II 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1661 

To amend title V of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 

to reduce class size through the use of highly qualified teachers, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 6, 2011 

Mrs. MURRAY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend title V of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to reduce class size through the 

use of highly qualified teachers, and for other purposes. 

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Facilitating Out5 standing Classrooms Using Size Act’’ or the ‘‘FOCUS 

6 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. CLASS SIZE REDUCTION. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title V of the Elementary and 

3 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7201 et 

4 seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘PART E—CLASS SIZE REDUCTION 

6 ‘‘SEC. 5701. GRANT PROGRAM. 

7 ‘‘(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this section are— 

8 ‘‘(1) to reduce class size through the use of 

9 highly qualified teachers; 

10 ‘‘(2) to assist States and local educational agen11 cies in recruiting, hiring, and training 100,000 

12 teachers in order to reduce class sizes nationally, in 

13 kindergarten through grade 3, to an average of 18 

14 students per regular classroom; and 

15 ‘‘(3) to improve teaching in those grades so 

16 that all students can learn to read independently 

17 and well by the end of the grade 3. 

18 ‘‘(b) ALLOTMENT TO STATES.— 

19 ‘‘(1) RESERVATION.—From the amount made 

20 available to carry out this part for a fiscal year, the 

21 Secretary shall reserve not more than 1 percent for 

22 the Secretary of the Interior (on behalf of the Bu23 reau of Indian Affairs) and the outlying areas for 

24 activities carried out in accordance with this section. 

25 ‘‘(2) STATE ALLOTMENTS.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) FORMULA.—Subject to subpara2 graphs (B) and (C), from the funds made avail3 able to carry out this part for a fiscal year and 

4 not reserved under paragraph (1) or subsection 

5 (j), the Secretary shall allot to each State an 

6 amount that bears the same relation to such 

7 funds as the sum of the amounts the State re8 ceived under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of sec9 tion 2111(b)(2) for the preceding fiscal year 

10 bears to the sums all States received under 

11 such subparagraphs for the preceding fiscal 

12 year. 

13 ‘‘(B) HOLD HARMLESS.— 

14 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to sub15 paragraph (C) and clause (ii), from the 

16 amount made available to carry out this 

17 part for a fiscal year and not reserved 

18 under paragraph (1) or subsection (j), the 

19 Secretary shall allot to each State an 

20 amount equal to the amount that such 

21 State received for the preceding fiscal year 

22 under this section. 

23 ‘‘(ii) RATABLE REDUCTION.—If the 

24 amount made available to carry out this 

25 part for a fiscal year and not reserved 


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1 under paragraph (1) or subsection (j) is in2 sufficient to pay the full amounts that all 

3 States are eligible to receive under clause 

4 (i) for such fiscal year, the Secretary shall 

5 ratably reduce such amounts for such fis6 cal year. 

7 ‘‘(C) ALLOTMENT OF ADDITIONAL

8 FUNDS.— 

9 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to clause 

10 (ii), for any fiscal year for which the 

11 amount made available to carry out this 

12 part and not reserved under paragraph (1) 

13 or subsection (j) exceeds the amount made 

14 available to the States for the preceding 

15 fiscal year under section 2111(b), the Sec16 retary shall allot to each State the percent17 age of the excess amount that is the great18 er of— 

19 ‘‘(I) the percentage the State re20 ceived for the preceding fiscal year of 

21 the total amount made available to 

22 the States under section 1122; or 

23 ‘‘(II) the percentage so received 

24 of the total amount made available to 

25 the States under section 2111(b). 


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1 ‘‘(ii) RATABLE REDUCTIONS.—If the 

2 excess amount for a fiscal year is insuffi3 cient to pay the full amounts that all 

4 States are eligible to receive under clause 

5 (i) for such fiscal year, the Secretary shall 

6 ratably reduce such amounts for such fis7 cal year. 

8 ‘‘(D) REALLOTMENT.—If any State does 

9 not apply for an allotment under this subsection 

10 or does not have an application approved under 

11 this part for any fiscal year, the Secretary shall 

12 reallot the amount of the allotment to the re13 maining States in accordance with this sub14 section. 

15 ‘‘(c) ALLOCATION TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGEN16 CIES.— 

17 ‘‘(1) ALLOCATION.—Each State that receives 

18 funds under this section shall allocate all of such 

19 funds to local educational agencies within the State, 

20 of which— 

21 ‘‘(A) 80 percent shall be allocated to those 

22 local educational agencies in proportion to the 

23 number of children, ages 5 through 17, from 

24 families with incomes below the poverty line 

25 who reside in the school district served by that 


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1 local educational agency for the most recent fis2 cal year for which satisfactory data are avail3 able, compared to the number of those children 

4 who reside in the school districts served by all 

5 the local educational agencies in the State for 

6 that fiscal year; and 

7 ‘‘(B) 20 percent shall be allocated to those 

8 local educational agencies within the State in 

9 accordance with the relative enrollments of chil10 dren, ages 5 through 17, in public and private 

11 nonprofit elementary schools and secondary 

12 schools within the areas served by those local 

13 educational agencies. 

