zli12321/Bills huggingface dataset:
Local Taxpayer Relief Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to make permanent amendments made to the Impact Aid program (which compensates local educational agencies [LEAs] for the financial burden of federal activities affecting their school districts) by the Impact Aid Improvement Act of 2012 that:

 require the valuation of the federal property located within the boundaries of an LEA by calculating the valuation, for property tax purposes, of all property within the LEA's boundaries and then multiplying that value by the proportion of that property that is federal property; alter the formula for determining the foundation payments due LEAs for federal ownership of property when appropriations for a fiscal year are insufficient to provide them with full compensation; alter the formula for determining the payments due LEAs for eligible federally-connected children who are displaced from federal property or Indian lands due to housing renovation or rebuilding; and direct the Secretary of Education to complete Impact Aid payments to eligible LEAs within three fiscal years of their appropriation. (Such amendments are currently set to expire on January 2, 2015.)

Alters the formula for determining the payments due LEAs for eligible federally-connected children.

Includes not only children in average daily attendance, but also those enrolled pursuant to a state open enrollment policy.

Continues an LEA's eligibility for such payments while activities associated with military base closures and realignments or force structure changes or relocations are ongoing.

Allows the calculation of such payments using current student counts instead of prior fiscal year data when LEAs experience a specified influx of new federally-connected students due to federal activities or the closure of an LEA that was receiving Impact Aid due to federally-connected children.

Requires the Secretary to allow LEAs to count their federally-connected children using the date they register their students for the fiscal year for which their application is filed.

Alters the formula for determining the construction payments due LEAs that are eligible for other Impact Aid payments.

Divides 80% of the construction funds evenly between LEAs impacted by military dependent children and LEAs impacted by children residing on Indian lands, with the remainder reserved for emergency repair and modernization grants to LEAs serving Indian lands or experiencing a specified influx of new students due to federal activities.

Alters the formula for determining whether a state's plan for equalizing assistance to its LEAs will except it from the prohibition on state aid to LEAs being affected by Impact Aid payments.

Requires new LEAs applying for Impact Aid to have boundaries established by state law and the authority to tax or receive an imputed local tax.

Reauthorizes appropriations for the Impact Aid program through FY2017.

Date: 2013-06-06
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Early Intervention for Graduation Success Act of 2013 - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to revise provisions concerning programs to reduce school dropout rates and increase school reentry and secondary school graduation rates.

Replaces the existing grant program with an early intervention for graduation success program awarding competitive, renewable, five-year early intervention grants to states and, through them, subgrants to partnerships between local educational agencies and early childhood education providers that serve a high percentage of students who bear the risk factors for dropping out of school.

Requires state grantees to: (1) create and periodically update a research-based plan that addresses the factors associated with the risk of not graduating from high school; (2) provide technical assistance to subgrantees; and (3) assist subgrantees in accessing data from appropriate state agencies to identify and direct effective services to children, from birth through elementary school, who are at risk of not graduating from high school.

Permits states to use grant funds to: (1) provide tuition assistance to students who agree to teach in an early childhood education program, (2) increase and monitor the quality of early childhood education, (3) design and implement a progression of aligned performance standards across all domains of learning from prekindergarten through postsecondary education, and (4) expand access to high-quality early childhood education for children most at risk of low proficiency in school.

Requires subgrantees to: (1) use the data relevant to risk factors for non-graduation a made available by state agencies and other sources to implement research-based, individualized interventions for at-risk students; (2) develop and implement individual learning plans for each at-risk early childhood, elementary, and secondary school student; (3) provide teacher training; (4) integrate community and family support services; and (5) foster students' high expectations and improve their chances for academic success.

Authorizes appropriations for FY2014-FY2019.

Date: 2013-06-06
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2013-06-07
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2013-06-10
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2013-06-25
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2013-07-11
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2013-09-18
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Taxation
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.

Date: 2013-10-29
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2013-11-07
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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."

Date: 2013-12-20
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2014-01-09
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2014-01-30
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2014-02-12
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2014-02-24
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2014-03-06
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
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.

