[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 552 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 552

      To direct the Administrator of the United States Agency for 
International Development to submit to Congress a report on the impact 
      of the COVID-19 pandemic on global basic education programs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                March 2 (legislative day, March 1), 2021

Mr. Cardin (for himself and Mr. Boozman) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To direct the Administrator of the United States Agency for 
International Development to submit to Congress a report on the impact 
      of the COVID-19 pandemic on global basic education programs.

    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 ``Global Learning Loss Assessment Act 
of 2021''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Before the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (commonly referred 
        to as ``COVID-19'') pandemic began, 258,000,000 children were 
        out of school, including 130,000,000 girls.
            (2) Students already at a disadvantage before COVID-19 will 
        experience greater learning loss, thereby worsening inequity 
        and inequality.
            (3) Approximately 90 percent of the world's student 
        population--over 1,600,000,000 children and youth--have had 
        their education disrupted by school closure due to COVID-19.
            (4) School closures lead to interrupted learning, poor 
        nutrition, gaps in childcare, increased dropout rates, exposure 
        to violence, and social isolation.
            (5) Up to 24,000,000 children are at risk of dropping out 
        of school permanently due to rising levels of child poverty 
        associated with the pandemic.
            (6) School closure and remote learning is especially 
        burdensome on girls, who are frequently expected to shoulder 
        more household chores and responsibilities and are more 
        vulnerable to gender-based violence.
            (7) During the Ebola epidemic, nationwide school closures 
        in Sierra Leone in 2014 led to increased instances of sexual- 
        and gender-based violence, teenage pregnancy, school dropout, 
        and child labor for girls.
            (8) More than 60 percent of national distance learning 
        alternatives rely exclusively on online platforms but two-
        thirds of the world's school aged children, or 1,300,000,000 
        children aged 3 to 17, do not have internet connection in their 
        homes, and schools and local learning centers also frequently 
        have inadequate internet connectivity. Eighty percent of 
        students in sub-Saharan Africa lack such access, with an even 
        higher rate for girls.
            (9) Children and youth with disabilities are particularly 
        vulnerable to the health, education, and socioeconomic 
        consequences of the pandemic. As a further challenge, distance 
        learning tools are not always accessible to learners with 
        disabilities or those with complex learning needs, especially 
        in poorer and rural households.
            (10) Before the COVID-19 pandemic, refugee children were 
        twice as likely to be out of school as other youth, and school 
        closures and a lack of access to distance learning tools 
        threaten to make the education gap among refugee children even 
        more severe.
            (11) The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic 
        could lead to an education financing gap of $77,000,000,000 in 
        low- and middle-income countries over the next two years.
            (12) The economic cost of school closures could be up to 
        $1,337 per student, which on a global scale equates to 
        approximately $10,000,000,000,000 in lost economic output over 
        the coming generation.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States that United States-funded 
basic education programs operating in foreign countries should--
            (1) provide inclusive learning opportunities for students 
        and teachers, especially for the most marginalized, including 
        girls and children with disabilities, and previously out of 
        school children;
            (2) build local capacity and help countries strengthen 
        their education systems, including opportunities for early 
        childhood development;
            (3) improve the availability, delivery, and quality of 
        education services from early childhood through secondary 
        education;
            (4) improve equity and safety in education services; and
            (5) support the return of children to school who have 
        experienced interruptions in their education due to the COVID-
        19 pandemic and work to enroll previously out-of-school 
        children and youth, particularly the most marginalized.

SEC. 4. REPORT.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the United States Agency 
for International Development, acting through the Senior Coordinator 
for International Basic Education Assistance and in consultation with 
the Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, 
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on 
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on USAID's basic education 
programs.
    (b) Matters To Be Included.--The report required under subsection 
(a) shall include, at a minimum, the following elements:
            (1) An assessment of the magnitude of global learning loss 
        that will result from protracted school closures, including the 
        specific effects of school closures on marginalized children 
        and youth, including girls, minority populations, and those 
        with disabilities.
            (2) Descriptions of the effectiveness, cost, accessibility, 
        and reach of the most commonly used forms of distance learning 
        in low resource contexts.
            (3) An overview of Agency programs being carried out to 
        continue learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, including 
        existing data on funding and programmatic focus disaggregated 
        by gender, country, education level, and disability.
            (4) Identification and description of any gaps in, or 
        barriers to, reaching and educating marginalized populations, 
        such as girls, children with disabilities, displaced children, 
        or other children adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic 
        with distance learning interventions.
            (5) A description of the Agency's plan and needed tools and 
        resources to support continued distance learning interventions, 
        safe school reopening, assessments of student learning levels, 
        remedial and accelerated learning, reenrollment campaigns for 
        out-of-school children and youth, and education system 
        strengthening and resilience building efforts.
            (6) An analysis of the efforts of other actors in global 
        basic education policy and programming to provide education 
        during COVID-19, including partner organizations, donors, and 
        bilateral and multilateral organizations, and the role of USAID 
        in those efforts.
            (7) Opportunities to partner and support efforts to expand 
        access to digital infrastructure, internet connectivity, and 
        learning resources in areas that lack access to digital and 
        remote learning infrastructure and resources, including rural 
        and remote communities.
    (c) Public Availability.--The report required by subsection (a) 
shall be made available to the public.
    (d) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this section, 
the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
            (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on 
        Appropriations of the Senate; and
            (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on 
        Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
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