14 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding paragraphs 

15 (1) and (2)(B) of subsection (d), if the award to a 

16 local educational agency under this section is less 

17 than the starting salary for a new highly qualified 

18 teacher for a school served by that local educational 

19 agency, that local educational agency may use funds 

20 made available under this section to— 

21 ‘‘(A) help pay the salary of a full- or part22 time highly qualified teacher hired to reduce 

23 class size, which may be done in combination 

24 with the expenditure of other Federal, State, or 

25 local funds; or 


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1 ‘‘(B) pay for activities described in sub2 section (d)(2)(A)(iii) that may be related to 

3 teaching in smaller classes. 

4 ‘‘(3) REALLOCATION.—If a local educational 

5 agency does not apply for an allocation under this 

6 subsection or if the local educational agency’s appli7 cation is not approved, the State shall reallocate the 

8 local educational agency’s allocation to the remain9 ing local educational agencies in the State in accord10 ance with paragraph (1). 

11 ‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.— 

12 ‘‘(1) MANDATORY USES.—Each local edu13 cational agency that receives funds under this sec14 tion shall use those funds— 

15 ‘‘(A) to carry out effective approaches to 

16 reducing class size through use of highly quali17 fied teachers to improve educational achieve18 ment for both regular and special needs chil19 dren, with particular consideration given to re20 ducing class size in the early elementary grades 

21 for which some research has shown class size 

22 reduction is most effective; and 

23 ‘‘(B) to create a continuum of small class24 es at each grade level for all students served by 


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1 the local educational agency as the students 

2 progress from kindergarten through grade 3. 

3 ‘‘(2) PERMISSIBLE USES.— 

4 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each local educational 

5 agency that receives funds under this section 

6 may use those funds for— 

7 ‘‘(i) recruiting (including through the 

8 use of signing bonuses, and other financial 

9 incentives), hiring, and training highly 

10 qualified regular and special education 

11 teachers (which may include hiring special 

12 education teachers to team-teach with reg13 ular teachers in classrooms that contain 

14 children with disabilities and non-disabled 

15 children) and teachers of special needs 

16 children; 

17 ‘‘(ii) testing new teachers for aca18 demic content knowledge, and to meet 

19 State certification or licensing require20 ments that are consistent with title II of 

21 the Higher Education Act of 1965; and 

22 ‘‘(iii) providing professional develop23 ment (which may include such activities as 

24 promoting retention and mentoring) for 

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1 ers and teachers of special needs children, 

2 in order to meet the goal of ensuring that 

3 all teachers have the general knowledge, 

4 teaching skills, and subject matter knowl5 edge necessary to teach effectively in the 

6 content areas in which the teachers teach, 

7 consistent with title II of the Higher Edu8 cation Act of 1965. 

9 ‘‘(B) LIMITATION ON TESTING AND PRO10 FESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.— 

11 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Except as pro12 vided in clause (ii), a local educational 

13 agency may use not more than a total of 

14 25 percent of the funds received by the 

15 local educational agency under this section 

16 for activities described in clauses (ii) and 

17 (iii) of subparagraph (A). 

18 ‘‘(ii) SPECIAL RULE.—A local edu19 cational agency may use more than 25 per20 cent of the funds the local educational 

21 agency receives under this section for ac22 tivities described in subparagraph (A)(iii) 

23 for the purpose of helping teachers who are 

24 not yet highly qualified become highly 

25 qualified, if— 


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1 ‘‘(I) 10 percent or more of the el2 ementary school classes in a school 

3 served by the local educational agency 

4 are taught by individuals who are not 

5 highly qualified teachers; or 

6 ‘‘(II) the State educational agen7 cy has waived State certification or li8 censing requirements for 10 percent 

9 or more of such teachers. 

10 ‘‘(C) USE OF FUNDS BY AGENCIES THAT

11 HAVE REDUCED CLASS SIZE.—Notwithstanding 

12 subparagraph (B), a local educational agency 

13 that has already reduced class size in the early 

14 elementary grades to 18 or fewer children (or 

15 has already reduced class size to a State or 

16 local class size reduction goal that was in effect 

17 on November 28, 1999, if that goal is 20 or 

18 fewer children) may use funds received under 

19 this section— 

20 ‘‘(i) to make further class size reduc21 tions in kindergarten through grade 3; 

22 ‘‘(ii) to reduce class size in other 

23 grades; or 

24 ‘‘(iii) to carry out activities to improve 

25 teacher quality (particularly instructional 


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1 practices in small classes), including pro2 fessional development. 

