II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 280

To provide for education flexibility partnerships.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JANUARY 21, 1999

Mr. FRIST (for himself, Ms. COLLINS, Mrs. HUTCHISON, Mr. GORTON, Mr.

BROWNBACK, Mr. VOINOVICH, Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. HATCH, Mr. SMITH of

Oregon, Mr. GREGG, Mr. THOMPSON, Mr. MURKOWSKI, Mr. COVERDELL,

Mr. ALLARD, Mr. DEWINE, Mr. BENNETT, Mr. MCCAIN, Mr. MCCONNELL, Mr. ASHCROFT, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. KERREY, Mr. BAYH,

Mrs. LINCOLN, Mr. HUTCHINSON, Mr. BREAUX, and Mr. THOMAS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

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,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

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

5 Partnership Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress makes the following findings:

8 (1) States differ substantially in demographics,

9 in school governance, and in school finance and
2

•S 280 IS

1 funding. The administrative and funding mecha2 nisms that help schools in 1 State improve may not

3 prove successful in other States.

4 (2) Although the Elementary and Secondary

5 Education Act of 1965 and other Federal education

6 statutes afford flexibility to State and local edu7 cational agencies in implementing Federal programs,

8 certain requirements of Federal education statutes

9 or regulations may impede local efforts to reform

10 and improve education.

11 (3) By granting waivers of certain statutory

12 and regulatory requirements, the Federal Govern13 ment can remove impediments for local educational

14 agencies in implementing educational reforms and

15 raising the achievement levels of all children.

16 (4) State educational agencies are closer to

17 local school systems, implement statewide edu18 cational reforms with both Federal and State funds,

19 and are responsible for maintaining accountability

20 for local activities consistent with State standards

21 and assessment systems. Therefore, State edu22 cational agencies are often in the best position to

23 align waivers of Federal and State requirements

24 with State and local initiatives.
3

•S 280 IS

1 (5) The Education Flexibility Partnership Dem2 onstration Act allows State educational agencies the

3 flexibility to waive certain Federal requirements,

4 along with related State requirements, but allows

5 only 12 States to qualify for such waivers.

6 (6) Expansion of waiver authority will allow for

7 the waiver of statutory and regulatory requirements

8 that impede implementation of State and local edu9 cational improvement plans, or that unnecessarily

10 burden program administration, while maintaining

11 the intent and purposes of affected programs, and

12 maintaining such fundamental requirements as those

13 relating to civil rights, educational equity, and ac14 countability.

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

16 of children in the State, the focus must be on results

17 in raising the achievement of all students, not proc18 ess.

19 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

20 In this Act:

21 (1) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY; STATE EDU22 CATIONAL AGENCY.—The terms ‘‘local educational

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

24 meaning given such terms in section 14101 of the

25 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
4

•S 280 IS

1 (2) OUTLYING AREAS.—The term ‘‘outlying

2 areas’’ means Guam, American Samoa, the United

3 States Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the

4 Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of Palau,

5 the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Fed6 erated States of Micronesia.

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

8 the Secretary of Education.

9 (4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of

10 the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com11 monwealth of Puerto Rico, and each of the outlying

12 areas.

13 SEC. 4. EDUCATION FLEXIBILITY PARTNERSHIP.

14 (a) EDUCATION FLEXIBILITY PROGRAM.—

15 (1) PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.—

16 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may

17 carry out an education flexibility program under

18 which the Secretary authorizes a State edu19 cational agency that serves an eligible State to

20 waive statutory or regulatory requirements ap21 plicable to 1 or more programs or Acts de22 scribed in subsection (b), other than require23 ments described in subsection (c), for the State

24 educational agency or any local educational

25 agency or school within the State.
5

•S 280 IS

1 (B) DESIGNATION.—Each eligible State

2 participating in the program described in sub3 paragraph (A) shall be known as an ‘‘Ed-Flex

4 Partnership State’’.

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

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

7 that—

8 (A)(i) has—

9 (I) developed and implemented the

10 challenging State content standards, chal11 lenging State student performance stand12 ards, and aligned assessments described in

13 section 1111(b) of the Elementary and

14 Secondary Education Act of 1965, includ15 ing the requirements of that section relat16 ing to disaggregation of data, and for

