I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1572
To direct the Secretary of Education to award grants to local educational
agencies to establish or improve world language or dual language pro-
grams, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY25, 2025
Mrs. K
IGGANSof Virginia (for herself and Mr. PANETTA) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Work-
force
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Education to award grants to
local educational agencies to establish or improve world
language or dual language programs, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘World Language Edu-4
cation Assistance Program Act’’ or the ‘‘World LEAP 5
Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 1
The purpose of this Act is to establish and make as-2
sistance available to the World Language Education As-3
sistance Program in order to— 4
(1) establish or improve and carry out World 5
Language Education Assistance Program grant pro-6
grams; 7
(2) support and uplift dual language and world 8
language programs; and 9
(3) provide students with the language skills 10
necessary for an interconnected and global world. 11
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 12
Congress finds the following: 13
(1) Recent academic studies demonstrate that 14
America’s language capacity has reached a crisis 15
point, with only one fifth of United States residents 16
speaking a language other than English at home, 90 17
percent of United States-based employers reporting 18
a reliance on employees with language skills other 19
than English, and one third of foreign language-de-20
pendent employers reporting a language skills gap. 21
This language crisis has real world implications for 22
business, government, the military, and diplomatic 23
and intelligence services. 24
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(2) The Department of Education does not 1
have an innovative world languages program for ele-2
mentary and secondary students. 3
(3) The Nation’s education system is suffering 4
from severe shortages of world language, English 5
learner, and bilingual and dual language immersion 6
educators. 7
(4) The lack of a Federal elementary and sec-8
ondary school world language and dual language 9
program, coupled with the continuing shortage of 10
world language and bilingual teachers, creates sig-11
nificant obstacles to providing equitable opportuni-12
ties for all students to develop multilingualism. 13
English learners, a population which has grown by 14
2,100,000 between 2000 and 2019, have been dis-15
proportionately impacted. 16
(5) The Federal Government has a strong in-17
terest in better preparing American students to com-18
pete in the global economy. 19
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 20
In this Act: 21
(1) C
OMMUNITY-BASED HERITAGE LANGUAGE 22
SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘community-based heritage lan-23
guage school’’ means a nonprofit, community-based 24
school that offers classes for students in pre-kinder-25
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garten through grade 12, for the purpose of main-1
taining and teaching the language and culture of 2
non-English speaking communities. 3
(2) D
UAL LANGUAGE PROGRAM .—The term 4
‘‘dual language program’’ means— 5
(A) with respect to pre-kindergarten and 6
elementary school, a bilingual education pro-7
gram in which students receive instruction in 8
English and a language other than English for 9
at least half of the instructional school day for 10
each year of pre-kindergarten and elementary 11
school, with the goal of achieving proficiency in 12
both languages; and 13
(B) with respect to grades 6 through 8, a 14
bilingual education program in which students 15
who participated in a program described in sub-16
paragraph (A) continue to receive instruction in 17
English and a language other than English for 18
at least half of the instructional school day for 19
each year of such grades 6 through 8. 20
(3) ESEA
DEFINITIONS.—The terms ‘‘English 21
learner’’, ‘‘secondary school’’, ‘‘local educational 22
agency’’, ‘‘professional development’’, ‘‘Secretary’’, 23
and ‘‘State’’ have the meanings given those terms in 24
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section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Act 1
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 2
(4) H
ERITAGE LEARNER.—The term ‘‘heritage 3
learner’’ means an individual— 4
(A) with proficiency in, or a cultural con-5
nection to (through family, community, or coun-6
try of origin), a language other than English; 7
and 8
(B) who is studying such language in pre- 9
kindergarten, elementary school, or secondary 10
school. 11
(5) W
ORLD LANGUAGE PROGRAM .—The term 12
‘‘world language program’’ means a program that 13
educates and prepares pre-kindergarten, elementary, 14
or secondary school students to communicate, in a 15
proficient and culturally competent manner, with in-16
dividuals who speak a language other than English. 17
SEC. 5. WORLD LANGUAGE EDUCATION ASSISTANCE PRO-18
GRAM. 19
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award, 21
on a competitive basis, grants to local educational 22
