[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 99 (Thursday, July 11, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5671-S5672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED (for himself, Mr. Coons, and Mr. Whitehouse):
  S. 1291. A bill to strengthen families' engagement in the education 
of their children; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, today I introduce the Family Engagement in 
Education Act with my colleagues Senator Coons and Senator Whitehouse. 
I thank Representative Thompson for introducing the House companion of 
this bipartisan bill.
  Our legislation will strengthen family engagement in education at the 
local, state, and national levels. It will empower parents by 
increasing school district resources dedicated to family engagement 
activities from one percent to 2 percent of the district's Title I 
allocation. It will also improve the quality of family engagement 
practices at the school level by requiring school districts to develop 
and implement standards-based policies and practices for family-school 
partnerships. It will build State and local capacity for effective 
family engagement in education by setting aside at least 0.3 percent of 
the State Title I allocation for statewide family engagement in 
education activities, such as establishing statewide family engagement 
centers to continue and enhance the work that had been supported 
through the Parent Information Resource Centers. For states with Title 
I-A allocations above $60 million, the State Educational agency will 
make grants to at least one local family engagement in education center 
to provide innovative programming and services, such as leadership 
training and family literacy, to local families and to remove barriers 
to family engagement, and to support State-level activities in the 
highest need areas of the State. Finally, at the national level, our 
legislation will require the Secretary of Education the convene 
practitioners, researchers, and other experts in the field of family 
engagement in education to develop recommended metrics for measuring 
the quality and outcomes of family engagement in a child's education.
  Research demonstrates that family engagement in a child's education 
increases student achievement, improves attendance, and reduces dropout 
rates. A study by Anne Seitsinger and Steven Brand at the University of 
Rhode Island's Center for School Improvement and Educational Policy 
found that students whose parents support their education through 
learning activities at home and discuss the importance of education 
perform better in school. Yet too often, family engagement is not built 
into our school improvement efforts in a systematic way. The Family 
Engagement in Education Act will promote meaningful family engagement

[[Page S5672]]

policies and programs at the national, state, and local levels to 
ensure that all students are on track to be career and college-ready.
  This legislation builds on my successful efforts in the last 
reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESEA, 
the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, to incorporate provisions throughout 
the law to strengthen and boost parental involvement. It is also in 
line with the administration's blueprint for the ESEA reauthorization, 
which calls for doubling the amount that school districts are required 
to set aside for parental involvement and encouraging states to use 
some of their Title I funding to support local family engagement 
centers in education.
  Developed with the National Family, School, and Community Engagement 
Working Group, which includes organizations such as National PTA, 
United Way Worldwide, Harvard Family Research Project, and National 
Council of La Raza, and endorsed by hundreds of local, state, and 
national organizations, this legislation represents the broad consensus 
that we must do a better job of engaging families in all aspects of 
their children's education.
  I urge my colleagues to cosponsor the Family Engagement in Education 
Act, and to work for its inclusion in the forthcoming debate to 
reauthorize and renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

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