jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-06-07 00:00:00

Securing Teacher Effectiveness, Leadership, Learning, And Results Act of 2013 or STELLAR Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to require each state receiving school improvement funds to: (1) define teacher and principal effectiveness and establish performance ratings; (2) demonstrate that it has developed, in collaboration with teachers and principals, a model teacher and principal evaluation program; (3) demonstrate that each of its local educational agencies (LEAs) has adopted a teacher and principal evaluation program; (4) demonstrate that each LEA is collaborating with teachers and principals in developing and making annual improvements to such program; (5) review, report on, and assist LEAs in improving such evaluation programs; and (6) establish procedures to ensure that ineffective teachers and principals facing unemployment are treated fairly.

Requires teacher evaluations to: (1) emphasize student academic growth, (2) include observations of the teacher's classroom performance, (3) rate teachers using at least four performance categories, and (4) provide results that are comparable for all teachers in grade levels and subject areas across the state and within the teacher's LEA.

Requires principal evaluations to: (1) emphasize student academic growth; (2) factor in their school's graduation rates; (3) assess the principal's success in recruiting, developing, evaluating, and retaining effective teachers; (4) assess the principal's leadership abilities through observations and other relevant data; (5) rate principals using at least four performance categories; and (6) provide results that are comparable across all principals within the LEA.

Requires states to take steps to ensure that poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by teachers rated as less than effective.

Requires states and LEAs to report the number and percentage of teachers and principals in each performance rating at: (1) the state, LEA, and school level; and (2) their LEAs and schools that have the highest and lowest poverty rates or the highest and lowest percentages of minority students. Requires states to report student attendance rates, disaggregated by each school and each teacher and principal at each school within specified jurisdictions.

Directs the Secretary of Education to: (1) recognize each LEA that has innovative, high-quality, and effective teacher or principal evaluation programs that lead to professional development and improved student performance; and (2) establish a clearinghouse to share the best practices of such programs with educators.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-06-10 00:00:00

Prescribe A Book Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to authorize the Secretary of Education to award matching grants to nonprofit organizations for the implementation of Pediatric Early Literacy Programs, through which: (1) health care providers encourage parents to read aloud to their children and offer parents developmentally appropriate recommendations and strategies for doing so; (2) health care providers give each visiting child between the ages of six months and five years a new, developmentally appropriate children's book to take home and keep; and (3) volunteers in health care facility waiting areas read to children and show parents the techniques and pleasures of sharing books.

Requires that the books provided to children under the programs be obtained at a discount.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-06-25 00:00:00

Rural Education Achievement Program Reauthorization Act of 2013 - Amends part B (Rural Education Initiative) of title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to revise the Small, Rural School Achievement program, which gives rural local educational agencies (LEAs) federal formula grants and greater flexibility in the use of state educational funds.

Limits eligibility to LEAs whose schools are all designated with a school locale code of Fringe Rural, Distant Rural, or Remote Rural, unless located in an area the state defines as rural.

Raises federal grant limits when funds available to implement the program equal or exceed $100 million.

Alters LEA eligibility for federal funds under the Rural and Low-Income School program by requiring that: (1) at least 40% of the children ages 5 through 17 that LEAs serve be eligible for a free or reduced price lunch under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act; and (2) all of their schools be designated with a school locale code of Distant Town, Remote Town, Fringe Rural, Distant Rural, or Remote Rural.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-07-11 00:00:00

Family Engagement in Education Act of 2013 - Amends title I (Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to authorize states to reserve school improvement funds to:

 award a grant to a statewide nonprofit organization to establish a Statewide Family Engagement Center that provides comprehensive training, technical assistance, and capacity building to local educational agencies (LEAs), organizations that support family-school partnerships, and other organizations that carry out parent education and family engagement in education programs; award grants to nonprofit organizations or Indian tribes or organizations that partner with LEAs or schools to establish and operate Local Family Engagement Centers that assist families in becoming engaged in their childrens' education; and develop and implement a statewide family engagement in education plan. Requires each state school improvement plan to include a plan for strengthening family engagement in education.