Date: 2014-04-28
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
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.

Date: 2014-05-07
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Advancing Competency-Based Education Demonstration Project Act of 2014 - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to select up to 15 institutions of higher education (IHEs), systems of IHEs, or consortia of IHEs to participate in a competency-based education demonstration project that provides participants with the ability to offer competency-based education that does not meet certain statutory and regulatory requirements that would otherwise prevent them from participating in federal student aid programs.

Defines "competency-based education" as an educational process that is characterized by the direct measurement of student learning instead of, or in addition to, measuring students' credit or clock hours.

Deems IHEs to be eligible to participate in the project if they are eligible to participate in title IV programs and are not proprietary or foreign IHEs.

Requires project applicants to provide the Secretary with a description of the statutory and regulatory requirements they would like waived and the reasons for seeking each waiver.

Directs the Secretary, through the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, to: (1) develop performance measures to be used by project participants in gauging their progress, (2) evaluate the implementation and impact of project activities, and (3) identify promising competency-based education practices and disseminate research on such practices.

Requires the Secretary to conduct an annual evaluation of the competency-based education program offered by each demonstration project participant.

Date: 2014-06-23
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Increasing Student Achievement by Increasing 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 "low-income LEAs" as those that: (1) serve students at least 20% of whom are from families with incomes below the federal poverty level; and (2) have no more than 1 school counselor for every 275 students, 1 school psychologist for every 770 students, and 1 school social worker for every 440 students.

Allows the use of grant funds to:

 provide program graduate students with field training at partnership LEA schools; contribute to program graduates' salaries at such schools for up to three years after they graduate; increase the number of school counselors, social workers, and psychologists per student, and from underrepresented backgrounds, in such schools; enhance the capacity of partnership graduate schools to train such professionals; develop course work designed to facilitate such graduates' service to low-income LEAs and at-risk students; and 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 consecutive 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 consecutive 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 due to their having a shortage of such school personnel.

Date: 2014-07-31
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Developing Innovative Partnerships and Learning Opportunities that Motivate Achievement Act or the DIPLOMA Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award renewable five-year grants to states and, through them, subgrants to local consortia that include a local educational agency and other community partners to: (1) ensure the academic, physical, social, emotional, and civic development of disadvantaged youth; and (2) strengthen their families and communities.

Requires each state grantee to develop and implement a state youth strategy that assesses the needs of youth and the assets within the state that can be mobilized, coordinated, and integrated to achieve quantifiable progress toward goals that include ensuring that: (1) youth are ready for school; (2) students are engaged and achieving in school; (3) students are not chronically absent; (4) students are physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally healthy; (5) schools and neighborhoods are safe and provide a positive climate for learning; (6) families and communities are engaged in the education of their youth as equal partners; (7) students are ready for postsecondary education at institutions of higher education and 21st Century careers; and (8) students are contributing to their communities.

Directs the consortia to develop and implement a local youth strategy that integrates multiple private and public services into a comprehensive, coordinated continuum of services directed toward achieving quantifiable progress toward such goals.

Date: 2014-09-17
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Incentives to Educate American Children Act of 2014 or the I Teach Act of 2014 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to permit a refundable tax credit of $1,000 for: (1) teachers in public or elementary or secondary schools or public kindergartens in rural areas or areas with high poverty, and (2) teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Increases such credit to $2,000 for a teacher meeting both requirements.

Date: 2014-09-18
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Taxation
Authorizes the Department of Defense (DOD) to lease non-excess military property to local educational agencies or elementary or secondary schools at or below fair market value or for no consideration.

Date: 2014-11-18
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Local Control of Education Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to prohibit the federal government from directly or indirectly mandating, directing, controlling, incentivizing, or conditioning federal support on a state's, local educational agency's (LEA's), or school's adoption of:

 the Common Core State Standards, any other academic standards common to a number of states, or any statewide or nationally recognized content standards; or any assessment, instructional content, or curriculum aligned to, or based on, specific academic standards. Amends the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to make those prohibitions applicable to grants awarded under the Race to the Top program for innovations and reforms in elementary and secondary education.

