I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2789
To amend the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act and the Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act to strengthen adult education.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL9, 2025
Mrs. M
CBATH(for herself and Mr. MRVAN) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act
and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to
strengthen adult education.
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 ‘‘Adult Education Work-4
force Opportunity and Reskilling for Knowledge and Suc-5
cess Act’’ or the ‘‘Adult Education WORKS Act’’. 6
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TITLE I—WORKFORCE 1
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES 2
SEC. 101. WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES. 3
(a) A
MENDMENT TO WIOA.—Except as otherwise ex-4
pressly provided, whenever in this section an amendment 5
or repeal is expressed in terms of an amendment to, or 6
repeal of, a section or other provision, the reference shall 7
be considered to be made to a section or other provision 8
of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 9
U.S.C. 3101 et seq.). 10
(b) D
EFINITIONS.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 3 (29 U.S.C. 3102) 12
is amended— 13
(A) by striking paragraph (5); 14
(B) by redesignating paragraphs (6) 15
through (9) as paragraphs (5) through (8), re-16
spectively; 17
(C) by inserting after paragraph (8), as re-18
designated by subparagraph (B), the following: 19
‘‘(9) C
OLLEGE AND CAREER NAVIGATOR .—The 20
term ‘college and career navigator’ means an indi-21
vidual who— 22
‘‘(A) has extensive knowledge of workforce 23
development programs and services, postsec-24
ondary programs and services, Federal and 25
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other student financial aid for postsecondary 1
education, and case management techniques; 2
‘‘(B) supports persons who are accessing 3
services under this Act, by gathering work his-4
tory and skills information, providing tailored 5
college and career guidance and labor market 6
information, helping jobseekers identify training 7
and educational options to best fit their needs, 8
including Federal student aid and other assist-9
ance available to pay the costs of attendance at 10
an institution of higher education or for partici-11
pation in training, facilitating access to serv-12
ices, and facilitating co-enrollment of individ-13
uals in programs carried out under title I and 14
title II; 15
‘‘(C) provides or organizes provision of 16
services to promote job readiness, digital lit-17
eracy skills, information literacy skills, and the 18
skills needed for success in postsecondary edu-19
cation, facilitates the successful transition of in-20
dividuals to postsecondary education, coordi-21
nates activities with employers and with entities 22
and individuals involved in the one-stop delivery 23
system in the local area, and conducts commu-24
nity outreach; and 25
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‘‘(D) as determined appropriate by the 1
one-stop operator or eligible provider of adult 2
education and literacy activities involved, is re-3
sponsible for recruitment of students in adult 4
education and literacy activities and partici-5
pants in workforce investment activities, provi-6
sion of intensive case management, provision of 7
career exploration services, and data collection 8
associated with an activity specified in this sub-9
paragraph.’’; 10
(D) by redesignating paragraphs (12) 11
through (14), (15) through (21), (22) through 12
(26), and (27) through (71), as paragraphs 13
(13) through (15), (17) through (23), (25) 14
through (29), and (31) through (75), respec-15
tively; 16
(E) by inserting after paragraph (11) the 17
following: 18
‘‘(12) C
ONCURRENT ENROLLMENT .—The term 19
‘concurrent enrollment’ has the meaning given the 20
term in section 203.’’; 21
(F) by inserting after paragraph (15), as 22
redesignated by subparagraph (D), the fol-23
lowing: 24
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‘‘(16) DIGITAL LITERACY SKILLS .—The term 1
‘digital literacy skills’ has the meaning given the 2
term in section 203.’’; 3
(G) by inserting after paragraph (23), as 4
redesignated by subparagraph (D), the fol-5
lowing: 6
‘‘(24) F
OUNDATIONAL SKILL NEEDS .—The 7
term ‘foundational skill needs’, used with respect to 8
an individual, means— 9
‘‘(A) in the case of an individual who is a 10
youth, an individual who has English reading, 11
writing, or computing skills at or below the 8th 12
grade level on a generally accepted standardized 13
test; or 14
‘‘(B) in the case of an individual who is a 15
youth or adult, an individual who is unable to 16
compute or solve problems, or read, write, or 17
speak English, at a level necessary to function 18
on the job, in the individual’s family, or in soci-19
ety.’’; and 20
(H) by inserting after paragraph (29), as 21
redesignated by subparagraph (D), the fol-22
lowing: 23
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‘‘(30) INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS .—The 1
term ‘information literacy skills’ has the meaning 2
given the term in section 203.’’. 3
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .— 4
(A) Section 121(h)(2)(C)(ii) (29 U.S.C. 5
3151(h)(2)(C)(ii)) is amended by striking ‘‘sec-6
tion 3(13)(D)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 7
