1.
This Act may be cited as the
Full-Service Community Schools Act of
2004
.
2.
The purposes of
this Act are the following:
(1)Providing support
for the planning, implementation, and operation of full-service community
schools.
(2)Improving the
coordination, availability, and effectiveness of services for children and
families.
(3)Enabling
principals and teachers to complement and enrich efforts to help all children
reach proficiency in reading and mathematics by 2014.
(4)Ensuring that
children come to school ready to learn every day.
(5)Enabling families
to participate in the education of their children.
(6)Enabling the more
efficient use of Federal, State, local, and private sector resources that serve
children and families.
(7)Facilitating the
coordination of programs operated by nonprofit organizations and State, local,
and tribal governments.
3.Full-service
community school definedIn
this Act, the term full-service community school
means a public
elementary school or secondary school that—
(1)participates in a
community-based effort to coordinate educational, developmental, family,
health, and other comprehensive services through community-based organizations
and public and private partnerships; and
(2)provides access to
such services to students, families, and the community served by the
school.
4.
(a)
(1)The Secretary of Education (referred to in this Act as
the Secretary
) may award grants to eligible entities for the
purpose of enabling the eligible entities to assist public elementary schools
or secondary schools in functioning as full-service community schools.
(2)Each grant awarded under this section shall be for a
period of 5 years.
(3)To the extent funds are available, each grant award under
this section shall be in an amount that is not less than $75,000 for each year
of the 5-year grant period.
(b)An
eligible entity that desires a grant under this section shall submit an
application to the Secretary at such time and in such manner as the Secretary
may require. The Secretary shall require that each such application include the
following:
(1)A
description of the eligible entity.
(2)A
list of partner entities that will assist the eligible entity in providing or
coordinating qualified services.
(3)A
memorandum of understanding between the eligible entity and each partner entity
describing the role the partner entity will assume.
(4)A
description of the capacity of the eligible entity to provide and coordinate
qualified services at a full-service community school.
(5)A
comprehensive plan that includes descriptions of the following:
(A)The student,
family, and school community to be served, including information about the
number of students, families, and community residents to be served and the
frequency of qualified services.
(B)Existing qualified
services available at each school to be served and in the community in which
the school is located.
(C)Qualified services
to be provided or coordinated by the eligible entity and its partner
entities.
(D)Coordination,
management, and oversight of qualified services at each school to be served,
including the roles of the school principal, the full-service community school
coordinator, parents, and members of the community in which the school is
located.
(E)Funding sources for
qualified services at each school to be served, whether such funding is derived
from grants under this section or from other Federal, State, local, or private
sources.
(F)Plans for
professional development for managing personnel, or for coordinating or
delivering qualified services, at the schools to be served.
(G)Plans for joint
utilization and maintenance of school facilities by the eligible entity and its
partner entities.
(6)Identification of
principles of effectiveness that are based on—
(A)an assessment of
objective data regarding the need—
(i)for
the establishment of a full-service community school; and
(ii)for qualified
services at each school to be served and in the community in which the school
is located;
(B)an established set
of performance measures aimed at ensuring the availability of high-quality
qualified services; and
(C)if appropriate,
scientifically based research that provides evidence that the qualified
services involved will help students meet State and local student academic
achievement standards.
(7)A
strategy for developing a plan for sustainability.
(c)In
awarding grants under this section, the Secretary shall give priority to
eligible entities that—
(1)will serve not
less than 1 school eligible for a schoolwide program under section 1114 of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6314);
(2)demonstrate a
record of effectiveness in integrating not less than 3 qualified services;
and
(3)will serve more
than 1 full-service community school as part of a communitywide or districtwide
strategy.
(d)Grants awarded under
this section shall be used to provide or coordinate not less than 3 qualified
services at not less than 1 public elementary or secondary school.
(e)In
this section:
(1)The term eligible entity
means a consortium
comprised of a local educational agency and not less than 1 of the
following:
(A)Community-based
organization.
(B)Nonprofit
organization.
(C)Other public or
private entity.
(2)The term qualified services
means any of
the following:
(A)Early childhood
education.
(B)Remedial education
activities and academic enrichment activities.
(C)Programs under the
Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831 et seq.), including Early Head Start
programs.
(D)Programs that
promote parental involvement and family literacy, including the Reading First,
Early Reading First, and William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy
programs authorized in part B of title I of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6361 et seq.).
(E)Youth development
programs.
(F)Parent leadership
development activities.
(G)Parenting
education activities.
(H)Childcare
services.
(I)Community service
and service learning opportunities.
(J)Programs that
provide assistance to students who have been truant, suspended, or
expelled.
(K)Job training and
career counseling services.
(L)Nutrition
services.
(M)Primary health and
dental care.
(N)Mental health
prevention and treatment services.
(O)Adult education,
including instruction in English as a second language.
5.
(a)
(1)The Secretary may award grants to State collaboratives to
support the development of full-service community school programs in accordance
with this section.
