[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9307 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 9307

   To establish a competitive grant program for reducing the student 
   absence rate of certain local educational agencies, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 6, 2024

 Mr. Gallego introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To establish a competitive grant program for reducing the student 
   absence rate of certain local educational agencies, and for other 
                               purposes.

    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 ``Keeping our Students in School 
Act''.

SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM TO REDUCE CHRONIC STUDENT ABSENCE.

    (a) In General.--Not later than October 1 of the first fiscal year 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Education 
shall establish a program to award grants, on a competitive basis, to 
eligible local educational agencies for reducing the chronic absence 
rate of such eligible local educational agencies by carrying out any of 
the activities described in subsection (d).
    (b) Applications.--
            (1) In general.--To be eligible for a grant under this 
        section, an eligible local educational agency shall submit to 
        the Secretary an application in such form, at such time, and 
        containing such information as the Secretary determines 
        appropriate, including the contents described in paragraph (2).
            (2) Contents.--An application for a grant under this 
        section shall contain the following:
                    (A) The chronic absence rate of the eligible local 
                educational agency.
                    (B) A description of any programs and resources to 
                reduce the chronic absence rate of the eligible local 
                educational agency that are in place at the time such 
                application is submitted.
                    (C) A plan for how grant funds awarded under this 
                section to the eligible local educational agency would 
                be used to reduce the chronic absence rate of the 
                eligible local educational agency.
                    (D) The estimated cost of implementing the plan 
                described in subparagraph (C).
                    (E) At least one letter of support explaining why 
                grant funds should be awarded under this section to the 
                eligible local educational agency written by--
                            (i) a local government official that serves 
                        a geographic area that is served by the 
                        eligible local educational agency, including a 
                        mayor or chief executive officer of a unit of 
                        local government; or
                            (ii) the head of the eligible local 
                        educational agency.
    (c) Duration; Renewal.--A grant awarded under this section shall be 
for a period of 1 year. The Secretary may renew a grant awarded under 
this section to an eligible local educational agency for 1 or more 
additional 1-year grant periods.
    (d) Use of Grant Funds.--An eligible local educational agency that 
receives a grant under this section shall use the grant funds for 1 or 
more of the following activities:
            (1) Providing transportation services for students 
        traveling to and from schools served by the eligible local 
        educational agency.
            (2) Performing visits at places of residence of a student 
        who was absent for at least 10 percent of the school days in 
        the most recent school year for the purpose of evaluating--
                    (A) the well-being of the student; and
                    (B) whether the number of school days missed by the 
                student has resulted in any learning loss by the 
                student, including identifying any risk factors present 
                in the lifestyle of the student that may contribute to 
                learning loss.
            (3) Establishing student mentorship programs.
            (4) Establishing partnerships with State agencies to reduce 
        the chronic absence rate of the eligible local educational 
        agency that received the grant.
            (5) Acquiring software or other data tools designed to 
        monitor student absence.
            (6) Recruiting and retaining specialized instructional 
        support personnel.
            (7) Any other activities related to student absence that 
        the Secretary determines appropriate.
    (e) Reporting.--Not later than 1 year after the date that an 
eligible local educational agency receives a grant under this section, 
the eligible local educational agency shall provide a report to the 
Secretary that contains any information reasonably required by the 
Secretary, which includes a description of how grant funds awarded 
under this section to the eligible local educational agency were used 
to reduce the chronic absence rate of the eligible local educational 
agency.
    (f) Definitions.--In this section--
            (1) Chronic absence rate.--The term ``chronic absence 
        rate'', used with respect to a local educational agency, means 
        the quotient resulting from dividing--
                    (A) the total number of students served by such 
                local educational agency who were absent for at least 
                10 percent of the school days in the school year for 
                which the most recent data is available from the 
                Consolidated State Performance Report administered by 
                the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education of the 
                Department of Education, by
                    (B) the total number of students served by such 
                local educational agency in such school year.
            (2) Eligible local educational agency.--The term ``eligible 
        local educational agency'' means a local educational agency 
        that has a chronic absence rate of 0.2 or more.
            (3) Local educational agency; specialized instructional 
        support personnel.--The terms ``local educational agency'' and 
        ``specialized instructional support personnel'' have the 
        meanings given the terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and 
        Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
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