I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2485
To expand arts education, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH31, 2025
Ms. B
ONAMICI(for herself, Mr. BACON, Ms. PINGREE, Ms. LEGER
F
ERNANDEZ, Ms. NORTON, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia, Ms. RANDALL, Ms.
S
TANSBURY, and Ms. TLAIB) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To expand arts education, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Arts Education for 4
All Act’’. 5
TITLE I—EARLY CHILDHOOD 6
EDUCATION PROGRAMS 7
SEC. 101. EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROGRAMS. 8
The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act 9
of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9857 et seq.) is amended— 10
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(1) in section 658G(b)(1), by striking subpara-1
graph (A) and inserting the following: 2
‘‘(A) offering training, coaching, or profes-3
sional development opportunities for child care 4
providers that relate to the use of evidence- 5
based, developmentally appropriate and age-ap-6
propriate strategies to promote the social, emo-7
tional, physical, adaptive, communication, and 8
cognitive development of children, including key 9
programmatic strategies, and offering special-10
ized training for child care providers caring for 11
those populations prioritized in section 12
658E(c)(2)(Q), and children with disabilities;’’; 13
and 14
(2) in section 658P, by adding at the end the 15
following: 16
‘‘(16) K
EY PROGRAMMATIC STRATEGIES .—The 17
term ‘key programmatic strategies’ means strategies 18
related to— 19
‘‘(A) nutrition and physical activity; 20
‘‘(B) recommended practices for age-ap-21
propriate exposure to screen media; and 22
‘‘(C) the integration and utilization of in-23
structional methods to assist learning across 24
disciplines, including methods that use the arts, 25
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language, literacy, mathematics, science, and 1
social studies.’’. 2
TITLE II—AMENDMENTS TO THE 3
ELEMENTARY AND SEC-4
ONDARY EDUCATION ACT OF 5
1965 6
SEC. 201. REFERENCES. 7
Except as otherwise expressly provided, whenever in 8
this title an amendment or repeal is expressed in terms 9
of an amendment to, or repeal of, a section or other provi-10
sion, the reference shall be considered to be made to a 11
section or other provision of the Elementary and Sec-12
ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.). 13
SEC. 202. STATE AND LOCAL PLANS. 14
(a) Section 1111(g) (20 U.S.C. 6311(g)) is amended 15
by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(5) U
SE OF ARTS EDUCATION TO IMPROVE 17
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT .—Each State’s plan shall 18
describe how the State educational agency will— 19
‘‘(A) support and encourage the offering of 20
a variety of arts education experiences to stu-21
dents as part of the State educational agency’s 22
overall strategy to improve student achievement 23
in the subjects described in section 8101(52); 24
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‘‘(B) integrate arts education instruction 1
into the curriculum; 2
‘‘(C) increase the number of arts edu-3
cators, including arts education specialists, in 4
schools; 5
‘‘(D) utilize partnerships with specialized 6
teaching artists to train teachers to augment 7
creative thinking techniques into the instruction 8
provided in math, reading, English language 9
arts, science, and other subjects described in 10
section 8101(52); 11
‘‘(E) ensure that arts instruction provided 12
in the State is standards-based, as applicable, 13
and sequential with arts courses offered in the 14
grades 6 through 12 building upon such courses 15
offered in earlier grades; 16
‘‘(F) increase the number of classes taught 17
by arts educators, including arts education spe-18
cialists, with a particular focus on classes with 19
high percentages of students who are low-in-20
come, students with disabilities, English learn-21
ers, or students of color; and 22
‘‘(G) support partnerships that increase 23
the amount of arts education and creative youth 24
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development available in afterschool and sum-1
mer learning programs.’’. 2
(b) Section 1112(b) (20 U.S.C. 6312(b)) is amend-3
ed— 4
(1) in paragraph (12), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 5