agencies to establish and carry out new, or improve 23
existing world language or dual language programs. 24
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(2) DURATION.—A grant awarded under this 1
section shall be for a period of 3 years and may be 2
renewed at the discretion of the Secretary. 3
(b) A
PPLICATION.—A local educational agency desir-4
ing a grant under this section shall submit to the Sec-5
retary an application at such time, in such manner, and 6
containing such information and assurances as the Sec-7
retary may require. 8
(c) C
RITERIA FORSELECTION.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In awarding a grant to a 10
local educational agency under this section, the Sec-11
retary shall select applications describing programs 12
that— 13
(A) provide approaches to instruction that 14
lead to demonstrated growth in language pro-15
ficiency from kindergarten through grade 12; 16
(B) can be disseminated and duplicated in 17
other local educational agencies; 18
(C) have a plan for how the program will 19
continue after the conclusion of the grant pe-20
riod; and 21
(D) include a professional development 22
component. 23
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(2) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under this 1
section, the Secretary shall give priority to applica-2
tions describing programs that— 3
(A) include intensive summer professional 4
development for world language program and 5
dual language program teachers; 6
(B) enter into partnerships with commu-7
nity-based heritage language schools and com-8
munities; 9
(C) provide world language and dual lan-10
guage immersion programs, including with re-11
spect to English learners and heritage learners; 12
(D) are carried out through a consortium 13
that shall include the agency receiving the grant 14
and an elementary school or secondary school 15
served by such agency, with a preference for 16
consortia that include an institution of higher 17
education; 18
(E) collaborate with the appropriate State 19
licensure office to broaden pathways for lan-20
guage or dual language teacher certification; or 21
(F) conduct outreach and recruit sec-22
ondary and post-secondary students, including 23
former English learners and heritage learners, 24
into programs that prepare such students to be-25
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come dual language or world language program 1
teachers. 2
(d) U
SE OFFUNDS.—A local educational agency that 3
receives a grant under this section shall— 4
(1) reserve not less than 20 percent of such 5
grant funds to provide— 6
(A) accessible pathways for paraprofes-7
sionals to gain certification and licensure as 8
world language or dual language teachers; and 9
(B) professional development for certified 10
and licensed world language or dual language 11
teachers; 12
(2) reserve not more than 5 percent of such 13
grant funds to evaluate the efficacy of programs car-14
ried out with funds awarded under this section; and 15
(3) after making the reservations required 16
under paragraphs (1) and (2), use the remainder of 17
such grant funds to establish and carry out new, 18
and improve existing, world language or dual lan-19
guage programs (including any associated adminis-20
trative expenses). 21
(e) R
EPORTINGREQUIREMENTS.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 23
after receiving a grant under this section, each local 24
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educational agency shall submit to the Secretary a 1
report that— 2
(A) describes the implementation of the 3
program for which the local educational agency 4
received the grant; and 5
(B) includes data that identifies— 6
(i) the number of students enrolled in 7
language education at the elementary and 8
secondary schools served by the local edu-9
cational agency prior to receiving a grant 10
under this section; 11
(ii) the number of students enrolled in 12
such language instruction as of the date of 13
submission of the report; 14
(iii) the number of certified bilingual 15
educators working for the local educational 16
agency prior to receiving a grant under 17
this section; 18
(iv) the number of certified bilingual 19
educators working for the local educational 20
agency as of the date of submission of the 21
report; and 22
(v) levels of community support for 23
language education— 24
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(I) prior to receiving a grant 1
under this section; and 2
(II) as of the date of submission 3
of the report. 4
(2) S
TUDENT PRIVACY.—A local educational 5
agency shall prepare the report required under para-6
graph (1) in a manner that protects the privacy 7
rights of each student in accordance with section 8
444 of the General Education Provisions Act (20 9
U.S.C. 1232g; commonly known as the ‘‘Family 10
Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974’’). 11
(f) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 12
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 13
$15,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 and for each subsequent 14
fiscal year. 15
Æ
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