Open Schools Act
Bill: H.R.6380 | Sponsor: Rep. Davis, Rodney (R-IL)
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Open Schools Act
This bill directs the Department of Education to make grants to parents of eligible students for certain education-related expenses. Eligible student refers to a student who is enrolled for the 2021-2022 school year in an elementary or secondary school that (1) is located in a local educational agency that received certain COVID-19 relief funds; and (2) does not provide, for any reason related to COVID-19, in-person learning for each enrolled student for each school day during the school year.
Grant funds may be used to pay the tuition and fees for a private elementary or secondary school, pay the cost of attending a public school that provides in-person learning, or for other expenses and educational materials.

To direct the Secretary of Education to establish a grant program to 
 make grants to the parents of students enrolled in elementary schools 
  or secondary schools that, for any reason related to COVID-19, are 
failing to provide in-person instruction for each enrolled student for 
   each school day of school year 2021-2022, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Open Schools Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Parents are best equipped to make decisions for their 
        children, including the educational setting that will best 
        serve the interests and educational needs of their child.
            (2) After more than 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is 
        now known that pandemic-related school closures deprive 
        children of the equalizing force of education. The pandemic is 
        widening educational inequality and the learning gaps created 
        by these shutdowns will only get even worse if they continue.
            (3) Peer interactions are a crucial ingredient to academic 
        success. A Yale University study has found that the inability 
        to be with friends and peers from different socioeconomic 
        groups did more damage to children's educational progress than 
        any other factor and underscored the importance of having kids 
        from across the socioeconomic spectrum learning together.
            (4) When schools close, parents are often asked to 
        facilitate the learning of children at home and can struggle to 
        perform this task. This is especially true for parents with 
        limited resources which can be exacerbated even more for rural 
        families without access to broadband.
            (5) Despite what the mainstream media says about most 
        parents across America working from home, that simply is not 
        the case. In fact, the vast majority of parents do not have the 
        work from home luxury many so-called experts would have you 
        believe. This has further divided the United States between 
        regular, hard-working parents and a new ``laptop class'' that 
        only works remotely. These working-class parents do not have 
        the ability to help their children learn when their school 
        switches to remote learning, even if only for a few days at a 
        time.
            (6) Crucial benchmarks like achievement tests and high 
        stakes examinations that determine admission or advancement to 
        new education levels and institutions, are thrown into disarray 
        when schools close. Strategies to postpone, skip, or administer 
        examinations at a distance raise serious concerns about 
        fairness, especially when access to learning becomes variable. 
        Disruptions to assessments results in stress for students and 
        their families and often trigger disengagement.
            (7) Youth may be uniquely susceptible to negative mental 
        health outcomes if they are experiencing pandemic-related 
        disruptions to in-person schooling in intersection with other 
        adverse circumstances, such as racism, poverty, food 
        insecurity, or home instability. Loss of access to school-based 
        mental health care may be of heightened importance for youth 
        from low-income families, as they are most likely to receive 
        mental health services solely from their school.
            (8) Online learning is no substitute for classroom 
        instruction. Nationally, on average, teachers say they're 
        working 2 fewer hours per day than when they were in their 
        classrooms. And they estimate that their students are spending 
        half as much time learning, 3 hours a day, as they were before 
        the coronavirus pandemic.
            (9) Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago public schools 
        leadership insist schools are safe and have called the refusal 
        of the Chicago Teachers Union to work in-person a strike and an 
        illegal work action. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has 
        confirmed schools are safe for students, including in Chicago. 
        More than 300,000 public school students in Chicago were off in 
        January after the district canceled classes when the Chicago 
        Teachers Union voted to refuse orders to work in-person. ``Our 
        schools are safe'', Chicago public schools CEO Pedro Martinez 
        said during a press conference on January 4, 2022, after the 
        results of the vote were announced. ``There is no evidence that 
        our schools have ever been unsafe this school year.''. He added 
        that Chicago schools rarely saw evidence of any major 
        transmission.
            (10) Instead of pouring money into schools that are failing 
        to stay open for full, in-person learning, the United States 
        must instead use these taxpayer dollars to support children, 
        not the teacher's unions, and allow parents to make decisions 
        about their child's educational future. The United States 
        should provide eligible parents the ability to elect to educate 
        their child in an alternate manner, apart from their local 
        public school that has closed for in-person learning.

SEC. 3. GRANT PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Education shall establish a grant 
program to make grants to parents of eligible students for the purposes 
described in subsection (d).
    (b) Application.--
            (1) In general.--To be eligible to receive a grant under 
        this section, a parent of an eligible student shall submit to 
        the Secretary an application demonstrating that, for any reason 
        related to COVID-19, the covered school in which such student 
        is enrolled for school year 2021-2022 is failing to provide in-
        person learning for each enrolled student for each school day 
        during such school year.
            (2) Other requirements.--The Secretary shall accept 
        applications under paragraph (1) on an annual rolling basis and 
        make such application available as a standardized form in 
        electronic and written format.
    (c) Amount of Grants.--
            (1) In general.--A parent of 1 or more eligible students 
        whom the Secretary determines qualifies for a grant under this 
        section shall receive such grant for each eligible student of 
        such parent in an amount that does not exceed $10,000. An 
        eligible student may not benefit from more than 1 grant under 
        this section.
            (2) Funding.--To award such a grant, the Secretary shall--
                    (A) require the State that provided funds under 
                section 2001 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 
                (20 U.S.C. 3401 note) to the local educational agency 
                in which the applicable covered school is located to 
                return such funds to the Secretary; and
                    (B) use such returned funds for such grant.
    (d) Use of Funds.--Any amounts made available to a parent under 
this section may be used, with respect to an eligible student--
            (1) to pay the tuition and fees for a private elementary 
        school or a private secondary school;
            (2) to pay the cost (such as the average per pupil price) 
        of attending a public elementary school or secondary school 
        that provides in-person school;
            (3) for private tutoring (including through a learning pod 
        or microschool);
            (4) for the home school expenses;
            (5) to purchase educational materials, including 
        instruction materials and textbooks;
            (6) for purchasing electronic devices to facilitate the 
        education of such eligible student; or
            (7) for such other purposes as the Secretary determines 
        appropriate.
    (e) Documentation.--The Secretary may request documentation from a 
recipient of a grant under this section that demonstrates that such 
grant was used in accordance with subsection (d).
    (f) Rules of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed--
            (1) to impact any aspect of private, religious, or home 
        education providers;
            (2) to exclude private, religious, or home education 
        providers from receiving funds pursuant to a grant under this 
        section; or
            (3) to require a qualified educational service provider to 
        alter any creed, practice, admissions policy, or curriculum in 
        order to receive funds pursuant to a grant under this section.
    (g) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Eligible student.--The term ``eligible student'' means 
        a student who is enrolled for school year 2021-2022 in a 
        covered school that, for any reason related to COVID-19, is 
        failing to provide in-person learning for each enrolled student 
        for each school day during such school year.
            (2) Covered school.--The term ``covered school'' means an 
        elementary school or secondary school located in a local 
        educational agency that received an amount under section 2001 
        of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (20 U.S.C. 3401 note).
            (3) ESEA terms.--The terms ``elementary school'', 
        ``secondary school'', ``parent'', and ``Secretary'' have the 
        meanings given such terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and 
        Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
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