I
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 520
To establish a program of grants for the provision of coordinated educational
support services to at-risk youth.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 21, 1993
Mrs. LOWEY (for herself, Mrs. MORELLA, Mr. ANDREWS of New Jersey, Mr.
MILLER of California, Mr. OWENS, Mr. PAYNE of New Jersey, and Mrs.
UNSOELD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Education and Labor
SEPTEMBER 9, 1993
Additional sponsors: Mr. LEWIS
of Georgia, Mr. TRAFICANT, Mr.
HOCHBRUECKNER, Mr. RICHARDSON, Mr. ENGLISH of Oklahoma, Ms.
SLAUGHTER, Mr. MCHUGH, Mrs. SCHROEDER, Mr. BARCIA of Michigan,
Mr. SWIFT, Mr. LAFALCE, Mr. KOPETSKI, Mr. CLINGER, Mr. SKAGGS,
Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. WYNN, Mr. WELDON, Mr. STRICKLAND, Mr. NATCH-
ER, Mrs. MINK, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. MARKEY, Mrs. KENNELLY, Mr.
FROST, Mr. SHAYS, Mrs. COLLINS of Illinois, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr.
DEFAZIO, Mr. EVANS, Mr. HAYES, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. BEREUTER, Ms.
SHEPHERD, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. FILNER, Mr. HILLIARD, Mr. HOBSON,
Mr. MFUME, Ms. BYRNE, Mr. NEAL of North Carolina, Mr. COPPER-
SMITH, Mr. MATSUI, Mr. HALL of Ohio, Mr. PENNY, Mr. COLEMAN, Mr.
ENGEL, Mr. HUGHES, Mr. FINGERHUT, Mr. WILLIAMS, Mr. GEJDENSON,
Miss COLLINS of Michigan, Mr. MARTINEZ, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. OLVER, Ms.
WOOLSEY, Mr. REED, Mr. EDWARDS of California, Ms. DELAURO, Mr.
KREIDLER, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. TORRICELLI, Mr. DUR-
BIN, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. BACCHUS of Florida, Mr. GENE GREEN of
Texas, Mr. FARR of California, Mrs. MALONEY, Mrs. JOHNSON of Con-
necticut, Mr. WATT, Mr. FISH, Mr. PASTOR, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. RO-
MERO-BARCELO´, Ms. NORTON, and Mr. SCOTT
A BILL
To establish a program of grants for the provision of
coordinated educational support services to at-risk youth.
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 ‘‘Link-up for Learning
Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Growing numbers of children live in an en-
vironment of social and economic conditions that
greatly increase their risk of academic failure when
they become students.
(2) More than 20 percent of the Nation’s chil-
dren live in poverty while at the same time the Na-
tion’s infrastructure of social support for children of
poor families has greatly eroded; for example, 40
percent of eligible children do not receive free or re-
duced price lunches or benefit from food stamps, 25
percent are not covered by health insurance, and
only 20 percent are accommodated in public hous-
ing.
(3) Many at-risk students suffer the effects of
inadequate nutrition and health care, overcrowded
and unsafe living conditions and homelessness, fam-
ily and gang violence, substance abuse, sexual abuse,
and child abuse, involuntary migration, and limited
English proficiency that often create severe barriers
to learning the knowledge and skills needed to be-
come literate, independent, and productive citizens.
(4) Almost half of all children and youths live
in a single parent family for some period of their
lives, greatly reducing parental involvement in their
education.
(5) High proportions of disadvantaged and
minority children are with never married mothers or
teenage mothers, greatly limiting the resources avail-
able for early childhood development and education.
(6) Large numbers of children and youths are
recent immigrants or children of recent immigrants
with limited English proficiency and significant
unmet educational needs.
(7) Services for at-risk students are frag-
mented, expensive, overregulated, often ineffective
and duplicative, and focused on narrow problems
and not the needs of the whole child and family.
(8) School personnel and other support service
providers often lack knowledge of and access to
available services for at-risk students and their fam-
ily in the community, are constrained by bureau-
cratic obstacles from providing the services most
needed, and have few resources or incentives to co-
ordinate services.
(9) Service providers for at-risk students such
as teachers, social workers, health care givers, juve-
nile justice workers and others are trained in sepa-
rate institutions, practice in separate agencies, and
pursue separate professional activities that provide
little support for coordination and integration of
services.
(10) Coordination and integration of services
for at-risk students emphasizing prevention and
early intervention offer a great opportunity to break
the cycle of poverty that leads to academic failure,
teenage parenthood, leaving school, low skill levels,
unemployment, and low income.