3 ‘‘(3) SUPPLEMENT, NOT SUPPLANT.—Each 

4 local educational agency that receives funds made 

5 available under this section shall use those funds 

6 only to supplement, and not to supplant, State and 

7 local funds that, in the absence of funds made avail8 able under this section, would otherwise be expended 

9 for activities described in this section. 

10 ‘‘(4) LIMITATION ON USE FOR SALARIES AND

11 BENEFITS.— 

12 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

13 subparagraph (B), no funds made available 

14 under this section may be used to increase the 

15 salaries of, or provide benefits (other than par16 ticipation in professional development and en17 richment programs) to, teachers who are not 

18 hired under this section. 

19 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—Funds made available 

20 under this section may be used to pay the sala21 ries of teachers hired under section 306 of the 

22 Department of Education Appropriations Act, 

23 2001. 

24 ‘‘(e) APPLICATIONS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) STATES.—Each State desiring an allot2 ment under this section shall submit an application 

3 to the Secretary that includes such information as 

4 the Secretary may require. 

5 ‘‘(2) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES.—Each 

6 local educational agency desiring an allocation under 

7 this section shall submit an application to the State 

8 that includes such information as the State may re9 quire. Each such application shall include a descrip10 tion of the local educational agency’s program to re11 duce class size by hiring additional highly qualified 

12 teachers. 

13 ‘‘(f) REPORTS.— 

14 ‘‘(1) STATE ACTIVITIES.—Each State receiving 

15 funds under this section shall prepare and submit to 

16 the Secretary a biennial report on activities carried 

17 out in the State under this section that provides the 

18 information described in section 5122(a)(2) with re19 spect to the activities. 

20 ‘‘(2) PROGRESS CONCERNING CLASS SIZE AND

21 QUALIFIED TEACHERS.—Each State and local edu22 cational agency receiving funds under this section 

23 shall annually report to parents and the public, in 

24 numeric form as compared to the previous year, 

25 on— 


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1 ‘‘(A) the State’s and local educational 

2 agency’s progress in reducing class size, and in3 creasing the percentage of classes in core aca4 demic subjects taught by highly qualified teach5 ers; and 

6 ‘‘(B) the impact that hiring additional 

7 highly qualified teachers and reducing class 

8 size, has had, if any, on increasing student aca9 demic achievement. 

10 ‘‘(3) NOTICE.—Each local educational agency 

11 that receives funds under this section shall provide 

12 to each individual parent of a child who attends a 

13 school served by such local educational agency time14 ly, written notice if the child has been assigned or 

15 has been taught for 2 or more consecutive weeks by 

16 a substitute teacher, as defined by such local edu17 cational agency, or a teacher who is not highly quali18 fied. 

19 ‘‘(g) PRIVATE SCHOOLS.—If a local educational 

20 agency uses funds made available under this section for 

21 professional development activities, the local educational 

22 agency shall ensure the equitable participation of private 

23 nonprofit elementary schools and secondary schools in 

24 such activities in accordance with section 5142. Section 


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1 5142 shall not apply to other activities carried out under 

2 this section. 

3 ‘‘(h) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—A local edu4 cational agency that receives funds under this section may 

5 use not more than 3 percent of such funds for local admin6 istrative costs. 

7 ‘‘(i) CERTIFICATION, LICENSING, AND COM8 PETENCY.—No funds made available under this section 

9 may be used to pay the salary of any teacher unless such 

10 teacher is highly qualified. 

11 ‘‘(j) NATIONAL EVALUATION.— 

12 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—From amounts appro13 priated to carry out this part for each of the fiscal 

14 years 2012 through 2016, the Secretary shall re15 serve not more than $5,000,000 to award a grant or 

16 contract to an independent organization outside of 

17 the Department for an independent evaluation of the 

18 impact of the demonstration program under this sec19 tion. 

20 ‘‘(2) COMPETITIVE BASIS.—The grant or con21 tract described in paragraph (1) shall be awarded on 

22 a competitive basis. 

23 ‘‘(3) PROCESS.—The evaluation under this sub24 section shall be conducted by an organization that is 

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1 pendent evaluation that identifies the effects of spe2 cific activities carried out by State educational agen3 cies and local educational agencies under this part 

4 on reducing class size and improving the pedagogy 

5 in small classrooms. Such evaluation shall take into 

6 account factors influencing student performance that 

7 are not controlled by teachers or education adminis8 trators. 

