Title: FLUENT Act
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Families Learning and Understanding English Together Act of 2020 or the FLUENT Act
This bill authorizes the Department of Education (ED) to establish a grant program to improve the literacy and English skills of English language learners.
Specifically, ED may award grants to providers of family literacy services to provide these services to families with English language learners. These services may only be provided to a family in which each parent is 16 years of age or older and at least one child is under the age of 8.
Further, ED must make grants to or enter into contracts with at least two national organizations with expertise in providing family literacy services to English language learners. These national organizations must provide grantees with technical assistance and training.
Additionally, ED must annually evaluate the grant program.
The bill also requires grantees to meet specified outcome measures.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7587 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7587

    To improve the literacy and English skills of English language 
                   learners, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 13, 2020

   Mr. Grijalva (for himself, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. San Nicolas, Mr. 
    Espaillat, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Norton, Mr. 
     Yarmuth, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Cardenas, and Mr. Gonzalez of Texas) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                          Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To improve the literacy and English skills of English language 
                   learners, 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 ``Families Learning and Understanding 
English Together Act of 2020'' or the ``FLUENT Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Census Bureau's American Community Survey of 2018 
        estimated 21.9 percent of United States households speak a 
        language other than English at home.
            (2) Many parents in many recently immigrated families speak 
        little to no English, can possess low literacy skills in their 
        native language due to limited education, and frequently 
        struggle to assist their children's English language 
        development.
            (3) The United States is a nation of immigrants, and even 
        today, according to the Census Bureau's American Community 
        Survey of 2018, more than 44,000,000 individuals who live in 
        the United States were born outside the country.

SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is to improve the educational, social, and 
economic advancement of families with English language learners in need 
of literacy skills by expanding and enhancing family literacy 
activities and services for such families.

SEC. 4. COMPETITIVE GRANT PROGRAM.

    (a) Program Authorized.--From funds made available pursuant to 
section 9, and after reserving funds under section 9(b), the Secretary 
may award grants to family literacy providers to provide, directly or 
through a contract with another provider, family literacy services 
designed for families with English language learners. Each grant under 
this Act shall be for a period of 1 year and may be renewed for a total 
of 5 additional years.
    (b) Application.--Family literacy providers who desire to receive a 
grant under this Act shall submit an application at such time, 
containing such information, and in such manner as the Secretary may 
require. Such application shall include the following:
            (1) An assurance that services provided with funds under 
        this Act shall be provided to the hardest-to-reach populations, 
        including populations with the greatest economic and social 
        need.
            (2) A description of the services that will be provided 
        with funds under this Act, including how the services will be 
        based on research-based reading instruction for children who 
        are English learners and parents who are English language 
        learners.
            (3) A description of the outcome measures, consistent with 
        section 6, that are based on research and will be employed by 
        the family literacy provider to measure the effectiveness of 
        services provided with funds under this Act.
            (4) An assurance that, in providing family literacy 
        services through the grant, the family literacy provider will 
        collaborate with one or more of the following:
                    (A) A local educational agency.
                    (B) An elementary school.
                    (C) A secondary school.
                    (D) A nonprofit entity.
    (c) Grant Amount.--The amount of a grant under this Act for a 
fiscal year shall not be less than $150,000 or more than $1,000,000.
    (d) Services Requirements.--Family literacy services under this Act 
shall be provided in sufficient intensity in terms of hours, and shall 
be of sufficient duration, to make sustainable changes in a family and 
shall integrate all of the following activities:
            (1) Interactive literacy activities between parents and 
        their children.
            (2) Training for parents regarding how to be the primary 
        teacher for their children and full partners in the education 
        of their children.
            (3) Parent literacy training that leads to economic self-
        sufficiency.
            (4) An age-appropriate education to prepare children for 
        success in school and life experiences.
    (e) Special Rule.--Family literacy services under this Act may be 
provided to a family only if--
            (1) each parent in the family has attained 16 years of age; 
        and
            (2) the family has at least one child who has not yet 
        attained 8 years of age.

