I 
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4034 
To amend title V of the Social Security Act to provide grants for school- 
based mentoring programs for at risk teenage girls to prevent and 
reduce teen pregnancy, and to provide student loan forgiveness for men-
tors participating in such programs. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 15, 2012 
Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on 
Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined 
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend title V of the Social Security Act to provide 
grants for school-based mentoring programs for at risk 
teenage girls to prevent and reduce teen pregnancy, and 
to provide student loan forgiveness for mentors partici-
pating in such programs. 
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 ‘‘Mentor-Mentee Teen 
Pregnancy Reduction Act of 2012’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The U.S. has the highest teenage pregnancy 
rate of any fully industrialized country. 
(2) One in three girls in the U.S. becomes preg-
nant at least once by the age of 20. 
(3) Girls who become pregnant are more likely 
to drop out of high school, less likely to complete 
college, more likely to give birth to low-birth weight 
babies, and more likely to live in poverty. 
(4) The children born to teenage mothers are 
more likely to have learning disabilities, less likely to 
complete high school, and more likely to live in pov-
erty. 
(5) Girls born to teenage mothers are more 
likely to become teenage mothers themselves; boys 
born to teenage mothers are more likely to end up 
in prison. 
(6) Innovative initiatives, such as increasing pa-
rental involvement and portraying the consequences 
of teenage pregnancy through the media, exist that 
can reduce the rates of teenage pregnancy and give 
every young person a better hope for the future. 
(7) Research shows that a wide variety of pro-
grams have been successful at delaying sexual activ-
ity and reducing teenage pregnancy, including ef-
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forts that engage students in community service, 
promote youth development, provide preventive 
health services, offer sex and HIV/AIDS education, 
and more. 
SEC. 3. MENTOR-MENTEE TEEN PREGNANCY REDUCTION 
GRANT PROGRAM. 
Title V of the Social Security Act is amended— 
(1) in section 510(d) (42 U.S.C. 710(d)), by in-
serting ‘‘and grants under section 514’’ after ‘‘under 
subsection (a)’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following new sec-
tion: 
‘‘MENTOR-MENTEE TEEN PREGNANCY REDUCTION GRANT 
PROGRAM 
‘‘SEC. 514. (a) From the amount appropriated in sec-
tion 510(d) for a fiscal year (beginning with fiscal year 
2013) which is not allotted to a State under section 510, 
the Secretary shall award competitive grants for the cre-
ation of school-based programs that provide mentoring to 
at-risk teenage girls to prevent and reduce teen pregnancy. 
In awarding such grants for a fiscal year, the Secretary 
shall give priority to programs in States that have elected 
not to receive an allotment under section 510 for the fiscal 
year. 
‘‘(b)(1) No grant may be awarded under this section 
except to an entity that is a local educational agency (as 
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defined in section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act of 1965) or a community-based organiza-
tion. 
‘‘(2) Funds provided under such a grant may only 
be used in a school-based setting for the following pur-
poses: 
‘‘(A) To recruit, train, and support mentors. 
‘‘(B) To hire mentoring coordinators and pro-
vide professional development. 
‘‘(C) To pay for outreach materials. 
‘‘(D) To provide activities that will help in the 
development of a mentee, such as— 
‘‘(i) workshops, classes, and after-school 
activities, which may include family life and sex 
education and may provide— 
‘‘(I) information that stresses the im-
portance of abstinence and postponing sex-
ual involvement; 
‘‘(II) medically accurate information 
on the importance of contraception for 
those who are sexually active, on condom 
use, and on HIV and sexually transmitted 
diseases; and 
‘‘(III) information that reflects mores 
and values of the community involved. 
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‘‘(ii) preparation for standardized examina-
tions; 
‘‘(iii) assistance with college entrance; 
‘‘(iv) education in financial literacy; 
‘‘(v) tutoring; 
‘‘(vi) sports; 
‘‘(vii) education in health and nutrition; 
and 
‘‘(viii) education in the arts. 
