I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1501

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to authorize

the Secretary of Education to make grants to support local mentoring

programs for children in need, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 4, 2001

Mr. OSBORNE (for himself, Mr. KELLER, and Mr. FORD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the

Workforce

A BILL

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

of 1965 to authorize the Secretary of Education to make

grants to support local mentoring programs for children

in need, 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 ‘‘Mentoring for Success

5 Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. GRANTS TO SUPPORT MENTORING PROGRAMS.

2 Title X of the Elementary and Secondary Education

3 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8001 et seq.) is amended by add4 ing at the end the following:

5 ‘‘PART M—MENTORING PROGRAMS

6 ‘‘SEC. 10999P. DEFINITIONS.

7 ‘‘In this part, the following definitions apply:

8 ‘‘(1) CHILD WITH GREATEST NEED.—The term

9 ‘child with greatest need’ means a child at risk of

10 educational failure, dropping out of school, or in11 volvement in criminal or delinquent activities, or

12 that has lack of strong positive adult role models.

13 ‘‘(2) MENTOR.—The term ‘mentor’ means an

14 individual who works with a child to provide a posi15 tive role model for the child, to establish a sup16 portive relationship with the child, and to provide

17 the child with academic assistance and exposure to

18 new experiences and examples of opportunity that

19 enhance the ability of the child to become a respon20 sible adult.

21 ‘‘(3) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means each of

22 the several States, the District of Columbia, the

23 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands,

24 Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of

25 the Northern Mariana Islands.
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1 ‘‘SEC. 10999Q. PURPOSES.

2 ‘‘The purposes of this part are to make assistance

3 available to promote mentoring programs for children with

4 greatest need—

5 ‘‘(1) to assist such children in receiving support

6 and guidance from a caring adult;

7 ‘‘(2) to improve the academic performance of

8 such children;

9 ‘‘(3) to improve interpersonal relationships be10 tween such children and their peers, teachers, other

11 adults, and family members;

12 ‘‘(4) to reduce the dropout rate of such chil13 dren; and

14 ‘‘(5) to reduce juvenile delinquency and involve15 ment in gangs by such children.

16 ‘‘SEC. 10999R. GRANT PROGRAM.

17 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—In accordance with this section,

18 the Secretary may make grants to eligible entities to assist

19 such entities in establishing and supporting mentoring

20 programs and activities that—

21 ‘‘(1) are designed to link children with greatest

22 need (particularly such children living in rural areas,

23 high crime areas, or troubled home environments, or

24 such children experiencing educational failure) with

25 responsible adults, who—
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1 ‘‘(A) have received training and support in

2 mentoring;

3 ‘‘(B) have been screened using appropriate

4 reference checks, child and domestic abuse

5 record checks, and criminal background checks;

6 and

7 ‘‘(C) are interested in working with youth;

8 and

9 ‘‘(2) are intended to achieve 1 or more of the

10 following goals:

11 ‘‘(A) Provide general guidance to children

12 with greatest need.

13 ‘‘(B) Promote personal and social responsi14 bility among children with greatest need.

15 ‘‘(C) Increase participation by children

16 with greatest need in, and enhance their ability

17 to benefit from, elementary and secondary edu18 cation.

19 ‘‘(D) Discourage illegal use of drugs and

20 alcohol, violence, use of dangerous weapons,

21 promiscuous behavior, and other criminal,

22 harmful, or potentially harmful activity by chil23 dren with greatest need.
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1 ‘‘(E) Encourage children with greatest

2 need to participate in community service and

3 community activities.

4 ‘‘(F) Encourage children with greatest

5 need to set goals for themselves or to plan for

6 their futures, including encouraging such chil7 dren to make graduation from secondary school

8 a goal and to make plans for postsecondary

9 education or training.

10 ‘‘(G) Discourage involvement of children

11 with greatest need in gangs.

12 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—Each of the following is

13 an entity eligible to receive a grant under subsection (a):

14 ‘‘(1) A local educational agency.

15 ‘‘(2) A nonprofit, community-based organiza16 tion.

17 ‘‘(3) A partnership between an agency referred

18 to in paragraph (1) and an organization referred to

19 in paragraph (2).

20 ‘‘(c) USE OF FUNDS.—

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each entity receiving a

22 grant under this section shall use the grant funds

23 for activities that establish or implement a men24 toring program, including—
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1 ‘‘(A) hiring of mentoring coordinators and

2 support staff;

3 ‘‘(B) providing for the professional devel4 opment of mentoring coordinators and support

5 staff;

6 ‘‘(C) recruitment, screening, and training

7 of adult mentors;

8 ‘‘(D) reimbursement of schools, if appro9 priate, for the use of school materials or sup10 plies in carrying out the program;

11 ‘‘(E) dissemination of outreach materials;

12 ‘‘(F) evaluation of the program using sci13 entifically based methods; and

14 ‘‘(G) such other activities as the Secretary

15 may reasonably prescribe by rule.

16 ‘‘(2) PROHIBITED USES.—Notwithstanding

17 paragraph (1), an entity receiving a grant under this

18 section may not use the grant funds—

19 ‘‘(A) to directly compensate mentors;

20 ‘‘(B) to obtain educational or other mate21 rials or equipment that would otherwise be used

22 in the ordinary course of the entity’s oper23 ations;

24 ‘‘(C) to support litigation of any kind; or
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1 ‘‘(D) for any other purpose reasonably pro2 hibited by the Secretary by rule.

3 ‘‘(d) TERM OF GRANT.—Each grant made under this

4 section shall be available for expenditure for a period of

5 3 years.

