115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2408 
AN ACT 
To enhance the transparency, improve the coordination, and 
intensify the impact of assistance to support access to 
primary and secondary education for displaced children 
and persons, including women and girls, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Girls’ Ac-
cess to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act’’ or the 
‘‘Protecting Girls’ Access to Education Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) At the start of 2017, more than 65 million 
people have been displaced by disasters and conflicts 
around the world, the highest number recorded since 
the end of World War II, of which more than 21 
million people are refugees. 
(2) More than half of the population of dis-
placed people are children and, according to the 
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 
nearly 4 million school-aged displaced children lack 
access to primary education. 
(3) Education offers socioeconomic opportuni-
ties, psychological stability, and physical protection 
for displaced people, particularly for women and 
girls, who might otherwise be vulnerable to severe 
forms of trafficking in persons (as such term is de-
fined in section 103(9) of the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7103(9))), child 
marriage, sexual exploitation, or economic disenfran-
chisement, and contributes to long-term recovery
and economic opportunities for displaced people and 
for the communities hosting them. 
(4) Displaced children face considerable bar-
riers to accessing educational services and, because 
the duration of such displacement is, on average, 20 
years, such children may spend the entirety of their 
childhood without access to such services. 
(5) Despite the rising need for such services, 
less than 2 percent of global emergency aid was di-
rected toward educational services in 2016. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) it is critical to ensure that children, particu-
larly girls, displaced by conflicts overseas are able to 
access educational services because such access can 
combat extremism and reduce exploitation and pov-
erty; and 
(2) the educational needs of vulnerable women 
and girls should be considered in the design, imple-
mentation, and evaluation of related United States 
foreign assistance policies and programs. 
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States to— 
(1) partner with and encourage other countries, 
public and private multilateral institutions, and non-
governmental and civil society organizations, includ-
ing faith-based organizations and organizations rep-
resenting parents and children, to support efforts to 
ensure that displaced children have access to safe 
primary and secondary education; 
(2) work with donors to enhance training and 
capacity-building for the governments of countries 
hosting significant numbers of displaced people to 
design, implement, and monitor programs to effec-
tively address barriers to such education; 
(3) incorporate into the design and implementa-
tion of such programs measures to evaluate the im-
pact of the programs on girls, with respect to the re-
duction of child marriage, gender-based violence, and 
severe forms of trafficking in persons (as such term 
is defined in section 103(9) of the Trafficking Vic-
tims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7103(9))); 
and 
(4) coordinate with the governments of coun-
tries hosting significant numbers of displaced people 
to— 
(A) promote the inclusion of displaced chil-
dren into the educational systems of such coun-
tries; and