3(14)(D)’’. 8
(B) Section 134(c)(3)(H)(i) (29 U.S.C. 9
3174(c)(3)(H)(i)) is amended by striking ‘‘sec-10
tion 3(44)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 3(48)’’. 11
(C) Section 170(b)(1)(D)(i) (29 U.S.C. 12
3225(b)(1)(D)(i)) is amended by striking ‘‘sec-13
tion 3(15)(E)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 14
3(17)(E)’’. 15
(D) Section 211(e)(3) (29 U.S.C. 16
3291(e)(3)) is amended by striking ‘‘section 17
3(45)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 3(49)’’. 18
(c) S
TATEWORKFORCEDEVELOPMENT BOARDS.— 19
Section 101 (29 U.S.C. 3111) is amended— 20
(1) in subsection (b)(1)(C)(ii)(IV), by inserting 21
‘‘, and representatives of organizations that provide 22
adult education’’ after ‘‘out-of-school youth’’; and 23
(2) in subsection (d)— 24
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(A) in paragraph (7)(A), by striking ‘‘(as 1
defined in section 202 of the Museum and Li-2
brary Services Act (20 U.S.C. 9101); referred 3
to in this Act as ‘digital literacy skills’)’’; 4
(B) in paragraph (11), by striking ‘‘and’’ 5
at the end; 6
(C) by redesignating paragraph (12) as 7
paragraph (13); and 8
(D) by inserting after paragraph (11) the 9
following: 10
‘‘(12) in collaboration with providers of adult 11
education and literacy activities, the promotion of 12
the employment of college and career navigators by 13
the one-stop centers in the State; and’’. 14
(d) P
ROGRAMSPECIFICS FORSTATEPLANS.—Sec-15
tion 102(b)(2) (29 U.S.C. 3112(b)(2)) is amended— 16
(1) in subparagraph (D)(ii)— 17
(A) in subclause (II), by striking item (dd) 18
and inserting the following: 19
‘‘(dd) integrated education 20
and training, including how costs 21
for such activities will be shared 22
among relevant core programs;’’; 23
(B) in subclause (V), by adding ‘‘and’’ at 24
the end; and 25
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(C) by adding at the end the following: 1
‘‘(VI) how the eligible agency will 2
promote, through funding priority or 3
other means, professionalization of 4
adult education and literacy activities 5
through the adoption of staffing mod-6
els that include requirements and sup-7
port for teacher credentialing, stand-8
ards, and support for ongoing in-serv-9
ice professional development, and ca-10
reer ladders for professional growth, 11
which may include more opportunities 12
for full-time teaching positions;’’; and 13
(2) in subparagraph (E)(iii)(II), by inserting 14
‘‘providers of adult education and literacy activities,’’ 15
after ‘‘institutions of higher education,’’. 16
(e) L
OCALBOARDS.—Section 107 (29 U.S.C. 3122) 17
is amended— 18
(1) in subsection (c)(1), by adding at the end 19
the following: 20
‘‘(D) I
NFORMATION ON MEMBERSHIP .— 21
The chief elected officials appointing the local 22
board for a local area shall make publicly avail-23
able information on the membership of the 24
board (including information identifying how 25
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the membership composition requirements of 1
subsection (b) have been met), including by 2
posting that information on the website of each 3
unit of general local government included in the 4
local area.’’; and 5
(2) in subsection (d)— 6
(A) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘sec-7
ondary and postsecondary education’’ and in-8
serting ‘‘secondary, postsecondary, and adult 9
education’’; 10
(B) in paragraph (7)(C)— 11
(i) by inserting ‘‘, in consultation with 12
providers of public access to technology,’’ 13
after ‘‘identifying strategies’’; 14
(ii) by inserting ‘‘, including deliveries 15
through public libraries,’’ after ‘‘traditional 16
service delivery’’; and 17
(iii) by inserting ‘‘and information lit-18
eracy skills’’ after ‘‘digital literacy skills’’; 19
and 20
(C) by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(14) C
OLLEGE AND CAREER NAVIGATORS .— 22
The local board, in collaboration with providers of 23
adult education and literacy activities in the local 24
area, shall promote the employment of college and 25
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career navigators by the one-stop centers and eligible 1
providers (as defined in section 203) in the local 2
area.’’. 3
(f) L
OCALPLANS.—Section 108 (29 U.S.C. 3123) is 4
amended— 5
(1) in subsection (b)(13), by inserting ‘‘, includ-6
ing, in all local plans after the first such plan, a de-7
scription of how the local board carried out such co-8
ordination and completed such review during the 9
previous 4-year period’’ after ‘‘submitted under title 10
II’’; and 11
(2) in subsection (d)(3), by inserting ‘‘, along 12
with a description of the actions the local board took 13
in response to such comments’’ after ‘‘disagreement 14
with the plan’’. 15
(g) I
NDICATORS OF PERFORMANCE.—Section 16
116(b)(2)(A) (29 U.S.C. 3141(b)(2)(A)) is amended— 17
(1) in clause (i), by striking subclauses (IV) 18
and (V) and inserting the following: 19
‘‘(IV) the percentages of program 20
participants who, during participation 21
in the program— 22
‘‘(aa) obtain a recognized 23
postsecondary credential or a sec-24
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ondary school diploma or its rec-1
ognized equivalent; and 2
‘‘(bb) are in an education or 3
training program that leads to a 4
recognized postsecondary creden-5
tial or employment and who are 6
achieving measurable skill gains 7
toward such a credential or em-8
ployment; 9