17 which local educational agencies in the

18 State are producing the individual school

19 performance profiles required by section

20 1116(a) of such Act; or

21 (II) made substantial progress, as de22 termined by the Secretary, toward develop23 ing and implementing the standards and

24 assessments, and toward having local edu-
6

•S 280 IS

1 cational agencies in the State produce the

2 profiles, described in subclause (I); and

3 (ii) holds local educational agencies and

4 schools accountable for meeting the educational

5 goals described in the local applications submit6 ted under paragraph (4), and for taking correc7 tive actions, consistent with section 1116 of the

8 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of

9 1965, for the local educational agencies that do

10 not meet the goals; and

11 (B) waives State statutory or regulatory

12 requirements relating to education while holding

13 local educational agencies or schools within the

14 State that are affected by such waivers account15 able for the performance of the students who

16 are affected by such waivers.

17 (3) STATE APPLICATION.—

18 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each State educational

19 agency desiring to participate in the education

20 flexibility program under this section shall sub21 mit an application to the Secretary at such

22 time, in such manner, and containing such in23 formation as the Secretary may reasonably re24 quire. Each such application shall demonstrate

25 that the eligible State has adopted an edu-
7

•S 280 IS

1 cational flexibility plan for the State that

2 includes—

3 (i) a description of the process the

4 State educational agency will use to evalu5 ate applications from local educational

6 agencies or schools requesting waivers of—

7 (I) Federal statutory or regu8 latory requirements as described in

9 paragraph (1)(A); and

10 (II) State statutory or regulatory

11 requirements relating to education;

12 and

13 (ii) a detailed description of the State

14 statutory and regulatory requirements re15 lating to education that the State edu16 cational agency will waive.

17 (B) APPROVAL AND CONSIDERATIONS.—

18 The Secretary may approve an application de19 scribed in subparagraph (A) only if the Sec20 retary determines that such application dem21 onstrates substantial promise of assisting the

22 State educational agency and affected local edu23 cational agencies and schools within such State

24 in carrying out comprehensive educational re25 form, after considering—
8

•S 280 IS

1 (i) the comprehensiveness and quality

2 of the educational flexibility plan described

3 in subparagraph (A);

4 (ii) the ability of such plan to ensure

5 accountability for the activities and goals

6 described in such plan;

7 (iii) the significance of the State stat8 utory or regulatory requirements relating

9 to education that will be waived; and

10 (iv) the quality of the State edu11 cational agency’s process for approving ap12 plications for waivers of Federal statutory

13 or regulatory requirements as described in

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

15 evaluating the results of such waivers.

16 (4) LOCAL APPLICATION.—

17 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each local educational

18 agency or school requesting a waiver of a Fed19 eral statutory or regulatory requirement as de20 scribed in paragraph (1)(A) and any relevant

21 State statutory or regulatory requirement from

22 a State educational agency shall submit an ap23 plication to the State educational agency at

24 such time, in such manner, and containing such

25 information as the State educational agency
9

•S 280 IS

1 may reasonably require. Each such application

2 shall—

3 (i) indicate each Federal program af4 fected and the statutory or regulatory re5 quirement that will be waived;

6 (ii) describe the purposes and overall

7 expected results of waiving each such re8 quirement;

9 (iii) describe for each school year spe10 cific, measurable, educational goals for

11 each local educational agency or school af12 fected by the proposed waiver; and

13 (iv) explain why the waiver will assist

14 the local educational agency or school in

15 reaching such goals.

16 (B) EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS.—A

17 State educational agency shall evaluate an ap18 plication submitted under subparagraph (A) in

19 accordance with the State’s educational flexibil20 ity plan described in paragraph (3)(A).

21 (C) APPROVAL.—A State educational

22 agency shall not approve an application for a

23 waiver under this paragraph unless—

24 (i) the local educational agency or

25 school requesting such waiver has devel-
10

•S 280 IS

1 oped a local reform plan that is applicable

2 to such agency or school, respectively; and

3 (ii) the waiver of Federal statutory or

4 regulatory requirements as described in

5 paragraph (1)(A) will assist the local edu6 cational agency or school in reaching its

7 educational goals.