Requires each LEA and school receiving school improvement funds to develop policies and practices for family engagement in education that meet specified principles and standards.

Increases the percentage of school improvement funds that LEAs must reserve for family engagement activities. Requires at least 75% of those reserved funds to be distributed to schools served under the school improvement program.

Requires states and correctional facilities to work with family members and aftercare providers in developing educational services and transition plans for youth following their stay in state and local institutions for neglected or delinquent youth.

Requires the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences to develop recommended metrics on family engagement in education for states and LEAs and to make recommendations on the integration of those metrics into state accountability and longitudinal data systems. Directs the Secretary of Education to conduct research on effective family engagement in education.

Requires states to use part of their grant under part A (Teacher and Principal Training and Recruiting Fund) of title II of the ESEA to train teachers and principals to effectively engage families in their children's education.

Repeals programs authorizing the Secretary to award grants to: (1) nonprofit organizations and consortia of those organizations and LEAs to establish parental information and resource centers, and (2) local nonprofit parent organizations to support local family information centers.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-09-18 00:00:00

Rebuilding America's Schools Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to tax-exempt bond funding for educational facilities, to: (1) reinstate the national qualified school construction bond limitation amount for calendar years after 2013, (2) make permanent the qualified zone academy bond (QZAB) limitation amount, (3) permit private entities to waive the 10% matching requirement for QZABs, and (4) revise the definition of QZAB for purposes of the credit for issuers of qualified tax credit bonds.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-10-29 00:00:00

Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act - Requires states that receive funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to:

 require criminal background checks for each school employee that include searches of the criminal registry or repository of the state in which the employee resides, the child abuse and neglect registries and databases of that state, the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Sex Offender Registry; prohibit the employment of an individual who refuses to consent to, or who makes a false statement in connection with, a background check or who has been convicted of one of specified felonies or of a violent or sexual crime against a minor; require background checks to be periodically repeated or updated in accordance with state law or the policies of the state's local educational agencies (LEAs); provide school employees who have had a background check with a copy of the background check if they request one and a timely process to appeal the results of the background check if it blocks their service as a school employee; ensure that such policies and procedures are published on state and LEA websites; and allow an LEA to share the results of a recent background check on a school employee with another LEA that is considering that individual for employment. Prohibits states and LEAs from knowingly transferring or facilitating the transfer of any school employee if they know, or have substantive reason to believe, that such employee engaged in sexual misconduct with an elementary or secondary school student.

Allows: (1) the Attorney General and state law enforcement officials to charge reasonable fees for conducting the background checks, and (2) states and LEAs to use ESEA administrative funds to pay such fees.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-11-07 00:00:00

Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce Improvement Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) (Secretaries) to award competitive matching grants to states to support services for early childhood educators and early childhood care and education programs across all early childhood age groups.

Requires grant applicants to demonstrate that they have a comprehensive early childhood educator professional development system or a plan for developing one.

Requires the grants to be used to:

 provide scholarships to current or prospective early childhood educators to earn a child development associate credential or an associate or baccalaureate degree in early childhood education or a closely related field; enhance or expand professional development to help early childhood care and education programs improve by at least one level on the state's quality rating and improvement system, if the state has one; provide ongoing professional development opportunities for early childhood educators; encourage cross-sector training opportunities for teachers and staff working in Head Start programs, Early Head Start programs, child care programs, early intervention programs, infant and early childhood mental health programs, home visiting programs, and state-funded prekindergarten and preschool programs; and expand the number of early childhood educators who are trained to work with infants and toddlers. Requires states to give priority to using the grant funds to provide such scholarships.

Prohibits this Act's grant funds from being used to supplant other federal, state, or local funds provided for early childhood workforce improvement programs.