end; 6
(2) by redesignating paragraph (13) as para-7
graph (14); and 8
(3) by inserting after paragraph (12) the fol-9
lowing: 10
‘‘(13) how the local educational agency will sup-11
port learning in the arts and encourage the use of 12
the arts education to improve student achievement 13
consistent with section 1111(g)(5); and’’. 14
SEC. 203. REPORT CARDS. 15
Section 1111(h)(1)(C) (20 U.S.C. 6311(h)(1)(C)) is 16
amended— 17
(1) by redesignating clause (xiv) as (xv); and 18
(2) by inserting after clause (xiii) the following: 19
‘‘(xiv) Information on arts courses, in-20
cluding— 21
‘‘(I) the number of, range, and 22
sequence of course offerings; 23
‘‘(II) the average pupil-to-teacher 24
ratio in such courses; 25
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‘‘(III) the average amount of in-1
structional time in such courses; and 2
‘‘(IV) for each semester, the per-3
centage (in the aggregate and disag-4
gregated by high-poverty compared to 5
low-poverty schools, which for the pur-6
pose of this subclause, means schools 7
in the top quartile of poverty and the 8
bottom quartile of poverty in the 9
State) of— 10
‘‘(aa) schools offering arts 11
courses; 12
‘‘(bb) students taking arts 13
courses; and 14
‘‘(cc) arts courses taught by 15
arts teachers with full State cer-16
tification or licensure.’’. 17
SEC. 204. SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT. 18
Section 1111(d)(2)(B) (20 U.S.C. 6311(d)(2)(B)) is 19
amended— 20
(1) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and in-21
serting a semicolon; 22
(2) by redesignating clause (v) as clause (vi); 23
and 24
(3) by inserting after clause (iv) the following: 25
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‘‘(v)(I) provides for an evaluation of 1
the arts courses offered at such school dur-2
ing the school day and the certification, 3
training and skills of staff that are teach-4
ing such courses including teaching artists; 5
and 6
‘‘(II) based on such evaluation, incor-7
porate the offering of arts courses into the 8
offerings of such school; and’’. 9
SEC. 205. ARTS FOR NEGLECTED AND DELINQUENT CHIL-10
DREN AND YOUTH. 11
Section 1415(a)(2)(B)(ii) (20 U.S.C. 12
6435(a)(2)(B)(ii)) is amended by inserting ‘‘access to the 13
arts and arts education and’’ after ‘‘improving’’. 14
SEC. 206. SUBGRANTS TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES. 15
(a) L
OCALUSES OFFUNDS.—Section 2103(b)(3) 16
(20 U.S.C. 6613(b)(3)) is amended— 17
(1) in subparagraph (O), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 18
and inserting a semicolon; 19
(2) by redesignating subparagraph (P) as sub-20
paragraph (Q); and 21
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (O) the fol-22
lowing: 23
‘‘(P) carrying out activities to increase 24
pathways to obtain rigorous, high-quality teach-25
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er certification or licensure for individuals seek-1
ing to become teachers of the arts; and’’. 2
(b) P
ROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ARTS 3
T
EACHERS.—Section 2103 (20 U.S.C. 6613) is further 4
amended by inserting at the end the following: 5
‘‘(c) P
ROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ARTS 6
T
EACHERS.—In carrying out the programs and activities 7
described under subsection (a), a local educational agency 8
shall provide professional development for teachers of the 9
arts, as appropriate, to fulfill the needs of such agency 10
and the schools of such agency. 11
‘‘(d) P
ROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT FOR INTEGRA-12
TION OF THEARTS.—In carrying out the programs and 13
activities described under subsection (a), a local edu-14
cational agency shall provide professional development for 15
teachers to integrate the arts into their instruction in 16
math, reading, English language arts, science, and other 17
subjects described in section 8101(52).’’. 18
SEC. 207. 21ST CENTURY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS. 19
(a) A
RTSORGANIZATIONS.—Section 4205(a) (20 20
U.S.C. 7175(a)) is amended— 21
(1) in paragraph (13), by striking ‘‘; and’’; 22
(2) in paragraph (14), by striking the period at 23
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 24
(3) by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(15) partnering with, integrating the services 1
of, and utilizing the services and offerings provided 2