8 (5) MONITORING.—Each State educational

9 agency participating in the program under this sec10 tion shall annually monitor the activities of local

11 educational agencies and schools receiving waivers

12 under this section and shall submit an annual report

13 regarding such monitoring to the Secretary.

14 (6) DURATION OF FEDERAL WAIVERS.—

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

16 approve the application of a State educational

17 agency under paragraph (3) for a period ex18 ceeding 5 years, except that the Secretary may

19 extend such period if the Secretary determines

20 that such agency’s authority to grant waivers

21 has been effective in enabling such State or af22 fected local educational agencies or schools to

23 carry out their local reform plans.

24 (B) PERFORMANCE REVIEW.—The Sec25 retary shall periodically review the performance
11

•S 280 IS

1 of any State educational agency granting waiv2 ers of Federal statutory or regulatory require3 ments as described in paragraph (1)(A) and

4 shall terminate such agency’s authority to grant

5 such waivers if the Secretary determines, after

6 notice and opportunity for hearing, that such

7 agency’s performance has been inadequate to

8 justify continuation of such authority.

9 (7) AUTHORITY TO ISSUE WAIVERS.—Notwith10 standing any other provision of law, the Secretary is

11 authorized to carry out the education flexibility pro12 gram under this subsection for each of the fiscal

13 years 2000 through 2004.

14 (b) INCLUDED PROGRAMS.—The statutory or regu15 latory requirements referred to in subsection (a)(1)(A) are

16 any such requirements under the following programs or

17 Acts:

18 (1) Title I of the Elementary and Secondary

19 Education Act of 1965.

20 (2) Part A of title II of the Elementary and

21 Secondary Education Act of 1965.

22 (3) Subpart 2 of part A of title III of the Ele23 mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965

24 (other than section 3136 of such Act).
12

•S 280 IS

1 (4) Title IV of the Elementary and Secondary

2 Education Act of 1965.

3 (5) Title VI of the Elementary and Secondary

4 Education Act of 1965.

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

6 Secondary Education Act of 1965.

7 (7) The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Tech8 nical Education Act of 1998.

9 (c) WAIVERS NOT AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary

10 may not waive any statutory or regulatory requirement of

11 the programs or Acts authorized to be waived under sub12 section (a)(1)(A)—

13 (1) relating to—

14 (A) maintenance of effort;

15 (B) comparability of services;

16 (C) the equitable participation of students

17 and professional staff in private schools;

18 (D) parental participation and involve19 ment;

20 (E) the distribution of funds to States or

21 to local educational agencies;

22 (F) use of Federal funds to supplement,

23 not supplant, non-Federal funds; and

24 (G) applicable civil rights requirements;

25 and
13

•S 280 IS

1 (2) unless the underlying purposes of the statu2 tory requirements of each program or Act for which

3 a waiver is granted continue to be met to the satis4 faction of the Secretary.

5 (d) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act shall be

6 construed to affect the authority of a State educational

7 agency that has been granted waiver authority under the

8 following provisions of law:

9 (1) Section 311(e) of the Goals 2000: Educate

10 America Act.

11 (2) The proviso referring to such section 311(e)

12 under the heading ‘‘EDUCATION REFORM’’ in the

13 Department of Education Appropriations Act, 1996

14 (Public Law 104–134; 110 Stat. 1321–229).

15 (e) ACCOUNTABILITY.—In deciding whether to ex16 tend a request for a State educational agency’s authority

17 to issue waivers under this section, the Secretary shall re18 view the progress of the State education agency, local edu19 cational agency, or school affected by such waiver or au20 thority to determine if such agency or school has made

21 progress toward achieving the desired results described in

22 the application submitted pursuant to subsection

23 (e)(4)(A)(ii).

24 (f) PUBLICATION.—A notice of the Secretary’s deci25 sion to authorize State educational agencies to issue waiv-
14

•S 280 IS

1 ers under this section shall be published in the Federal

2 Register and the Secretary shall provide for the dissemina3 tion of such notice to State educational agencies, inter4 ested parties, including educators, parents, students, advo5 cacy and civil rights organizations, other interested par6 ties, and the public.

Æ