(11) Coordination of services is more cost effec-
tive for schools and support agencies because it re-
duces duplication, improves quality of services, and
substitutes prevention for expensive crisis interven-
tion.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
(a) IMPROVEMENT OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE.—It
is the purpose of this Act to establish a program of grants
to local educational agencies to improve the educational
performance of at-risk students by—
(1) removing barriers to their learning;
(2) coordinating and enhancing the effective-
ness of educational support services;
(3) replicating and disseminating programs of
high quality coordinated support services;
(4) increasing parental educational involvement;
(5) improving the capacity of school and sup-
port services personnel to collaborate;
(6) integrating services, regulations, data bases,
eligibility procedures, and funding sources whenever
possible; and
(7) focusing school and community resources on
prevention and early intervention strategies to ad-
dress student needs holistically.
(b) COORDINATION.—It is also the purpose of this
Act to provide assistance to foster planning, coordination,
and collaboration among local, county, State, and Federal
educational and other student support service agencies
and levels of government, nonprofit organizations, and the
private sector to improve the educational performance of
at-risk students by—
(1) identifying and removing unnecessary regu-
lations, duplication of services, and obstacles to co-
ordination;
(2) improving communication and information
exchange;
(3) creating joint funding pools or resource
banks;
(4) providing cross-training of agency person-
nel; and
(5) increasing parental and community involve-
ment in education.
SEC. 4. ELIGIBILITY.
(a) COORDINATED SERVICES.—A local educational
agency that seeks to plan and implement a coordinated
services program for at-risk students with at least 1 other
cooperating public agency is eligible to apply.
(b) COORDINATING SUPPORT SERVICES.—A consor-
tium, including at least 1 local educational agency and 1
cooperating public service agency, formed for the purpose
of coordinating support services for at-risk students is eli-
gible to apply.
(c) COOPERATING AGENCIES.—Nonprofit organiza-
tions, institutions of higher education, and private enter-
prises with experience or expertise in providing services
for at-risk students may also participate as a cooperating
agency with a local educational agency or consortium in
developing, operating, or evaluating programs assisted
under this Act.
(d) HEAD START AGENCIES.—A local educational
agency that is receiving assistance under the Head Start
Transition program shall also be eligible for assistance
under this Act if it meets the requirements under sub-
section (a) or (b) and the cooperating public agency is in
addition to a local Head Start agency.
(e) LIMITATION.—A local educational agency shall
not be eligible to apply unless it is eligible to receive finan-
cial assistance under chapter 1 of the Elementary and Sec-
ondary Education Act of 1965.
SEC. 5. TARGET POPULATION.
(a) ELIGIBLE STUDENTS.—Educationally deprived
students, in chapter 1 eligible schools or students in chap-
ter 1 schoolwide projects, and their family members, may
receive services provided by a project funded under this
Act.
(b) ELIGIBLE SCHOOLS, GRADES, AND AREAS.—An
eligible local educational agency may select any school,
grade span, or program area for project services providing
the requirements of subsection (a) are met and the project
design is of adequate size, scope, and quality to achieve
project outcomes.
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZED USES OF FUNDS.
Local educational agencies receiving grants under
this Act may use the funds to—
(1) plan, develop, coordinate, acquire, expand,
or improve school-based or community-based edu-
cation support services through cooperative agree-
ments, contracts for services, or direct employment
of staff to strengthen the educational performance of
at-risk students; education support services may in-
clude but are not limited to child nutrition and nu-
trition education; health education, screening and re-
ferrals; student and family counseling, substance
abuse prevention; extended school-day enrichment
and 
remedial 
programs; 
child 
care; 
tutoring;
mentoring; homework assistance; special curricula;
family literacy; and parent education and involve-
ment activities;
(2) plan, develop, and operate with other agen-
cies a coordinated services program for at-risk stu-
dents to increase their access to community-based
social support services including but not limited to
child nutrition, health and mental health services;
substance abuse prevention and treatment; foster
care and child protective services; child abuse serv-
ices; welfare services; recreation; juvenile delin-
quency prevention and court intervention; job train-
ing and placement; community-based alternatives to
residential placements for handicapped students; and
alternative living arrangements for students with
dysfunctional families;
(3) develop effective strategies for coordinated
services for at-risk students whose families are high-
ly mobile;
(4) develop effective prevention and early inter-
vention strategies with other agencies to serve at-
risk students and families;
(5) improve interagency communications and
information-sharing including developing local area
telecommunications networks, software development,
data base integration and management, and other
applications of technology that improve coordination
of services;
(6) support colocation of support services in
schools, cooperating service agencies, community-
based centers, public housing sites, or other sites
nearby schools including rental or lease payments,
open and lock-up fees, or maintenance and security
costs necessary for the delivery of services for at-risk
students;
(7) design, implement, and evaluate unified eli-
gibility procedures, integrated data bases, and secure
confidentiality procedures that facilitate information
sharing;
(8) provide at-risk students with integrated case
planning and case management services through
staff support for interagency teams of service provid-
ers or hiring school-based support services coordina-
tors;
(9) subsidize the coordination and delivery of
education-related services to at-risk students outside
the school site by a participating service agency such
as a public housing authority, library, senior citizen
center, or community based organization;
(10) provide staff development for teachers,
guidance counselors, administrators, and participat-
ing agency support services staff including cross-
agency training in service delivery for at-risk stu-
dents;
(11) plan and operate 1-stop school-based or
nearby community-based service centers to provide
at-risk students and their families with a wide vari-
ety and intensity of support services such as infor-
mation, referral, expedited eligibility screening and
enrollment, and direct service delivery; and
(12) support dissemination and replication of a
model coordinated educational support services pro-
(6) a plan for continuing support services when
Federal assistance is terminated; and
(7) capacity to serve as a model that could be
replicated by other local educational agencies.