SEC. 5. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING.

    (a) Activities by Secretary.--The Secretary, acting through the 
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education, shall, 
through grants or contracts as described in subsection (b), provide 
technical assistance and training to grantees under this Act for the 
purposes described in subsection (c).
    (b) Activities by National Organizations.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary shall make grants to, or 
        enter into contracts with, at least 2 eligible national 
        organizations to provide technical assistance and training to 
        grantees under this Act for the purposes described in 
        subsection (c).
            (2) Definition.--In this section, the term ``eligible 
        national organization'' means a national organization with 
        expertise in providing family literacy services to English 
        language learner populations.
    (c) Purposes.--The purposes of technical assistance and training 
provided under this section are the following:
            (1) Assisting grantees under this Act to improve the 
        quality of their family literacy services.
            (2) Enabling such grantees that demonstrate the effective 
        provision of family literacy services, based on improved 
        outcomes for children and their parents, to provide technical 
        assistance and training to government agencies and to family 
        literacy providers that work in collaboration with such 
        agencies to improve the quality of their family literacy 
        services.
            (3) Assisting such grantees in the implementation of 
        literacy curriculum and training activities, including 
        curriculum and training activities that support building on a 
        child's native language.
    (d) Reports to Congress.--Not later than 90 days after the end of 
each fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on 
Education and Labor of the House of Representatives and the Committee 
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate a report on the 
technical assistance and training provided pursuant to subsections (a) 
and (b). Each such report shall describe the actions taken by the 
Secretary to ensure that such technical assistance and training is of 
high quality and is responsive to the needs of grantees under this Act.

SEC. 6. OUTCOME MEASURES.

    The Secretary shall require each family literacy provider receiving 
a grant under this Act to meet culturally appropriate and competent 
outcome measures described in the provider's application under section 
4, including outcome measures with respect to--
            (1) acquisition of the English language, including improved 
        educational levels;
            (2) literacy skills and building of a home language;
            (3) improved parenting and life skills;
            (4) the improved ability of parents who are English 
        language learners to effectively interact with officials of the 
        schools their children attend;
            (5) improved developmental skills and independent learning 
        of the children;
            (6) increased parental participation in their children's 
        education and home environments that are supportive of 
        educational endeavors; and
            (7) employability skills.

SEC. 7. EVALUATION.

    The Secretary shall conduct an annual evaluation of the grant 
program under this Act. Such evaluation shall be used by the 
Secretary--
            (1) for program improvement;
            (2) to further define the program's goals and objectives; 
        and
            (3) to determine program effectiveness.

SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.

    For purposes of this Act:
            (1) Application of esea terms.--The terms ``elementary 
        school'', ``English learner'', ``local educational agency'', 
        and ``secondary school'' have the meanings given such terms in 
        section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 
        1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
            (2) English language learner; family literacy activities.--
        The terms ``English language learner'' and ``family literacy 
        activities'' have the meanings given the terms in section 203 
        of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 
        3272).
            (3) Family literacy provider.--The term ``family literacy 
        provider'' means an entity that--
                    (A) is located in a geographic area containing at 
                least one public elementary school or secondary school 
                with a majority enrollment of children who are English 
                learners; and
                    (B) is one of the following:
                            (i) A grantee under the Head Start Act (42 
                        U.S.C. 9831 et seq.), or any other Federal or 
                        State early childhood program.
                            (ii) An adult education provider.
                            (iii) A local educational agency.
                            (iv) A public or private nonprofit agency.
                            (v) Another entity that has the 
                        demonstrated ability to provide family literacy 
                        services to English language learning adults 
                        and families.
            (4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Education.

SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    (a) In General.--There is authorized to be appropriated to carry 
out this Act $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2025.
    (b) Reservations.--From funds made available pursuant to subsection 
(a) for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall reserve--
            (1) not more than 2 percent of such funds for conducting 
        the annual evaluation required by section 7; and
            (2) $5,000,000 for technical assistance and training under 
        section 5.
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