II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1745

To establish and expand child opportunity zone family centers in elementary

schools and secondary schools, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 18, 1999

Mr. REED introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to

the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To establish and expand child opportunity zone family centers in elementary schools and secondary schools, 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. CHILD OPPORTUNITY ZONE FAMILY CENTERS.

4 Title X of the Elementary and Secondary Education

5 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8001 et seq.) is amended by add6 ing at the end the following:
2

•S 1745 IS

1 ‘‘PART L—CHILD OPPORTUNITY ZONE FAMILY

2 CENTERS

3 ‘‘SEC. 10995A. SHORT TITLE.

4 ‘‘This part may be cited as the ‘Child Opportunity

5 Zone Family Center Act of 1999’.

6 ‘‘SEC. 10995B. PURPOSE.

7 ‘‘The purpose of this part is to encourage eligible

8 partnerships to establish or expand child opportunity zone

9 family centers in elementary schools and secondary schools

10 in order to provide comprehensive support services for

11 children and their families, and to improve the children’s

12 educational, health, mental health, and social outcomes.

13 ‘‘SEC. 10995C. DEFINITIONS.

14 ‘‘In this title:

15 ‘‘(1) CHILD OPPORTUNITY ZONE FAMILY CEN16 TER.—The term ‘child opportunity zone family cen17 ter’ means a school-based or school-linked commu18 nity service center that provides and links children

19 and their families with comprehensive information,

20 support, services, and activities to improve the edu21 cation, health, mental health, safety, and economic

22 well-being of the children and their families.

23 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE PARTNERSHIP.—The term ‘eligi24 ble partnership’ means a partnership—

25 ‘‘(A) that contains—
3

•S 1745 IS

1 ‘‘(i) at least 1 elementary school or

2 secondary school that—

3 ‘‘(I) receives assistance under

4 title I and for which a measure of

5 poverty determination is made under

6 section 1113(a)(5) with respect to a

7 minimum of 40 percent of the chil8 dren in the school; and

9 ‘‘(II) demonstrates parent in10 volvement and parent support for the

11 partnership’s activities;

12 ‘‘(ii) a local educational agency;

13 ‘‘(iii) a public agency, other than a

14 local educational agency, including a local

15 or State department of health and social

16 services; and

17 ‘‘(iv) a nonprofit community-based or18 ganization, including a community mental

19 health services organization or a family

20 health center that provides mental health

21 services; and

22 ‘‘(B) that may contain—

23 ‘‘(i) an institution of higher education;

24 and
4

•S 1745 IS

1 ‘‘(ii) other public or private nonprofit

2 entities.

3 ‘‘SEC. 10995D. GRANTS AUTHORIZED.

4 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may award, on a

5 competitive basis, grants to eligible partnerships to pay

6 for the Federal share of the cost of establishing and ex7 panding child opportunity zone family centers.

8 ‘‘(b) DURATION.—The Secretary shall award grants

9 under this section for periods of 5 years.

10 ‘‘SEC. 10995E. REQUIRED ACTIVITIES.

11 ‘‘Each eligible partnership receiving a grant under

12 this part shall use the grant funds—

13 ‘‘(1) in accordance with the needs assessment

14 described in section 10995F(b)(1), to provide or link

15 children and their families with information, sup16 port, activities, or services in core areas consisting

17 of—

18 ‘‘(A) education, such as child care and

19 education programs for children below the age

20 of compulsory school attendance, before- and

21 after-school care, and school age enrichment

22 and education support programs;

23 ‘‘(B) health, such as primary care (includ24 ing prenatal care, well child care, and mental

25 health care), preventative health and safety pro-
5

•S 1745 IS

1 grams, outreach and referral, screening and

2 health promotion, and enrollment in health in3 surance programs; and

4 ‘‘(C) family support, such as adult edu5 cation and literacy programs, welfare-to-work6 programs, job training, parenting skills pro7 grams, assistance that supports healthy child

8 development, and access to basic needs, includ9 ing food and housing;

10 ‘‘(2) to provide intensive, high-quality, research11 based instructional programs that—

12 ‘‘(A) provide violence prevention education

13 for families and developmentally appropriate in14 structional services to children (including chil15 dren below the age of compulsory school attend16 ance), such as education and services on non17 violent conflict resolution, pro social skills and

18 behaviors, and other skills necessary for effec19 tively relating to others without violence; and

20 ‘‘(B) provide effective strategies for nur21 turing and supporting the emotional, social, and

22 cognitive growth of children; and

23 ‘‘(3) to provide training, information, and sup24 port to families to enable the families to participate

25 effectively in their children’s education, and to help
6

•S 1745 IS

1 their children meet challenging standards, including

2 assisting families to—

3 ‘‘(A) understand the accountability sys4 tems, including content standards, performance

5 standards, and local assessments, in place for

6 the State involved, the participating local edu7 cational agency, and the participating elemen8 tary school or secondary school;

9 ‘‘(B) understand their children’s edu10 cational needs, their children’s educational per11 formance in comparison to State and local

12 standards, and the steps the school is taking to

13 address the children’s needs and to help the

14 children meet the standards; and

15 ‘‘(C) communicate effectively with per16 sonnel responsible for providing educational

17 services to the families’ children, and to partici18 pate in the development, amendment, review,

19 and implementation of school-parent compacts,

20 parent involvement policies, and school plans.

21 ‘‘SEC. 10995F. APPLICATIONS.