by arts services organizations or other community- 3
focused arts nonprofits and organizations that fur-4
ther creative youth development.’’. 5
(b) P
ROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.—Section 6
4203(a)(6) (20 U.S.C. 7173(a)(6)) is amended by insert-7
ing ‘‘, including arts education’’ after ‘‘areas’’. 8
TITLE III—AMENDMENTS TO 9
THE JUVENILE JUSTICE AND 10
DELINQUENCY PREVENTION 11
ACT OF 1974 AND TO THE OM-12
NIBUS CRIME CONTROL AND 13
SAFE STREETS ACT OF 1968 14
SEC. 301. AMENDMENTS TO THE JUVENILE JUSTICE AND 15
DELINQUENCY PREVENTION ACT OF 1974. 16
Section 223(a) of the Juvenile Justice and Delin-17
quency Prevention Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5633(a)) is 18
amended— 19
(1) in paragraph (32) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 20
end, 21
(2) in paragraph (33) by striking the period at 22
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’, and 23
(3) by adding at the end the following: 24
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‘‘(34) describe how the State will coordinate 1
services, activities for juvenile justice and delin-2
quency prevention with State and local agencies and 3
organizations, including State and local arts agen-4
cies, arts organizations, and organizations that fur-5
ther creative youth development.’’. 6
SEC. 302. AMENDMENTS TO ADULT AND JUVENILE OF-7
FENDER DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS AND 8
THE STATE, TRIBAL AND LOCAL REENTRY 9
COURTS PROGRAMS. 10
The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 11
1968 is amended in section 2976(b)(4)— 12
(1) by striking ‘‘; and’’ in subparagraph (A); 13
(2) after subparagraph (A), by inserting the fol-14
lowing: 15
‘‘(B) use arts education programs and 16
services to better facilitate reentry and reduce 17
recidivism and connect offenders to educational 18
opportunities and employment after reentry into 19
the community; and’’; and 20
(3) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub-21
paragraph (C). 22
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TITLE IV—AMENDMENTS TO THE 1
EDUCATION SCIENCES RE-2
FORM ACT OF 2002 AND THE 3
NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF 4
EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS AU-5
THORIZATION ACT 6
SEC. 401. ARTS RESEARCH. 7
Section 133 of the Education Sciences Reform Act 8
of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9533) is amended— 9
(1) in subsection (a)— 10
(A) by striking ‘‘; and’’ at the end of sub-11
paragraph (10)(D); 12
(B) by redesignating subparagraph (11) as 13
subparagraph (12); and 14
(C) by inserting after paragraph (10) the 15
following: 16
‘‘(11) carry out research on the use of the arts 17
and arts education that is rigorous, peer reviewed 18
and large scale to determine which methods and 19
uses of the arts and arts education are most effec-20
tive, cost efficient and able to be applied, duplicated, 21
and scaled up for the use in elementary and sec-22
ondary classrooms, including in low-performing 23
schools; and’’; and 24
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(2) in subsection (c)(2), by adding at the end 1
the following: 2
‘‘(L) Use of the arts and arts education in 3
improving elementary and secondary edu-4
cation.’’. 5
SEC. 402. ARTS STATISTICAL DATA. 6
Section 153(a)(1) of the Education Sciences Reform 7
Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9543(a)(1)) is amended— 8
(1) in subparagraph (N), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 9
and inserting a semicolon; 10
(2) by redesignating subparagraph (O) as sub-11
paragraph (P); and 12
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (N), the 13
following: 14
‘‘(O) access to, the integration of and the 15
inclusion of arts education; and’’. 16
SEC. 403. NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL 17
PROGRESS. 18
Section 303(b) of the National Assessment of Edu-19
cational Progress Authorization Act (20 U.S.C. 9622(b)) 20
is amended by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(7) A
RTS ASSESSMENT .—The Assessment 22
Board shall select the arts as a subject to be as-23
sessed under this subsection, at the same frequency 24
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and in the same grades (at a minimum) as such as-1
sessment was scheduled prior to July 24, 2021.’’. 2
Æ
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