Prohibits the Secretary of Education from conditioning the provision of a statutory or regulatory waiver under the ESEA on a state, LEA, Indian tribe, or school adopting any specific instructional content, academic standard, assessment, curriculum, or program of instruction. Makes that prohibition applicable to future and previously issued waivers.

Date: 2014-12-02
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Expanding School Choice Act - Amends part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to allow states to allocate school improvement grant funds among their local educational agencies (LEAs) on the basis of the number of children aged 5 through 17 whose family income lies below the federal poverty level and who are enrolled in the public and state-accredited private schools within each LEA's geographic jurisdiction.

Date: 2014-12-11
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Fair Share Act of 2014 - Consolidates and amends three federal programs that provide payments to local governments that have federal lands within their borders: the Department of the Interior's Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program, the Forest Service's Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Refuge Revenue Sharing (RRS) program.

Expands the definition of "entitlement land" eligible for payment under the Department of the Interior's PILT program to include land owned by the U.S. government that was purchased for addition to the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Combines the PILT, SRS, and RRS programs into one expanded PILT program, and alters the formulas for allocating payments under the programs.

Provides permanent mandatory funding for the PILT program.

Provides funding in FY2014-FY2018 for resource advisory committees created under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, and permits them to propose vegetation management projects, including projects authorized under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003.

Date: 7/17/2014
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Breath of Fresh Air Act

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to award matching grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) to: (1) purchase nebulizers for use in their schools, and/or (2) train school personnel to use nebulizers.

Requires LEA grant applicants to demonstrate that for each of their schools that are to use the nebulizers: (1) a full-time certified nurse is on staff, (2) trained personnel and other resources necessary for nebulizer use are in place, (3) emergency services personnel are notified of nebulizer locations, (4) nebulizers are integrated into the school's emergency response procedures, and (5) procedures are in place to notify parents of the availability of nebulizers and to inform them how to provide the school with their child's prescription asthma medication and authorization to use a nebulizer to assist their child.

Gives grant priority to LEAs that: (1) serve areas where the prevalence of asthma is at least 10% higher than the national average; (2) do not already have at least one nebulizer in each of their schools; (3) serve schools that typically have a significant number of students, staff, and visitors present during the day; and (4) have not received funds under the Rural Access to Emergency Devices Act.

Date: 2015-01-06
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Restoration of Parental Rights and State Sovereignty Act of 2015

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to prohibit the Secretary of Education from forcing a state to satisfy any requirement imposed as a condition of receiving assistance under an ESEA grant program.

Prohibits the Secretary from releasing assistance to a state under an ESEA grant program unless the state's legislature has by law expressly approved the program. Allows that approval to be accomplished by a vote to affirm a state budget that includes the use of such federal funds, but requires that budget to expressly include any requirement imposed as a condition on the state's receipt of those funds.

Prohibits ESEA funds that are not allocated to a state due to the state's failure to affirmatively agree to their receipt from being reallocated among the other states.

Expresses the intent of Congress that control over public education and parental rights to control their children's education is vested exclusively within the authority reserved to the states and individual Americans by the Constitution, except when states expressly approve federal terms or conditions on educational assistance or the federal government is obliged to enforce minimum federal equal protection or due process standards.

Date: 2015-01-06
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Local Education Authority Returns Now Act

This bill requires the Secretary of the Treasury to make an annual determination of states that have chosen to opt-out of K-12 education grant programs and the Secretary of Education to determine credits due to states as opt-out state education amounts.

The bill also amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow individual taxpayers in states that opt-out a refundable tax credit for a share of the opt-out amount creditable to such states.

Date: 2015-01-06
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Taxation
Core Opportunity Resources for Equity and Excellence Act of 2015

Amends the school improvement program under part A of title I of the the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to require states to adopt student achievement standards that lead to college and career readiness by high school graduation.