6 ‘‘(e) APPLICATION.—Each eligible entity seeking a

7 grant under this section shall submit to the Secretary an

8 application that includes—

9 ‘‘(1) a description of the mentoring plan the ap10 plicant proposes to carry out with such grant;

11 ‘‘(2) information on the children expected to be

12 served by the mentoring program for which such

13 grant is sought;

14 ‘‘(3) a description of the mechanism that appli15 cant will use to match children with mentors based

16 on the needs of the children;

17 ‘‘(4) an assurance that no mentor will be as18 signed to mentor so many children that the assign19 ment would undermine either the mentor’s ability to

20 be an effective mentor or the mentor’s ability to es21 tablish a close relationship (a one-on-one relation22 ship, where practicable) with each mentored child;

23 ‘‘(5) an assurance that mentoring programs will

24 provide children with a variety of experiences and

25 support, including—
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1 ‘‘(A) emotional support;

2 ‘‘(B) academic assistance; and

3 ‘‘(C) exposure to experiences that children

4 might not otherwise encounter on their own;

5 ‘‘(6) an assurance that mentoring programs will

6 be monitored to ensure that each child assigned a

7 mentor benefits from that assignment and that there

8 will be a provision for the assignment of a new men9 tor if the relationship between the original mentor is

10 not beneficial to the child;

11 ‘‘(7) information on the method by which men12 tors and children will be recruited to the mentor pro13 gram;

14 ‘‘(8) information on the method by which pro15 spective mentors will be screened;

16 ‘‘(9) information on the training that will be

17 provided to mentors; and

18 ‘‘(10) information on the system that the appli19 cant will use to manage and monitor information re20 lating to the program’s reference checks, child and

21 domestic abuse record checks, and criminal back22 ground checks and to its procedure for matching

23 children with mentors.

24 ‘‘(f) SELECTION.—
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1 ‘‘(1) COMPETITIVE BASIS.—In accordance with

2 this subsection, the Secretary shall select grant re3 cipients from among qualified applicants on a com4 petitive basis.

5 ‘‘(2) PRIORITY.—In selecting grant recipients

6 under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall give pri7 ority to each applicant that—

8 ‘‘(A) serves children with greatest need liv9 ing in rural areas, high crime areas, or troubled

10 home environments, or who attend schools with

11 violence problems;

12 ‘‘(B) provides background screening of

13 mentors, training of mentors, and technical as14 sistance in carrying out mentoring programs;

15 ‘‘(C) proposes a mentoring program under

16 which each mentor will be assigned to not more

17 children than the mentor can serve effectively;

18 or

19 ‘‘(D) proposes a school-based mentoring

20 program.

21 ‘‘(3) OTHER CONSIDERATIONS.—In selecting

22 grant recipients under paragraph (1), the Secretary

23 shall also consider—

24 ‘‘(A) the degree to which the location of

25 the programs proposed by each applicant con-
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1 tributes to a fair distribution of programs with

2 respect to urban and rural locations;

3 ‘‘(B) the quality of the mentoring pro4 grams proposed by each applicant, including—

5 ‘‘(i) the resources, if any, the appli6 cant will dedicate to providing children

7 with opportunities for job training or post8 secondary education;

9 ‘‘(ii) the degree to which parents,

10 teachers, community-based organizations,

11 and the local community have participated,

12 or will participate, in the design and imple13 mentation of the applicant’s mentoring

14 program;

15 ‘‘(iii) the degree to which the appli16 cant can ensure that mentors will develop

17 longstanding relationships with the chil18 dren they mentor;

19 ‘‘(iv) the degree to which the appli20 cant will serve children with greatest need

21 in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades;

22 and

23 ‘‘(v) the degree to which the program

24 will continue to serve children from the 4th
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1 grade through graduation from secondary

2 school; and

3 ‘‘(C) the capability of each applicant to ef4 fectively implement its mentoring program.

5 ‘‘(4) GRANT TO EACH STATE.—Notwithstanding

6 any other provision of this subsection, in selecting

7 grant recipients under paragraph (1), the Secretary

8 shall select not less than 1 grant recipient from each

9 State for which there is a qualified applicant.

10 ‘‘(g) MODEL SCREENING GUIDELINES.—

11 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Based on model screening

12 guidelines developed by the Office of Juvenile Pro13 grams of the Department of Justice, the Secretary

14 shall develop and distribute to program participants

15 specific model guidelines for the screening of men16 tors who seek to participate in programs to be as17 sisted under this part.

18 ‘‘(2) BACKGROUND CHECKS.—The guidelines

19 developed under this subsection shall include, at a

20 minimum, a requirement that potential mentors be

21 subject to reference checks, child and domestic abuse

22 record checks, and criminal background checks.

23 ‘‘SEC. 10999S. STUDY BY GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE.

24 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Comptroller General of the

25 United States shall conduct a study to identify successful
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1 school-based mentoring programs, and the elements, poli2 cies, or procedures of such programs that can be rep3 licated.

4 ‘‘(b) REPORT.—Not later than 3 years after the date

5 of enactment of the Mentoring for Success Act, the Comp6 troller General shall submit a report to the Secretary and

7 Congress containing the results of the study conducted

8 under this section.

9 ‘‘(c) USE OF INFORMATION.—The Secretary shall use

10 information contained in the report referred to in sub11 section (b)—

12 ‘‘(1) to improve the quality of existing men13 toring programs assisted under this part and other

14 mentoring programs assisted under this Act; and

15 ‘‘(2) to develop models for new programs to be

16 assisted or carried out under this Act.

17 ‘‘SEC. 10999T. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

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

19 section 10999R $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years

20 2002 through 2004.’’.

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