Directs the Secretaries to carry out their responsibilities under this Act in accordance with the terms they set forth in an interagency agreement.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-12-20 00:00:00

Preserving Education Access and Autonomy Act of 2013 - Prohibits the Secretary of Education from requiring, as a condition of any education grant or assistance, that a state or local educational agency (LEA) adopt a specific elementary or secondary school curriculum.

Prohibits the Secretary, when selecting recipients for any education grant or assistance, from giving any priority, preference, or special consideration to a state or LEA that is based on its adoption of a specific elementary or secondary school curriculum.

Includes the Secretary's waiver of a statutory or regulatory requirement of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 within the definition of an "education grant or assistance."
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2014-01-09 00:00:00

Creating Hope and Opportunity for Individuals and Communities through Education Act or the CHOICE Act - Amends the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act to: (1) require the Secretary of Education (Secretary) to use funds appropriated under the Act that are carried over from one fiscal year to the next to provide opportunity scholarships to eligible students who have not yet received them; and (2) include among the eligibility criteria for such a scholarship a requirement that a student in the District of Columbia is enrolled, or will be enrolled for the next school year, in a public or private elementary or secondary school. (Opportunity scholarships are provided to low-income students in the District of Columbia to enable them to attend the District of Columbia private elementary or secondary school of their choice.)

Amends the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to allow states that have established a program allowing the parents of disabled children to use public or private funds to send their children to a private school to use their allocation of special education funds to supplement those funds.

Authorizes grants for the improvement of special education services to be used for the planning, design, and initial implementation, during a period of up to three years, of state programs that allow the parents of a disabled child to make a genuine independent choice of the appropriate public or private school for their child.

Sets forth requirements for those programs, including that they: (1) permit parents to receive state funds to pay some or all of the costs of their disabled child's attendance at the selected school, or (2) permit persons to receive a state tax credit for donations to an entity that provides funds to enable parents to pay some or all of the costs of their disabled child's attendance at that school.

Directs the Secretary of Defense (DOD) to carry out a five-year pilot program to award scholarships to enable military dependent students who live on military installations to attend the public or private elementary or secondary schools their parents choose rather than those assigned to them.

Requires the Secretary of Defense to select at least five military installations to participate in the program and choose those where military students would most benefit from expanded education options.

Directs the Secretary of Defense to use a random process to select scholarship recipients if more students apply for the scholarships than can be accommodated.

Requires the Secretary to return to the Treasury specified amounts made available for Department of Education salaries and expenses.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2014-01-30 00:00:00

Learning Opportunities Created At Local Level Act or the LOCAL Level Act - Expresses the sense of Congress that state and local prerogatives over elementary and secondary education need to be preserved.

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to prohibit any federal officer or employee from directly or indirectly, through grants, contracts, or other cooperative agreements under the ESEA:

 mandating, directing, or controlling a state's, local educational agency's (LEA's), or school's specific instructional content, academic standards, assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction; incentivizing such an entity's adoption of any specific instructional content, academic standards, assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction; mandating a state or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under the ESEA; or conditioning the availability of financial support on a state's, LEA's, or school's adoption of any specific instructional content, academic standards, assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction, even if such conditions are specified under any other Act. Prohibits any funds provided to the Department of Education under the ESEA from being used by the Department directly or indirectly, through grants, contracts, or other cooperative agreements, to endorse, approve, develop, require, or sanction any elementary or secondary school curriculum.

Prohibits conditioning any state's receipt of ESEA assistance on the approval or certification of its academic standards by the federal government.

Includes in the prohibition against the use of ESEA funds on federally sponsored testing and testing materials such use on any assessment or testing materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards or any other academic standards common to a significant number of states. Prohibits the use of Race to the Top funds, provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, on such aligned assessment or testing materials.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2014-02-12 00:00:00

All Year School Study Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to carry out a multi-year pilot program awarding four grants to states, local educational agencies, or other public entities to establish or expand year-round education programs at public elementary or secondary schools that focus on raising student achievement.

