[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2998 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2998


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 11, 2014

  Mr. Vitter introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To allow for the portability of funds under title I of the Elementary 
                  and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

    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 ``Expanding School Choice Act''.

SEC. 2. TITLE I PORTABILITY.

    Part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 
1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:

``SEC. 1128. TITLE I FUNDS FOLLOW THE LOW-INCOME CHILD STATE OPTION.

    ``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this 
title or any other provision of law and to the extent permitted under 
State law, a State educational agency may allocate grant funds under 
this part among the local educational agencies in the State based on 
the number of eligible children enrolled in the public schools served 
by each local educational agency and the State-accredited private 
schools within each local educational agency's geographic jurisdiction.
    ``(b) Eligible Child.--
            ``(1) Definition.--In this section, the term `eligible 
        child' means a child aged 5 to 17, inclusive, from a family 
        with an income below the poverty level on the basis of the most 
        recent satisfactory data published by the Department of 
        Commerce.
            ``(2) Criteria of poverty.--In determining the families 
        with incomes below the poverty level for the purposes of this 
        section, a State educational agency shall use the criteria of 
        poverty used by the Census Bureau in compiling the most recent 
        decennial census, as the criteria have been updated by 
        increases in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, 
        published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    ``(c) Student Enrollment in Public and Private Schools.--
            ``(1) Identification of eligible children.--On an annual 
        basis, on a date to be determined by the State educational 
        agency, each local educational agency that receives grant 
        funding in accordance with subsection (a) shall inform the 
        State educational agency of the number of eligible children 
        enrolled in public schools served by the local educational 
        agency and the State-accredited private schools within the 
        local educational agency's geographic jurisdiction.
            ``(2) Allocation to local educational agencies.--Based on 
        the identification of eligible children in paragraph (1), the 
        State educational agency shall provide to a local educational 
        agency an amount equal to the sum of the amount available for 
        each eligible child in the State multiplied by the number of 
        eligible children identified by the local educational agency 
        under paragraph (1).
            ``(3) Distribution to schools.--Each local educational 
        agency that receives funds under paragraph (2) shall distribute 
        such funds to the public schools served by the local 
        educational agency and State-accredited private schools within 
        the local educational agency's geographic jurisdiction--
                    ``(A) based on the number of eligible children 
                enrolled in such schools; and
                    ``(B) in a manner that would, in the absence of 
                such Federal funds, supplement the funds made available 
                from non-Federal resources for the education of pupils 
                participating in programs under this subpart, and not 
                to supplant such funds.''.
                                 <all>