I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7587 

To improve the literacy and English skills of English language learners, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 13, 2020 

Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. SAN NICOLAS, Mr. 

ESPAILLAT, Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois, Ms. JAYAPAL, Ms. NORTON, Mr. 

YARMUTH, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. CA ́RDENAS, and Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 

Education and Labor 

A BILL 

To improve the literacy and English skills of English 

language learners, 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 ‘‘Families Learning and 

5 Understanding English Together Act of 2020’’ or the 

6 ‘‘FLUENT Act’’. 

7 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

8 The Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) The Census Bureau’s American Community 

2 Survey of 2018 estimated 21.9 percent of United 

3 States households speak a language other than 

4 English at home. 

5 (2) Many parents in many recently immigrated 

6 families speak little to no English, can possess low 

7 literacy skills in their native language due to limited 

8 education, and frequently struggle to assist their 

9 children’s English language development. 

10 (3) The United States is a nation of immi11 grants, and even today, according to the Census Bu12 reau’s American Community Survey of 2018, more 

13 than 44,000,000 individuals who live in the United 

14 States were born outside the country. 

15 SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 

16 The purpose of this Act is to improve the educational, 

17 social, and economic advancement of families with English 

18 language learners in need of literacy skills by expanding 

19 and enhancing family literacy activities and services for 

20 such families. 

21 SEC. 4. COMPETITIVE GRANT PROGRAM. 

22 (a) PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.—From funds made 

23 available pursuant to section 9, and after reserving funds 

24 under section 9(b), the Secretary may award grants to 

25 family literacy providers to provide, directly or through a 


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1 contract with another provider, family literacy services de2 signed for families with English language learners. Each 

3 grant under this Act shall be for a period of 1 year and 

4 may be renewed for a total of 5 additional years. 

5 (b) APPLICATION.—Family literacy providers who de6 sire to receive a grant under this Act shall submit an ap7 plication at such time, containing such information, and 

8 in such manner as the Secretary may require. Such appli9 cation shall include the following: 

10 (1) An assurance that services provided with 

11 funds under this Act shall be provided to the hard12 est-to-reach populations, including populations with 

13 the greatest economic and social need. 

14 (2) A description of the services that will be 

15 provided with funds under this Act, including how 

16 the services will be based on research-based reading 

17 instruction for children who are English learners 

18 and parents who are English language learners. 

19 (3) A description of the outcome measures, con20 sistent with section 6, that are based on research 

21 and will be employed by the family literacy provider 

22 to measure the effectiveness of services provided 

23 with funds under this Act. 

24 (4) An assurance that, in providing family lit25 eracy services through the grant, the family literacy 


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1 provider will collaborate with one or more of the fol2 lowing: 

3 (A) A local educational agency. 

4 (B) An elementary school. 

5 (C) A secondary school. 

6 (D) A nonprofit entity. 

7 (c) GRANT AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant under 

8 this Act for a fiscal year shall not be less than $150,000 

9 or more than $1,000,000. 

10 (d) SERVICES REQUIREMENTS.—Family literacy 

11 services under this Act shall be provided in sufficient in12 tensity in terms of hours, and shall be of sufficient dura13 tion, to make sustainable changes in a family and shall 

14 integrate all of the following activities: 

15 (1) Interactive literacy activities between par16 ents and their children. 

17 (2) Training for parents regarding how to be 

18 the primary teacher for their children and full part19 ners in the education of their children. 

20 (3) Parent literacy training that leads to eco21 nomic self-sufficiency. 

22 (4) An age-appropriate education to prepare 

23 children for success in school and life experiences. 

24 (e) SPECIAL RULE.—Family literacy services under 

25 this Act may be provided to a family only if— 


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1 (1) each parent in the family has attained 16 

2 years of age; and 

3 (2) the family has at least one child who has 

4 not yet attained 8 years of age. 

5 SEC. 5. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING. 

6 (a) ACTIVITIES BY SECRETARY.—The Secretary, act7 ing through the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and 

8 Secondary Education, shall, through grants or contracts 

9 as described in subsection (b), provide technical assistance 

10 and training to grantees under this Act for the purposes 

11 described in subsection (c). 

12 (b) ACTIVITIES BY NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall make 

14 grants to, or enter into contracts with, at least 2 eli15 gible national organizations to provide technical as16 sistance and training to grantees under this Act for 

17 the purposes described in subsection (c). 