Allows grantees to increase the salaries of teachers participating in the year-round education programs, but by no more than 100%.

Requires the Secretary to give priority to grant applicants that: (1) propose to carry out year-round education activities that emphasize science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; and (2) target high-poverty areas and low-performing schools.

Directs the Secretary to enter into a contract for an independent evaluation of the pilot program's effectiveness.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2014-02-24 00:00:00

Keeping All Students Safe Act - Requires each state educational agency and local educational agency (LEA) that receives federal funds to prohibit school personnel, contractors, and resource officers from subjecting students to: (1) seclusion, (2) mechanical or chemical restraint, (3) aversive behavioral intervention that compromises student health and safety, or (4) physical restraint that is life-threatening or contraindicated based on the student's health or disability status.

Excludes from the definition of "seclusion" time outs that involve the separation of a student from the group, in a non-locked setting, for the purpose of calming.

Allows physical restraint only when: (1) the student's behavior poses an immediate danger of serious physical harm to the student or others; (2) the restraint does not interfere with the student's ability to communicate; and (3) the restraint occurs after less restrictive interventions have proven ineffective in stopping the danger, except in certain emergencies when immediate restraint is necessary.

Requires school personnel imposing physical restraint to: (1) be trained and certified by a state-approved crisis intervention training program, though others may impose such restraint in certain instances when trained personnel are not immediately available; and (2) engage in continuous face-to-face monitoring of the restrained student.

Requires:

 the parents of a physically restrained student to be notified on the day such restraint occurs; a debriefing session to be held as soon as practicable in which the person who imposed the restraint, the immediate adult witnesses, a school administrator, a school mental health professional, and at least one of the student's family members participate; the affected student to be given an opportunity to discuss the event with a trusted adult who will communicate the student's perspective to the debriefing session group; and the state educational agency, the LEA, local law enforcement, and any protection and advocacy system serving an affected student to be notified within 24 hours of any death or bodily injury that occurs in conjunction with efforts to control a student's behavior. Authorizes a student to file a civil action seeking relief from the use of seclusion or restraint on the student in violation of this Act.

Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants to states and, through them, competitive subgrants to LEAs to: (1) establish, implement, and enforce policies and procedures to meet this Act's requirements; (2) improve their capacity to collect and analyze data related to physical restraint; and (3) implement school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports.

Requires states to allow private school personnel to participate, on an equitable basis, in activities supported by such grants and subgrants.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2014-03-06 00:00:00

Yellowstone Community Education Fairness Act - Ratifies and approves all payments made to the school districts serving Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming between the beginning of FY1976 and the enactment of this Act as reimbursement for educational facilities furnished by those districts to certain students who are dependents of persons engaged in the administration, operation, and maintenance of the Park and living at or near it.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2014-04-28 00:00:00

Helping Military Children Succeed in Schools Act - Amends the school improvement program under part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to require states to include in their annual state report cards information regarding the number of, and the academic achievement of, their military-connected students (students who have a parent who serves in the Armed Forces).

Prohibits that academic achievement information from being used for school or local educational agency accountability purposes under the ESEA.
Topic: Education — Elementary & Secondary
Subject: Education
Date: 2014-05-07 00:00:00

Nurses for Under-Resourced Schools Everywhere Act or the NURSE Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to make competitive matching demonstration grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) in which the student-to-school nurse ratio in each of their public elementary and secondary schools is 750 or more students to every school nurse to pay a specified federal share of the cost of reducing such ratio.

Gives grant priority to high-need LEAs that demonstrate: (1) the greatest need for new or additional nursing services for their students, or (2) that they do not have a school nurse in any of their schools.

Defines a "high-need LEA" as an LEA for which not fewer than 10,000 or not less than 20% of the children served are from families with incomes below the poverty line.