II 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2119 

To amend the Head Start Act to authorize block grants to States for 

prekindergarten education. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 12, 2014 

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

the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Head Start Act to authorize block grants 

to States for prekindergarten education. 

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 ‘‘Head Start Improve5 ment Act of 2014’’. 

6 SEC. 2. HEAD START BLOCK GRANTS. 

7 The Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831 et seq.) is 

8 amended— 

9 (1) in section 640, by adding at the end the fol10 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘(p) Beginning on October 1 of the first fiscal year 

2 following the date of enactment of the Head Start Im3 provement Act of 2014, the Secretary shall not allocate, 

4 reserve, or otherwise provide funds pursuant to this sec5 tion.’’; and 

6 (2) by inserting after section 640 the following: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 640A. BLOCK GRANTS TO ELIGIBLE GRANTEES. 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other pro9 vision of this subchapter, beginning on October 1 of the 

10 first fiscal year following the date of enactment of the 

11 Head Start Improvement Act of 2014, from the amounts 

12 appropriated to carry out this subchapter under section 

13 639 for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall award grants to 

14 eligible grantees in accordance with this section. 

15 ‘‘(b) ALLOTMENTS.— 

16 ‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE GRANTEE DEFINED.—In this 

17 section, the term ‘eligible grantee’ means each of the 

18 50 States of the United States, the District of Co19 lumbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 

20 United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American 

21 Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 

22 Islands, the Republic of Palau, and each of the fed23 erally recognized Indian tribes. 

24 ‘‘(2) FORMULA.—The Secretary shall allot the 

25 amount appropriated under section 639 for a fiscal 


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1 year among the eligible grantees in proportion to the 

2 number of children, aged 5 and younger, who reside 

3 within the eligible grantee and are from families 

4 with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty line 

5 for the most recent fiscal year for which satisfactory 

6 data are available, compared to the number of such 

7 children who reside in all such eligible grantees for 

8 that fiscal year. 

9 ‘‘(c) USE OF FUNDS.— 

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An eligible grantee that re11 ceives a grant under this section shall use 100 per12 cent of the grant funds— 

13 ‘‘(A) for prekindergarten education pro14 grams in the eligible grantee; 

15 ‘‘(B) for the administration of the pro16 grams described in subparagraph (A); and 

17 ‘‘(C) to provide direct technical assistance, 

18 oversight, monitoring, research, and training 

19 with respect to the programs described in sub20 paragraph (A). 

21 ‘‘(2) CERTIFICATION.—The Governor, or other 

22 chief executive, of each eligible grantee that receives 

23 a grant under this section shall certify that all grant 

24 funds received under this section will be used to di25 rectly or indirectly provide comprehensive education 


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1 and related services to low-income children and their 

2 families. 

3 ‘‘(3) ELIGIBLE GRANTEE RESPONSIBILITIES.— 

4 An eligible grantee that receives a grant under this 

5 section shall— 

6 ‘‘(A) award subgrants to eligible entities 

7 (as defined by the eligible grantee) to enable 

8 such entities to provide prekindergarten edu9 cation programs in the eligible grantee; 

10 ‘‘(B) establish rules and standards for the 

11 entities awarded subgrants under subparagraph 

12 (A); and 

13 ‘‘(C) monitor compliance by entities award14 ed subgrants under subparagraph (A). 

15 ‘‘(4) FLEXIBILITY.—Subject to the require16 ments of this section, an eligible grantee that re17 ceives a grant under this section shall have full flexi18 bility to use grant funds to finance a prekinder19 garten education provider, service, or program, in20 cluding to establish a portable voucher system. 

21 ‘‘(5) MEMBERS OF FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED

22 INDIAN TRIBES.—A member of a federally recog23 nized Indian tribe who is eligible to receive services 

24 pursuant to a program funded under this section 

25 may elect to receive such services from any eligible 


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1 entity in the eligible grantee in which the member 

2 resides. 

3 ‘‘(d) MATCHING FUNDS.—An eligible grantee that re4 ceives a grant under this section shall provide matching 

5 funds from non-Federal sources equal to 20 percent of the 

6 amount of the grant to carry out the activities described 

7 in this section.’’. 

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