18 (2) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘el19 igible national organization’’ means a national orga20 nization with expertise in providing family literacy 

21 services to English language learner populations. 

22 (c) PURPOSES.—The purposes of technical assistance 

23 and training provided under this section are the following: 

24 (1) Assisting grantees under this Act to im25 prove the quality of their family literacy services. 


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1 (2) Enabling such grantees that demonstrate 

2 the effective provision of family literacy services, 

3 based on improved outcomes for children and their 

4 parents, to provide technical assistance and training 

5 to government agencies and to family literacy pro6 viders that work in collaboration with such agencies 

7 to improve the quality of their family literacy serv8 ices. 

9 (3) Assisting such grantees in the implementa10 tion of literacy curriculum and training activities, in11 cluding curriculum and training activities that sup12 port building on a child’s native language. 

13 (d) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 90 days 

14 after the end of each fiscal year, the Secretary shall sub15 mit to the Committee on Education and Labor of the 

16 House of Representatives and the Committee on Health, 

17 Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate a report 

18 on the technical assistance and training provided pursuant 

19 to subsections (a) and (b). Each such report shall describe 

20 the actions taken by the Secretary to ensure that such 

21 technical assistance and training is of high quality and 

22 is responsive to the needs of grantees under this Act. 

23 SEC. 6. OUTCOME MEASURES. 

24 The Secretary shall require each family literacy pro25 vider receiving a grant under this Act to meet culturally 


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1 appropriate and competent outcome measures described in 

2 the provider’s application under section 4, including out3 come measures with respect to— 

4 (1) acquisition of the English language, includ5 ing improved educational levels; 

6 (2) literacy skills and building of a home lan7 guage; 

8 (3) improved parenting and life skills; 

9 (4) the improved ability of parents who are 

10 English language learners to effectively interact with 

11 officials of the schools their children attend; 

12 (5) improved developmental skills and inde13 pendent learning of the children; 

14 (6) increased parental participation in their 

15 children’s education and home environments that are 

16 supportive of educational endeavors; and 

17 (7) employability skills. 

18 SEC. 7. EVALUATION. 

19 The Secretary shall conduct an annual evaluation of 

20 the grant program under this Act. Such evaluation shall 

21 be used by the Secretary— 

22 (1) for program improvement; 

23 (2) to further define the program’s goals and 

24 objectives; and 

25 (3) to determine program effectiveness. 


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1 SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS. 

2 For purposes of this Act: 

3 (1) APPLICATION OF ESEA TERMS.—The terms 

4 ‘‘elementary school’’, ‘‘English learner’’, ‘‘local edu5 cational agency’’, and ‘‘secondary school’’ have the 

6 meanings given such terms in section 8101 of the 

7 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 

8 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 

9 (2) ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER; FAMILY LIT10 ERACY ACTIVITIES.—The terms ‘‘English language 

11 learner’’ and ‘‘family literacy activities’’ have the 

12 meanings given the terms in section 203 of the 

13 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 

14 U.S.C. 3272). 

15 (3) FAMILY LITERACY PROVIDER.—The term 

16 ‘‘family literacy provider’’ means an entity that— 

17 (A) is located in a geographic area con18 taining at least one public elementary school or 

19 secondary school with a majority enrollment of 

20 children who are English learners; and 

21 (B) is one of the following: 

22 (i) A grantee under the Head Start 

23 Act (42 U.S.C. 9831 et seq.), or any other 

24 Federal or State early childhood program. 

25 (ii) An adult education provider. 

26 (iii) A local educational agency. 


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1 (iv) A public or private nonprofit 

2 agency. 

3 (v) Another entity that has the dem4 onstrated ability to provide family literacy 

5 services to English language learning 

6 adults and families. 

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

8 the Secretary of Education. 

9 SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro11 priated to carry out this Act $50,000,000 for each of fiscal 

12 years 2021 through 2025. 

13 (b) RESERVATIONS.—From funds made available 

14 pursuant to subsection (a) for a fiscal year, the Secretary 

15 shall reserve— 

16 (1) not more than 2 percent of such funds for 

17 conducting the annual evaluation required by section 

18 7; and 

19 (2) $5,000,000 for technical assistance and 

20 training under section 5. 

Æ 


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