[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3779 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3779

To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to prevent the disruption 
of the education of children who change residence based on the military 
                       service of their parents.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 4, 2004

   Ms. Slaughter (for herself and Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to prevent the disruption 
of the education of children who change residence based on the military 
                       service of their parents.

    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 ``Safeguarding Schoolchildren of 
Deployed Soldiers Act of 2004''.

SEC. 2. RELIEF FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN CHANGING RESIDENCE BASED ON MILITARY 
              SERVICE OF PARENT.

    (a) Uninterrupted Attendance at School.--Title VII of the 
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. App. 501 et seq.) is amended 
by adding at the end the following new section:

``SEC. 707. ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL OF CHILDREN WITH PARENTS IN MILITARY 
              SERVICE.

    ``(a) Attendance for Schoolchildren.--For the duration of the 
military service on which a child's change of residence is based and at 
the request of a child's parent, a State educational agency or local 
educational agency shall, for purposes of enrollment (including 
tuition, fees, and costs) in elementary or secondary school, treat a 
child who changes residence based on the military service of one or 
both of the child's parents as if the child has the residence the child 
had before the change of residence, and the child shall be deemed, for 
all other purposes relating to enrollment, to have the residence the 
child had before the change of residence.
    ``(b) No Provision of Transportation.--No State educational agency 
or local educational agency shall be responsible for the transportation 
of a child described in subsection (a) to or from school by reason of 
subsection (a).
    ``(c) Definitions.--In this section, the terms `child', `elementary 
school', `local educational agency', `parent', `secondary school', and 
`State educational agency' have the meanings given those terms in 
section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 7801).''.
    (b) Transitional Provision.--Not later than 30 days after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, a State educational agency or local 
educational agency that serves the area where a child is deemed to 
reside pursuant to section 707(a) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief 
Act, as added by subsection (a), shall facilitate the re-enrollment of 
the child if such re-enrollment is necessary to be in compliance with 
such section.
    (c) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents in section 1(b) of 
the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is amended by adding at the end the 
following new item:

``707. Attendance at school of children with parents in military 
                            service.''.
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