9 ‘‘(4) MATTERS EVALUATED.—The evaluation 

10 described in this subsection shall— 

11 ‘‘(A) determine the number of students 

12 who benefitted by reduced class size pursuant 

13 to this part, including an analysis by student 

14 subgroup; 

15 ‘‘(B) identify barriers to the effectiveness 

16 of the class size reduction program under this 

17 part; 

18 ‘‘(C) compare the impact of students bene19 fitting from class size reduction under this part 

20 to participants in comparison groups (of similar 

21 demographics) in schools that did not receive 

22 class size reduction funds under this part; 

23 ‘‘(D) identify the impact of the program 

24 assisted under this part on teachers; 


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1 ‘‘(E) measure the extent to which profes2 sional development programs implemented by 

3 State educational agencies and local educational 

4 agencies using funds received under this sub5 part improve instruction; 

6 ‘‘(F) analyze whether receipt of class size 

7 reduction funds under this part results in an 

8 improvement in student academic achievement; 

9 and 

10 ‘‘(G) include any other analysis or meas11 urement pertinent to this part that is deter12 mined to be appropriate by the Secretary. 

13 ‘‘(5) DISSEMINATION.—The findings of the 

14 evaluation under this subsection shall be widely dis15 seminated to the public by— 

16 ‘‘(A) the organization conducting the eval17 uation; and 

18 ‘‘(B) the Secretary. 

19 ‘‘SEC. 5702. NATIONAL CLASS SIZE DATABASE. 

20 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Of the amounts appropriated to 

21 carry out this part, the Secretary shall reserve not more 

22 than $3,500,000 to develop and maintain, through the Na23 tional Center for Education Statistics, a database that ac24 curately calculates class size for every school, school dis25 trict, and State in each of the 50 States, the District of 


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1 Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico through 

2 the collection of student and teacher data. 

3 ‘‘(b) CONTRACT.—The Secretary, acting through the 

4 Commissioner of the National Center for Education Sta5 tistics, may award a contract, on a competitive basis, for 

6 the development and maintenance of the database de7 scribed in subsection (a), to an organization, institution, 

8 or entity with expertise in data collection and class size 

9 reduction. 

10 ‘‘(c) REPORTING.—Each State educational agency 

11 that receives funds under this Act shall report to the Sec12 retary the following information: 

13 ‘‘(1) Annual student enrollment data for each 

14 school and school district in the State, disaggregated 

15 by grade level, subgroup of student described in sec16 tion 1111(b)(2)(c)(v)(II), core academic subject, and 

17 free or reduced price lunch recipient status. 

18 ‘‘(2) Classroom teacher data, including the 

19 number of teachers at each grade level, at each sub20 ject, and by highly qualified teacher status. 

21 ‘‘(d) DIGEST OF EDUCATION STATISTICS.—The Na22 tional Center for Education Statistics shall report class 

23 size data in addition to pupil-teacher ratios in the National 

24 Center’s Digest of Education Statistics. 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 5703. DEFINITION OF CLASS SIZE. 

2 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—In this part, the term ‘class size’ 

3 means the number of students, averaged over an academic 

4 year or the length of a course, who regularly appear in 

5 a teacher’s classroom and for whom the teacher is pri6 marily responsible and accountable, which averaged num7 ber shall reflect students who have joined a class or left 

8 a class throughout the duration of a course. 

9 ‘‘(b) CALCULATIONS.—In calculating class size under 

10 subsection (a)— 

11 ‘‘(1) multiple classes of the same subject shall 

12 be counted individually, including classes of the 

13 same subject taught at different times by the same 

14 teacher; and 

15 ‘‘(2) paraprofessionals and teacher’s aides shall 

16 not be counted as teachers. 

17 ‘‘SEC. 5704. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

18 ‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

19 this part such sums as may be necessary for each of the 

20 fiscal years 2012 through 2016.’’. 

21 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

22 the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 is 

23 amended by inserting after the item relating to section 

24 5618 the following: 

‘‘PART E—CLASS SIZE REDUCTION

‘‘Sec. 5701. Grant program. 

‘‘Sec. 5702. National class size database. 


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‘‘Sec. 5703. Definition of class size. 

‘‘Sec. 5704. Authorization of appropriations.’’. 

1 SEC. 3. NATIONAL CLEARINGHOUSE ON CLASS SIZE. 

2 Section 133(a) of the Education Sciences Reform Act 

3 of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9533(a)) is amended— 

4 (1) in paragraph (10)(D), by striking ‘‘and’’ 

5 after the semicolon; 

6 (2) in paragraph (11), by striking the period 

7 and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

8 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

9 ‘‘(12) reserve not more than $500,000 from the 

10 amount made available to carry out this part for 

11 each fiscal year in order to develop and maintain, di12 rectly or through a contract awarded on a competi13 tive basis to an entity, institution, or organization 

14 with expertise in class size reduction research and 

15 resources, a web-based National Clearinghouse on 

16 Class Size to make publicly available— 

17 ‘‘(A) research on class size; 

18 ‘‘(B) resources on school modernization 

19 planning; 

20 ‘‘(C) resources for maximizing existing 

21 classroom space; and 

22 ‘‘(D) best practices in small classroom in23 struction.’’. 

Æ 


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