II 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 567 

To amend the small, rural school achievement program and the rural and 

low-income school program under part B of title VI of the Elementary 

and Secondary Education Act of 1965. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 14, 2011 

Mr. CONRAD (for himself and Ms. COLLINS) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the small, rural school achievement program and 

the rural and low-income school program under part 

B of title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education 

Act of 1965. 

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 ‘‘Rural Education 

5 Achievement Program Reauthorization Act of 2011’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SMALL, RURAL SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT PROGRAM. 

2 Sections 6211 and 6212 of the Elementary and Sec3 ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7345, 7345a) 

4 are amended to read as follows: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 6211. USE OF APPLICABLE FUNDING. 

6 ‘‘(a) ALTERNATIVE USES.— 

7 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 

8 provision of law, an eligible local educational agency 

9 may use the applicable funding that the agency is el10 igible to receive from the State educational agency 

11 for a fiscal year to carry out local activities author12 ized under any of the following provisions: 

13 ‘‘(A) Part A of title I. 

14 ‘‘(B) Part A or D of title II. 

15 ‘‘(C) Title III. 

16 ‘‘(D) Part A or B of title IV. 

17 ‘‘(E) Part A of title V. 

18 ‘‘(2) NOTIFICATION.—An eligible local edu19 cational agency shall notify the State educational 

20 agency of the local educational agency’s intention to 

21 use the applicable funding in accordance with para22 graph (1), by a date that is established by the State 

23 educational agency for the notification. 

24 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A local educational agency 

2 shall be eligible to use the applicable funding in ac3 cordance with subsection (a) if— 

4 ‘‘(A)(i)(I) the total number of students in 

5 average daily attendance at all of the schools 

6 served by the local educational agency is fewer 

7 than 600; or 

8 ‘‘(II) each county in which a school served 

9 by the local educational agency is located has a 

10 total population density of fewer than 10 per11 sons per square mile; and 

12 ‘‘(ii) all of the schools served by the local 

13 educational agency are designated with a school 

14 locale code of Fringe Rural, Distant Rural, or 

15 Remote Rural, as determined by the Secretary; 

16 or 

17 ‘‘(B) the agency meets the criteria estab18 lished in subparagraph (A)(i) and the Sec19 retary, in accordance with paragraph (2), 

20 grants the local educational agency’s request to 

21 waive the criteria described in subparagraph 

22 (A)(ii). 

23 ‘‘(2) CERTIFICATION.—The Secretary shall de24 termine whether to waive the criteria described in 

25 paragraph (1)(A)(ii) based on a demonstration by 


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1 the local educational agency, and concurrence by the 

2 State educational agency, that the local educational 

3 agency is located in an area defined as rural by a 

4 governmental agency of the State. 

5 ‘‘(c) APPLICABLE FUNDING DEFINED.—In this sec6 tion, the term ‘applicable funding’ means funds provided 

7 under any of the following provisions: 

8 ‘‘(1) Subpart 2 and section 2412(a)(2)(A) of 

9 title II. 

10 ‘‘(2) Section 4114. 

11 ‘‘(3) Part A of title V. 

12 ‘‘(d) DISBURSEMENT.—Each State educational agen13 cy that receives applicable funding for a fiscal year shall 

14 disburse the applicable funding to local educational agen15 cies for alternative uses under this section for the fiscal 

16 year at the same time as the State educational agency dis17 burses the applicable funding to local educational agencies 

18 that do not intend to use the applicable funding for such 

19 alternative uses for the fiscal year. 

20 ‘‘(e) APPLICABLE RULES.—Applicable funding under 

21 this section shall be available to carry out local activities 

22 authorized under subsection (a). 

23 ‘‘SEC. 6212. GRANT PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 

24 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized to 

25 award grants to eligible local educational agencies to enVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:40 Mar 15, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S567.IS S567

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1 able the local educational agencies to carry out activities 

2 authorized under any of the following provisions: 

3 ‘‘(1) Part A of title I. 

4 ‘‘(2) Part A or D of title II. 

5 ‘‘(3) Title III. 

6 ‘‘(4) Part A or B of title IV. 

7 ‘‘(5) Part A of title V. 

8 ‘‘(b) ALLOCATION.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para10 graph (3), the Secretary shall award a grant under 

11 subsection (a) to a local educational agency eligible 

12 under section 6211(b) for a fiscal year in an amount 

13 equal to the initial amount determined under para14 graph (2) for the fiscal year minus the total amount 

15 received by the agency under the provisions of law 

16 described in section 6211(c) for the preceding fiscal 

17 year. 

18 ‘‘(2) DETERMINATION OF INITIAL AMOUNT.— 

19 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The initial amount re20 ferred to in paragraph (1) is equal to $100 

21 multiplied by the total number of students in 

22 excess of 50 students, in average daily attend23 ance at the schools served by the local edu24 cational agency, plus $20,000, except that the 

25 initial amount may not exceed $60,000. 


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1 ‘‘(B) SPECIAL RULE.—For any fiscal year 

2 for which the amount made available to carry 

3 out this part is $100,000,000 or more, subpara4 graph (A) shall be applied— 

5 ‘‘(i) by substituting ‘$25,000’ for 

6 ‘$20,000’; and 

7 ‘‘(ii) by substituting ‘$80,000’ for 

8 ‘$60,000’. 

9 ‘‘(3) RATABLE ADJUSTMENT.— 

10 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—If the amount made 

11 available to carry out this section for any fiscal 

12 year is not sufficient to pay in full the amounts 

13 that local educational agencies are eligible to re14 ceive under paragraph (1) for such year, the 

15 Secretary shall ratably reduce such amounts for 

16 such year. 