SEC. 8. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS.
In making an award under this Act, the Secretary
shall give special consideration to—
(1) the geographic distribution of awards, in-
cluding urban and rural districts;
(2) districts with high proportions of at-risk
students;
(3) plans that include interagency teams of col-
laborators to provide case management services; and
(4) districts that experience a significant in-
crease in the number of at-risk students.
SEC. 9. REVIEW OF APPLICATIONS.
The Secretary of Education shall coordinate review
of applications with the Secretary of Health and Human
Services and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Devel-
opment as appropriate.
SEC. 10. DURATION.
Grants under this Act may be for up to 3 years dura-
tion subject to providing the Secretary with evidence of
satisfactory progress toward the achievement of program
objectives.
SEC. 11. LIMITATIONS.
(a) FEDERAL SHARE.—Federal funds may be used
for no more than 80 percent of the costs of the project
with the remaining funds coming from non-Federal
sources, including in-kind services.
(b) LIMITATION ON LIABILITY FOR COSTS.—In no
case may a local educational agency be held liable for the
cost of a service under the project provided by a cooperat-
ing agency that is not required by law or mutually agreed
to.
(c) NONENTITLEMENT.—The provision of any sup-
port service under this program by a local educational
agency or cooperating agency to any student does not enti-
tle that student or other similarly situated students to the
continuation of such services if at any time the local edu-
cational agency chooses to terminate the program or if
Federal funds are withdrawn for any reason.
(d) LIMITATION
ON PLANNING COSTS.—No more
than 1/3 of project funds may be used for planning a co-
ordinated services program.
(e) LIMITATION ON DELIVERY OF DIRECT SERV-
ICES.—No more than 50 percent of project funds may be
used for the delivery of direct services.
(f) SUPPLEMENTATION OF NON-FEDERAL FUNDS.—
All Federal funds must be used to supplement and not
supplant the funds that would otherwise be available from
non-Federal sources for this project.
SEC. 12. FEDERAL INTERAGENCY TASK FORCE.
There is established a Federal Interagency Task
Force consisting of the Secretary of Education, the Sec-
retary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary
of Health and Human Services, and the heads of other
Federal agencies, as appropriate, for the purpose of identi-
fying means to facilitate interagency collaboration at the
Federal, State, and local level to improve support services
for at-risk students. The Task Force shall, at a mini-
mum—
(1) identify, and to the extent possible, elimi-
nate program regulations or practices that impede
coordination and collaboration;
(2) develop and implement whenever possible
plans for creating jointly funded programs, unified
eligibility and application procedures, and confiden-
tiality regulations that facilitate information sharing;
and
(3) make recommendations to the Congress
concerning a comprehensive youth policy and legisla-
tive action needed to facilitate coordination of sup-
port services.
SEC. 13. STUDY.
The Secretary of Education shall conduct a study of
grantees under the Act to identify the regulatory and leg-
islative obstacles encountered in developing and imple-
menting coordinated support services programs and the
innovative procedures and program designs developed with
support under the Act and report the results to the Con-
gress with recommendations for further legislative action
to facilitate coordinated educational support services.
SEC. 14. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDS.
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out
the provisions of this Act $250,000,000 for the fiscal year
1994 and such sums as may be necessary for each of the
fiscal years 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999.
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