22 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Each eligible partnership desir23 ing a grant under this part shall submit an application

24 to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and con25 taining such information as the Secretary may require.
7

•S 1745 IS

1 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS.—Each application submitted pursu2 ant to subsection (a) shall—

3 ‘‘(1) include a needs assessment, including a de4 scription of how the partnership will ensure that the

5 activities to be assisted under this part will be tai6 lored to meet the specific needs of the children and

7 families to be served;

8 ‘‘(2) describe arrangements that have been for9 malized between the participating elementary school

10 or secondary school, and other partnership members;

11 ‘‘(3) describe how the partnership will effec12 tively coordinate and utilize Federal, State, and local

13 educational agency sources of funding, including

14 funding provided under part I of title X and under

15 the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative (jointly

16 funded by the Departments of Education, Justice,

17 and Health and Human Services), that provide as18 sistance to families and their children in the areas

19 of job training, housing, justice, health, mental

20 health, child care, and social and human services;

21 ‘‘(4) describe the partnership’s plan to—

22 ‘‘(A) develop and carry out the activities

23 assisted under this part with extensive partici24 pation of parents, administrators, teachers,

25 pupil services personnel, social and human serv-
8

•S 1745 IS

1 ice agencies, and community organizations and

2 leaders; and

3 ‘‘(B) connect and integrate the activities

4 assisted under this part with the education re5 form efforts of the participating elementary

6 school or secondary school, and the partici7 pating local educational agency;

8 ‘‘(5) describe the partnership’s strategy for pro9 viding information and assistance in a language and

10 form that families can understand, including how

11 the partnership will ensure that families of students

12 with limited English proficiency, or families of stu13 dents with disabilities, are effectively involved, in14 formed, and assisted;

15 ‘‘(6) describe how the partnership will collect

16 and analyze data, and will utilize specific perform17 ance measures and indicators to—

18 ‘‘(A) determine the impact of activities as19 sisted under this part as described in section

20 10995I(a); and

21 ‘‘(B) improve the activities assisted under

22 this part; and

23 ‘‘(7) describe how the partnership will protect

24 the privacy of families and their children partici25 pating in the activities assisted under this part.
9

•S 1745 IS

1 ‘‘SEC. 10995G. FEDERAL SHARE.

2 ‘‘The Federal share of the cost of establishing and

3 expanding child opportunity zone family centers—

4 ‘‘(1) for the first year for which an eligible

5 partnership receives assistance under this part shall

6 not exceed 90 percent;

7 ‘‘(2) for the second such year, shall not exceed

8 80 percent;

9 ‘‘(3) for the third such year, shall not exceed 70

10 percent;

11 ‘‘(4) for the fourth such year, shall not exceed

12 60 percent; and

13 ‘‘(5) for the fifth such year, shall not exceed 50

14 percent.

15 ‘‘SEC. 10995H. CONTINUATION OF FUNDING.

16 ‘‘Each eligible partnership that receives a grant

17 under this part shall, after the third year for which the

18 partnership receives funds through the grant, be eligible

19 to continue to receive the funds if the Secretary deter20 mines that the partnership has made significant progress

21 in meeting the performance measures used for the part22 nership’s local evaluation under section 10995I(a)(4).

23 ‘‘SEC. 10995I. EVALUATIONS AND REPORTS.

24 ‘‘(a) LOCAL EVALUATIONS.—Each partnership re25 ceiving funds under this part shall conduct annual evalua-
10

•S 1745 IS

1 tions and submit to the Secretary reports containing the

2 results of the evaluations. The reports shall include—

3 ‘‘(1) information on the partnership’s activities

4 that are assisted under this part;

5 ‘‘(2) information on the number of families and

6 children served by the partnership’s activities that

7 are assisted under this part;

8 ‘‘(3) information on the partnership’s effective9 ness in reaching and meeting the needs of families

10 and children served under this part, including under11 served families, families of students with limited

12 English proficiency, and families of students with

13 disabilities; and

14 ‘‘(4) the results of a partnership’s performance

15 assessment of the partnership, including perform16 ance measures demonstrating—

17 ‘‘(A) improvements in student achieve18 ment, school readiness, family participation in

19 schools, and access to health care, mental

20 health care, child care, and family support serv21 ices, resulting from activities assisted under this

22 part; and

23 ‘‘(B) reductions in violence-related prob24 lems and risk taking behavior among youth,

25 and reductions in truancy, suspension, and
11

•S 1745 IS

1 dropout rates, resulting from activities assisted

2 under this part.

3 ‘‘(b) NATIONAL EVALUATIONS.—

4 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall reserve

5 not more than 3 percent of the amount appropriated

6 under this part to carry out a national evaluation of

7 the activities assisted under this part. Such evalua8 tion shall be completed not later than 3 years after

9 the date of enactment of the Child Opportunity Zone

10 Family Center Act of 1999, and every year there11 after.

12 ‘‘(2) SCOPE OF EVALUATION.—In conducting

13 the national evaluation, the Secretary shall evaluate

14 the effectiveness and impact of the activities, and

15 identify model activities, assisted under this part.

16 ‘‘(3) ANNUAL REPORTS.—The Secretary shall

17 submit an annual report to Congress, regarding each

18 national evaluation conducted under paragraph (1),

19 that contains the information described in the na20 tional evaluation.

21 ‘‘(c) MODEL ACTIVITIES.—The Secretary shall

22 broadly disseminate information on model activities devel23 oped under this part.
12

•S 1745 IS

1 ‘‘SEC. 10995J. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

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

3 this part $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2000, and such sums

4 as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 2001

5 through 2004.’’.

Æ