‘‘(3) No grant may be awarded under this section un-
less the grantee agrees that, in carrying out the purposes 
described in paragraph (2), the grantee will, whenever pos-
sible, use strategies relating to family life and sex edu-
cation that have been demonstrated to be effective, or that 
incorporate characteristics of effective programs. 
‘‘(4) No grant may be awarded under this section un-
less the grantee agrees that only qualified individuals will 
serve as mentors under this section. For the purposes of 
this paragraph, a ‘qualified individual’ is an individual 
who— 
‘‘(A) has received at least a baccalaureate de-
gree from an institution of higher education (as such 
term is defined in section 102(a) of the Higher Edu-
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002(a))); 
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‘‘(B) is mentoring no more than two mentees 
under this section; and 
‘‘(C) has been trained and screened by a local 
educational agency or community-based organization 
to do the following for individual mentees: 
‘‘(i) To encourage setting goals and plan-
ning for the future. 
‘‘(ii) To promote responsible behavior and 
help delay sexual activity. 
‘‘(iii) To provide general guidance. 
‘‘(iv) To increase participation in school. 
‘‘(5) No grant shall be made under this section unless 
the grantee agrees to submit to the Secretary, in accord-
ance with the criteria of the Secretary, a report that pro-
vides information on the program conducted under this 
section, including outcomes and increased education and 
awareness about the prevention of teen pregnancy under 
the grant. The Secretary shall make such reports available 
to the public. 
‘‘(6) Grantees under this section shall expend funds 
received under the grant not later than 18 months after 
the date such funds are provided under the grant. 
‘‘(c)(1) Paragraph (3) of section 502(a) shall apply 
to grants under this section in the same manner as it ap-
plies to funding made available under section 502(b). 
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‘‘(2) Sections 507 and 508 shall apply to grants 
under this section to the same extent and in the same 
manner as such sections apply to allotments under section 
502(c). 
‘‘(3) Section 506 shall apply to grants under this sec-
tion to the extent determined by the Secretary to be appro-
priate. 
‘‘(d) The Secretary shall, directly or through con-
tract, provide for evaluations of programs receiving funds 
under grants under this section. Such an evaluation shall 
cover at least 6 programs and programs representing at 
least 10 percent of the funding provided under this sec-
tion. Each such evaluation for a program shall describe— 
‘‘(1) the activities carried out under the grant; 
and 
‘‘(2) the extent to which such activities were ef-
fective in changing attitudes and behavior to achieve 
the project strategies consistent with this section.’’. 
SEC. 4. LOAN FORGIVENESS FOR MENTORS WHO PARTICI-
PATE IN TEEN PREGNANCY REDUCTION PRO-
GRAM. 
(a) PROGRAM
AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary of 
Health and Human Services is authorized, from the funds 
appropriated under subsection (g), to carry out a program 
to assume the obligation to repay a qualified loan amount 
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(as determined under subsection (b)) for a Federal stu-
dent loan, in accordance with this section, for an indi-
vidual who— 
(1) is a qualified individual to serve as a men-
tor under subsection (b)(4) of section 514 of the So-
cial Security Act; 
(2) has served as a mentor for the teen preg-
nancy reduction grant program authorized under 
section 514 of the Social Security Act for not less 
than 200 hours in an academic year or its equivalent 
(as determined by the Secretary); and 
(3) is not in default on a loan for which the in-
dividual seeks forgiveness. 
(b) QUALIFIED LOAN AMOUNT.—The amount of loan 
forgiveness the Secretary provides under this section— 
(1) shall be equal to $2,000 for every 200 hours 
of service an individual serves as a mentor under 
section 514 of the Social Security Act in an aca-
demic year or its equivalent (as determined by the 
Secretary), after the date of the enactment of this 
section; and 
(2) may not exceed a total of $20,000 for an 
individual. 
(c) PRIORITY.—In providing loan forgiveness under 
this section, the Secretary shall give priority to individuals 
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