113 HR 2517 IH: Families Learning and Understanding English Together Act of 2013
U.S. House of Representatives
2013-06-26
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EN
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
1.This Act may be cited as the
Families Learning and Understanding
English Together Act of 2013
.
2.The Congress finds the following:
(1)The Census Bureau
reports that in 2007, 19.7 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, 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 2007 update of the
Census, over 38,000,000 individuals who live in the United States were born
outside the country.
3.The purpose of this Act is to improve the
educational, social, and economic advancement of families with limited English
proficient individuals in need of literacy skills by expanding and enhancing
family literacy services for such families.
4.Competitive Grant
Program
(a)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 limited
English proficient individuals. 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)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 limited English proficient children and parents.
(3)A
description of the outcome measures, consistent with section 6, that are based
on scientifically based 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)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)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)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 from birth who has not yet attained 8 years of age.
5.Technical
assistance and training
(a)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)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)In
this section, the term eligible national organization means a
national organization with expertise in providing family literacy services to
limited English proficient populations.
(c)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)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.
6.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 with limited English proficiency to effectively interact
with officials of the schools their children attend;
(5)improved
developmental skills and independent learning of the children; and
(6)increased parental
participation in their children’s education and home environments that are
supportive of educational endeavors.
7.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.
8.For purposes of this Act:
(1)Application of
ESEA termsThe terms elementary school,
limited English proficient, local educational agency,
scientifically based research, and secondary school
have the meanings given such terms in section 9101 of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). The term scientifically
based reading research has the meaning given such term in section 1208
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6368).
(2)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 with limited English proficiency;
and
(B)is one of the
following:
(i)A
current grantee under subpart 3 of part B of title I of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6381 et seq.) (commonly referred to
as William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Programs
), 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 limited English proficient
adults and families.
(3)The
term Secretary means the Secretary of Education.
9.Authorization of
appropriations
(a)There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this Act $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years
2014 through 2018.
(b)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.