17 ‘‘(B) ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS.—If addi18 tional funds become available for making pay19 ments under paragraph (1) for such fiscal year, 

20 payments that were reduced under subpara21 graph (A) shall be increased on the same basis 

22 as such payments were reduced. 

23 ‘‘(c) DISBURSEMENT.—The Secretary shall disburse 

24 the funds awarded to a local educational agency under this 


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1 section for a fiscal year not later than July 1 of that fiscal 

2 year. 

3 ‘‘(d) SPECIAL ELIGIBILITY RULE.—A local edu4 cational agency that receives a grant under this subpart 

5 for a fiscal year is not eligible to receive funds for such 

6 fiscal year under subpart 2.’’. 

7 SEC. 3. RURAL AND LOW-INCOME SCHOOL PROGRAM. 

8 Section 6221 of the Elementary and Secondary Edu9 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7351) is amended to read 

10 as follows: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 6221. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 

12 ‘‘(a) GRANTS TO STATES.— 

13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—From amounts appro14 priated under section 6234 for this subpart for a fis15 cal year that are not reserved under subsection (c), 

16 the Secretary shall award grants (from allotments 

17 made under paragraph (2)) for the fiscal year to 

18 State educational agencies that have applications 

19 submitted under section 6223 approved to enable the 

20 State educational agencies to award grants to eligi21 ble local educational agencies for local authorized ac22 tivities described in section 6222(a). 

23 ‘‘(2) ALLOTMENT.—From amounts described in 

24 paragraph (1) for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall 

25 allot to each State educational agency for that fiscal 


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1 year an amount that bears the same ratio to those 

2 amounts as the number of students in average daily 

3 attendance served by eligible local educational agen4 cies in the State for that fiscal year bears to the 

5 number of all such students served by eligible local 

6 educational agencies in all States for that fiscal 

7 year. 

8 ‘‘(3) SPECIALLY QUALIFIED AGENCIES.— 

9 ‘‘(A) ELIGIBILITY AND APPLICATION.—If a 

10 State educational agency elects not to partici11 pate in the program under this subpart or does 

12 not have an application submitted under section 

13 6223 approved, a specially qualified agency in 

14 such State desiring a grant under this subpart 

15 may submit an application under such section 

16 directly to the Secretary to receive an award 

17 under this subpart. 

18 ‘‘(B) DIRECT AWARDS.—The Secretary 

19 may award, on a competitive basis or by for20 mula, the amount the State educational agency 

21 is eligible to receive under paragraph (2) di22 rectly to a specially qualified agency in the 

23 State that has submitted an application in ac24 cordance with subparagraph (A) and obtained 

25 approval of the application. 


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1 ‘‘(C) SPECIALLY QUALIFIED AGENCY DE2 FINED.—In this subpart, the term ‘specially 

3 qualified agency’ means an eligible local edu4 cational agency served by a State educational 

5 agency that does not participate in a program 

6 under this subpart in a fiscal year, that may 

7 apply directly to the Secretary for a grant in 

8 such year under this subsection. 

9 ‘‘(b) LOCAL AWARDS.— 

10 ‘‘(1) ELIGIBILITY.—A local educational agency 

11 shall be eligible to receive a grant under this subpart 

12 if— 

13 ‘‘(A) 40 percent or more of the children 

14 ages 5 through 17 years served by the local 

15 educational agency are eligible for a free or re16 duced price lunch under the Richard B. Russell 

17 National School Lunch Act; and 

18 ‘‘(B) all of the schools served by the agen19 cy are designated with a school locale code of 

20 Distant Town, Remote Town, Fringe Rural, 

21 Distant Rural, or Remote Rural, as determined 

22 by the Secretary. 

23 ‘‘(2) AWARD BASIS.—A State educational agen24 cy shall award grants to eligible local educational 

25 agencies— 


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1 ‘‘(A) on a competitive basis; 

2 ‘‘(B) according to a formula based on the 

3 number of students in average daily attendance 

4 served by the eligible local educational agencies 

5 or schools in the State; or 

6 ‘‘(C) according to an alternative formula, 

7 if, prior to awarding the grants, the State edu8 cational agency demonstrates, to the satisfac9 tion of the Secretary, that the alternative for10 mula enables the State educational agency to 

11 allot the grant funds in a manner that serves 

12 equal or greater concentrations of children from 

13 families eligible for a free or reduced price 

14 lunch under the Richard B. Russell National 

15 School Lunch Act, relative to the concentrations 

16 that would be served if the State educational 

17 agency used the formula described in subpara18 graph (B). 

19 ‘‘(c) RESERVATIONS.—From amounts appropriated 

20 under section 6234 for this subpart for a fiscal year, the 

21 Secretary shall reserve— 

22 ‘‘(1) one-half of 1 percent to make awards to el23 ementary schools or secondary schools operated or 

24 supported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to carry 

25 out the activities authorized under this subpart; and 


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1 ‘‘(2) one-half of 1 percent to make awards to 

2 the outlying areas in accordance with their respec3 tive needs, to carry out the activities authorized 

4 under this subpart. 

5 ‘‘(d) SPECIAL ELIGIBILITY RULE.—A local edu6 cational agency that is eligible to receive a grant under 

7 this subpart and is also eligible to receive a grant under 

8 subpart 1, may receive a grant under this subpart for a 

9 fiscal year only if the local educational agency does not 

10 receive a grant under subpart 1 for such fiscal year.’’. 

Æ 


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