Requires each state school improvement plan to ensure that the state's public school system enables students to meet those standards by providing them with fair and equitable access to the core resources for learning.

Includes among the core resources for learning:

 high-quality instructional teams; rigorous academic standards and curricula that lead to college and career readiness by high school graduation; equitable and instructionally appropriate class sizes; up-to-date instructional materials, technology, and supplies; effective school library programs; school facilities and technology, including physically and environmentally sound school buildings and well-equipped instructional spaces; specialized instruction support teams providing assessment, diagnosis, counseling, educational, therapeutic, and other necessary services as part of a comprehensive program to meet student needs; and effective programs to engage families and the community in education. Prohibits states that fail to make progress toward eliminating inequities in access to the core resources for learning for two or more consecutive years from receiving funds under any competitive grant program authorized by the ESEA.

Requires the annual report cards publicly disseminated by states and their local educational agencies (LEAs) to include information on the performance of LEAs and schools in providing students with fair and equitable access to the core resources for learning.

Requires states to identify any of their LEAs as needing improvement if they: (1) fail for two consecutive years to make adequate yearly progress toward state academic content and achievement standards, or (2) have received a waiver of the ESEA's statutory or regulatory requirements from the Secretary of Education.

Requires states to: (1) identify any inequities in access to the core resources of learning in schools served by an LEA that has been identified as needing improvement, and (2) work with the LEA to address those inequities.

Prohibits the Secretary from waiving this Act's requirements for accountability in providing students with access to the core resources for learning.

Date: 2015-01-07
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Financial Literacy for Students Act

 Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education of 1965 (ESEA) to authorize the Secretary of Education to award matching grants to states to: (1) integrate financial literacy education into each of their public elementary and secondary schools that are eligible for school improvement funds under title I of the ESEA, and (2) train their secondary school financial literacy or entrepreneurship teachers to teach financial literacy in core academic subjects.

Prohibits states from using over 20% of their grant funds to train those teachers, develop curricula, and evaluate the impact of financial literacy or personal finance education.

Date: 2015-01-14
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Support Making Assessments Reliable and Timely Act or the SMART Act

Amends subpart 1 (Accountability) of part A of title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to revise the program allotting grants to states to develop and administer state academic content and achievement standards and assessments of student progress toward those standards.

Requires each state to use such grant to:

 develop and administer such assessments and further align them with the state's academic content standards, ensure that students with limited English proficiency and disabled students are provided with appropriate accommodations to improve their inclusion in the assessments, develop state assessment systems aligned to content standards that support systems of continuous improvement, support local educational agencies (LEAs) in identifying uses of assessment data, and carry out certain other activities to improve the quality and use of state assessments. Revises the program awarding competitive grants to states to enhance assessment instruments.

Requires each grantee that has not yet received a grant under such program to use the grant to:

 carry out audits of the state assessment system and ensure that LEAs carry out audits of local assessments; prepare and carry out a state plan, in coordination with LEAs, to improve and streamline state and local assessment systems; and award subgrants to LEAs to improve the quality and use of local assessments and their alignment with state academic content standards. Requires a state that has previously received such a grant to use a new grant to:

 carry out a state plan, in coordination with LEAs, to improve and streamline state and local assessment systems; and award subgrants to LEAs to improve the quality and use of local assessments and their alignment with state academic content standards. Directs the Secretary to provide technical assistance to states to improve their understanding of existing flexibility in the design and implementation of high-quality, streamlined state assessment systems to measure student progress toward state academic achievement standards.

Reauthorizes appropriations for the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the revised subpart 1 grant programs.

Date: 2015-01-20
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education
Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to eliminate the requirement that students be tested against state academic content and achievement standards in mathematics and reading or language arts in each of grades three through eight.

Requires, instead, that those tests be administered at least once during: (1) grades 3 through 5, (2) grades 6 through 9, and (3) grades 10 through 12.

Date: 2015-01-21
Topic: Education (Elementary & Secondary)
Subject: Education