced people to design, implement, and monitor 

programs to effectively address barriers to such education; and 

(3) coordinate with the governments of countries hosting 

significant numbers of displaced people to— 

(A) promote the inclusion of displaced children into 

the educational systems of such countries; and 

(B) in circumstances in which such inclusion is difficult, 

develop innovative approaches to providing safe primary 

and secondary educational opportunities, such as encouraging schools to permit children to be educated by 

extending the hours of schooling or expanding the number 

of teachers. 

SEC. 5. UNITED STATES ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT EDUCATIONAL 

SERVICES FOR DISPLACED CHILDREN. 

(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State and the Administrator 

of the United States Agency for International Development are 

authorized to prioritize and advance ongoing efforts to support 

programs that— 

(1) provide safe primary and secondary education for displaced children; 

(2) build the capacity of institutions in countries hosting 

displaced people to prevent discrimination against displaced 

children, especially displaced girls, who seek access to such 

education; and 

(3) help increase the access of displaced children, especially 

displaced girls, to educational, economic, and entrepreneurial 

opportunities, including through the governmental authorities 

responsible for educational or youth services in such host countries. 

(b) COORDINATION WITH MULTILATERAL ORGANIZATIONS.—The 

Secretary and the Administrator are authorized to coordinate with 

the World Bank, appropriate agencies of the United Nations, and 

other relevant multilateral organizations to work with governments 

in other countries to collect relevant data, disaggregated by age 

and gender, on the ability of displaced people to access education 

and participate in economic activity, in order to improve the targeting, monitoring, and evaluation of related assistance efforts. 

(c) COORDINATION WITH PRIVATE SECTOR AND CIVIL SOCIETY

ORGANIZATIONS.—The Secretary and the Administrator are authorized to work with private sector and civil society organizations 

to promote safe primary and secondary education for displaced 

children. 
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SEC. 6. REPORT. 

The Secretary and the Administrator shall include in the report 

required under section 7 of the READ Act (division A of Public 

Law 115–56; 22 U.S.C. 2151c note) a description of any primary 

or secondary educational services supported by programs for natural 

or manmade disaster relief or response that specifically address 

the needs of displaced girls. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.