I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8220 
To direct the Administrator of the United States Agency for International 
Development to submit to Congress a report on the impact of the 
COVID–19 pandemic on global basic education programs. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 
Ms. HOULAHAN (for herself, Mr. FITZPATRICK, and Mr. QUIGLEY) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To direct the Administrator of the United States Agency 
for International Development to submit to Congress a 
report on the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic on 
global basic education 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 ‘‘Global Learning Loss 
Assessment Act of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) Before the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (com-
monly referred to as ‘‘COVID–19’’) pandemic began, 
258,000,000 children were out of school, including 
130,000,000 girls. 
(2) Students already at a disadvantage before 
COVID–19 will experience greater learning loss, 
thereby worsening inequity and inequality. 
(3) Approximately 90 percent of the world’s 
student population—over 1,700,000,000 children 
and youth—have had their education disrupted by 
school closure due to COVID–19. 
(4) School closures lead to interrupted learning, 
poor nutrition, gaps in childcare, increased dropout 
rates, exposure to violence, and social isolation. 
(5) Up to 9,700,000 children are at risk of 
dropping out of school permanently due to rising lev-
els of child poverty associated with the pandemic. 
(6) School closure and remote learning is espe-
cially burdensome on girls, who are frequently ex-
pected to shoulder more household chores and re-
sponsibilities, and are more vulnerable to gender- 
based violence. 
(7) During the Ebola epidemic, nationwide 
school closures in Sierra Leone in 2014 led to in-
creased instances of sexual- and gender-based vio-
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lence, teenage pregnancy, school dropout, and child 
labor for girls. 
(8) Over 60 percent of national distance learn-
ing alternatives rely exclusively on online platforms 
but as many as 465,000,000 children and young 
people in these countries do not have access to the 
internet at home, with 80 percent of students in 
sub-Saharan Africa without such access, and an 
even higher rate for girls. 
(9) Distance learning tools are not always ac-
cessible to learners with disabilities or those with 
complex learning needs, especially in poorer and 
rural households. 
(10) Before the COVID–19 pandemic, refugee 
children were twice as likely to be out of school as 
other youth, and school closures and a lack of access 
to distance learning tools threaten to make the edu-
cation gap among refugee children even more severe. 
(11) The economic downturn caused by the 
COVID–19 pandemic could lead to an education fi-
nancing gap of $77,000,000,000 in low- and middle- 
income countries over the next two years. 
(12) The economic cost of school closures could 
be up to $1,337 per student, which on a global scale 
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Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s 
Empowerment, shall submit to the appropriate congres-
sional committees a report on the impact of the COVID– 
19 pandemic on global learning and basic education pro-
grams. 
(b) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.—The report re-
quired under subsection (a) shall include, at a minimum, 
the following elements: 
(1) An assessment of the magnitude of global 
learning loss that will result from protracted school 
closures, including the specific effects of school clo-
sures on marginalized children and youth, including 
girls, minority populations, and those with disabil-
ities. 
(2) Descriptions of the effectiveness, cost, ac-
cessibility, and reach of the most commonly used 
forms of distance learning in low resource contexts. 
(3) An overview of existing Agency programs 
being carried out to continue learning during the 
COVID–19 pandemic, including data on funding and 
programmatic focus disaggregated by gender, coun-
try, education level, and, when practicable and ap-
propriate, disability. 
(4) Identification of any gaps in reaching 
marginalized populations, such as girls, children 
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with disabilities, or children affected by conflict and 
crisis. 
(5) A description of the tools and resources 
needed for the Agency to support continued distance 
learning interventions, safe school reopening, reme-
dial and accelerated learning, and reenrollment cam-
paigns for out-of-school children and youth. 
(c) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The report required by 
subsection (a) shall be made available to the public. 
(d) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMITTEES 
DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate con-
gressional committees’’ means— 
(1) the Committee on Foreign Relations and 
the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and 
(2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 
Committee on Appropriations of the House of Rep-
resentatives. 
Æ 
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