Increased Student Achievement Through Increased Student Support Act

Bill: 110-s-3364
Sponsor: Sen. Lincoln, Blanche L. [D-AR]
Introduced: 2008-07-30 in the Senate
Policy area: Education
Subjects: Academic performance
College costs
College teachers
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Curricula
Economics and Public Finance
Education of the disadvantaged
Educational accountability
Educational counseling
Elementary and secondary education
Elementary education
Employment subsidies
Federal advisory bodies
Federal aid to education
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Governmental investigations
Graduate education
Higher education
Labor and Employment
Paraprofessional school personnel
Psychologists
Psychology
Recruiting of employees
Salaries
Scholarships
School personnel
Secondary education
Social Welfare
Social work
Student aid
Student loan funds
Teacher salaries
Teacher supply and demand

Summary:
action_date: 2008-07-30
text: 
Increased Student Achievement Through Increased Student Support Act - Directs the Secretary of Education to award competitive, renewable, five-year grants to partnerships between low-income local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools offering graduate programs in school counseling, social work, or psychology to increase the number of program graduates employed by low-income LEAs.
 
Defines &quot;low-income LEAs&quot; as those that: (1) serve students at least 20% of which are from low-income families; (2) have ratios of school counselors, social workers, and psychologists to students that fall at least 10% below specified target ratios; and (3) have been identified as needing improvement or corrective action or include at least one school identified as needing improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
 
Allows the use of grant funds to: (1) provide program graduate students with field training at partnership LEA schools; (2) contribute to program graduates' salaries at such schools for up to three years after they graduate; (3) increase the number of school counselors, social workers, and psychologists per student in such schools; (4) enhance the capacity of partnership graduate schools to train such professionals; (5) develop course work designed to facilitate such graduates' service to low-income LEAs and at-risk students; and (6) provide tuition credits to such graduate students and student loan forgiveness to program graduates employed as school counselors, social workers, or psychologists by low-income LEAs for at least five years.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish a program providing student loan forgiveness to non-participants in this Act's grant program who have been employed for at least five years as school counselors, social workers, or psychologists by low-income LEAs.
 
Requires the Secretary to identify a formula for future use in designating regions as eligible for benefit programs because of having a shortage of such school personnel.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2008-07-30
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2008-07-30
text: Introduced in Senate