(2)Each grant awarded under this section shall be for a
period of 5 years.
(3)To the extent funds are available, each grant award under
this section shall be in an amount that is not less than $500,000 for each year
of the 5-year grant period.
(b)Grants awarded under this section shall be used only for
the following:
(1)Planning,
coordinating, and expanding the development of full-service community schools
in the State.
(2)Providing
technical assistance and training at full-service community schools, including
professional development for personnel and creation of data collection and
evaluation systems.
(3)Collecting,
evaluating, and reporting data about the progress of full-service community
schools.
(4)Evaluating the impact of State policies and
guidelines in the integration of Federal and State programs at full-service
community schools.
(c)A
State collaborative that desires a grant under this section shall submit an
application to the Secretary at such time and in such manner as the Secretary
may require. The Secretary shall require that each such application include the
following:
(1)A
list of all governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations that will
participate as members of the State collaborative.
(2)A
description of the expertise of each member of the State collaborative—
(A)in coordinating
Federal and State programs across multiple agencies; and
(B)in working with
and developing the capacity of full-service community schools.
(3)A
comprehensive plan describing how the grant will be used to plan, coordinate,
and expand the delivery of qualified services at full-service community
schools.
(4)An explanation of
how the State will provide technical assistance and training, including
professional development, at full-service community schools.
(5)An
explanation of how the State will collect and evaluate information on
full-service community schools.
(d)In
this section:
(1)The
term State
means each of the several States, the District of
Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern
Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and
any other territory or possession of the United States.
(2)The term State collaborative
means a
collaborative comprised of a State educational agency (as such term is defined
in section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 7801) and not less than 2 other governmental agencies or nonprofit
organizations that provide services to children and families.
6.
(a)There
is established an advisory committee to be known as the Full-Service
Community Schools Advisory Committee
(referred to in this section as
the Advisory Committee
).
(b)The
Advisory Committee shall consist of 4 members as follows:
(1)The Attorney
General (or the delegate of the Attorney General).
(2)The Secretary of
Agriculture (or the delegate of the Secretary of Agriculture).
(3)The Secretary of
Health and Human Services (or the delegate of the Secretary of Health and Human
Services).
(4)The Secretary of Labor (or
the delegate of the Secretary of Labor).
(c)Subject
to subsection (d), the Advisory Committee shall—
(1)consult with the
Secretary on the development and implementation of programs under this
Act;
(2)identify
strategies to improve the coordination of Federal programs in support of
full-service community schools; and
(3)issue an annual
report to Congress on efforts under this Act.
(d)In
carrying out its duties under this section, the Advisory Committee shall
consult annually with eligible entities awarded grants under section 4, State
collaboratives awarded grants under section 5, and other entities with
expertise in operating full-service community schools.
7.
(a)The Secretary, directly or through grants, shall
provide such technical assistance as may be appropriate to accomplish the
purposes of this Act.
(b)The Secretary shall conduct evaluations on the
effectiveness of grants awarded under sections 4 and 5 in achieving the
purposes of this Act.
(c)The Secretary shall require each recipient of a grant
under this Act—
(1)to conduct
periodic evaluations of the progress achieved with the grant toward carrying
out the purposes of this Act;
(2)to use such
evaluations to refine and improve the activities conducted under the grant and
the performance measures for such activities; and
(3)to
make the results of such evaluations publicly available and to provide public
notice of such availability.
(d)Funds made available to a grant recipient under this Act
shall be used to supplement and not supplant any other Federal, State, or local
funds that would otherwise be available to carry out the activities assisted
under this Act.
(e)
(1)Subject to paragraph (4), the Secretary shall require
each recipient of a grant under this Act to provide matching funds from
non-Federal sources in an amount determined under paragraph (2).
(2)Determination of
amount of match
(A)Subject to subparagraph (B), the Secretary shall determine
the amount of matching funds to be required under this subsection of a grant
recipient under this Act based on a sliding fee scale that takes into
account—
(i)the
relative poverty of the population to be targeted by the grant recipient;
and
(ii)the
ability of the grant recipient to obtain such matching funds.
(B)The Secretary shall not require a recipient of a grant
under this Act to provide matching funds in an amount that exceeds the amount
of the grant funds awarded to the grant recipient.
(3)The Secretary shall permit a grant recipient under
this Act to match funds in whole or in part with in-kind contributions.
(4)Notwithstanding
this subsection, the Secretary shall not consider an applicant's ability to
match funds when determining which applicants will receive grants under this
Act.
8.Authorization of
appropriations
(a)There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this
Act $200,000,000 for fiscal year 2005, and such sums as may be necessary for
each of fiscal years 2006 through 2009.
(b)Of
the amounts appropriated to carry out this Act for each fiscal year—
(1)75 percent shall
be available to carry out section 4;
(2)20 percent shall
be available to carry out section 5; and
(3)of
the remaining 5 percent, not less than $500,000 shall be for technical
assistance under section 7(a).