‘‘(V) the percentages of program 10
participants who, within 1 year after 11
exit from the program— 12
‘‘(aa) obtain a secondary 13
school diploma or its recognized 14
equivalent; 15
‘‘(bb) have obtained or re-16
tained employment; and 17
‘‘(cc) are in an education or 18
training program leading to a 19
recognized postsecondary creden-20
tial; and’’; 21
(2) by striking clause (iii) and inserting the fol-22
lowing: 23
‘‘(iii) I
NTERIM INDICATORS FOR 24
ADULT EDUCATION.—A State may develop 25
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interim indicators for measuring the per-1
centage of program participants on track 2
to meet the indicators described in sub-3
clauses (IV) and (V) of clause (i) for adult 4
education and literacy activities authorized 5
under title II.’’; and 6
(3) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘clauses (i)(VI)’’ 7
and inserting ‘‘clause (i)(VI)’’. 8
(h) C
OMMONPARTICIPANTINDIVIDUALRECORD 9
L
AYOUT.—Section 116 (29 U.S.C. 3141) is amended by 10
adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(j) C
OMMONPARTICIPANTINDIVIDUALRECORD 12
L
AYOUT.—The Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of 13
Education shall establish a common reporting system that 14
covers, and that accommodates, the core programs, relat-15
ing to participant records and the performance account-16
ability measures described in subsection (b).’’. 17
(i) O
NE-STOPDELIVERYSYSTEMS.—Section 121 (29 18
U.S.C. 3151) is amended— 19
(1) in subsection (d)(2)(B)— 20
(A) by redesignating clauses (ii) through 21
(vi) as clauses (iii) through (vii), respectively; 22
and 23
(B) by inserting after clause (i) the fol-24
lowing: 25
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‘‘(ii) a public library;’’; and 1
(2) in subsection (e)— 2
(A) in paragraph (2)(B)— 3
(i) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 4
the end; 5
(ii) in clause (ii), by striking the semi-6
colon and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 7
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-8
lowing: 9
‘‘(iii) through one or more public li-10
braries in accordance with paragraph 11
(5);’’; and 12
(B) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(5) I
NFORMATION AND SERVICES PROVIDED 14
THROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARIES .—A local board may 15
use funds made available under subsection (h) to 16
make programs, activities, and services available 17
through a public library to the extent such library 18
demonstrates to the local board— 19
‘‘(A) that the library provides or will pro-20
vide career services or other workforce develop-21
ment activities to address unmet need for such 22
services or activities, such as by providing ca-23
reer services and other workforce development 24
activities to individuals at days or times, and lo-25
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cations, at which the services or activities are 1
not otherwise made available through the cor-2
responding one-stop partners; 3
‘‘(B) that the library will provide a phys-4
ical location within the library, which may in-5
clude a mobile library site, in which to serve in-6
dividuals seeking services provided by a college 7
and career navigator; and 8
‘‘(C) the library’s ability to leverage addi-9
tional resources, such as staff, facilities, com-10
puter access, or learning materials, in order to 11
extend the level of services otherwise provided 12
through the local one-stop delivery system, par-13
ticularly to geographically distant communities, 14
communities for which physical one-stop centers 15
are not easily accessible through public trans-16
portation, or communities in which there is in-17
adequate access for the level of services need-18
ed.’’. 19
(j) D
IGITALLITERACYSKILLS; INFORMATIONLIT-20
ERACYSKILLS.—Section 134(c) (29 U.S.C. 3174(c)) is 21
amended— 22
(1) in paragraph (2)(A)— 23
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(A) in clause (iii), by inserting ‘‘digital lit-1
eracy, information literacy,’’ after ‘‘(including 2
literacy,’’; and 3
(B) in clause (xii)(VI), by inserting ‘‘dig-4
ital literacy skills, information literacy skills,’’ 5
after ‘‘learning skills,’’; and 6
(2) in paragraph (3)(D)— 7
(A) by redesignating clauses (x) and (xi) 8
as clauses (xii) and (xiii), respectively; and 9
(B) by inserting after clause (ix) the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘(x) digital literacy skills training; 12
‘‘(xi) information literacy skills train-13
ing;’’. 14
(k) L
IBRARY-BASED ANDCOMMUNITY-BASEDCOL-15
LEGE ANDCAREERNAVIGATORS.—Subtitle D of title I 16
is amended by inserting after section 171 (29 U.S.C. 17
3226) the following: 18
‘‘SEC. 171A. LIBRARY-BASED AND COMMUNITY-BASED COL-19
LEGE AND CAREER NAVIGATORS. 20
‘‘(a) P
URPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to ex-21
pand the capacity of State and local workforce develop-22
ment systems by leveraging the facilities and staff of li-23
braries and community-based organizations to provide ca-24
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reer navigation services to individuals through library- 1
based and community-based college and career navigators. 2
‘‘(b) E
LIGIBLEENTITY.—In this section, the term 3
‘eligible entity’ means a partnership between a State board 4
or local board and 1 or more of the following: 5
‘‘(1) A community-based organization. 6
‘‘(2) A library (as defined in section 213 of the 7
Library Services and Technology Act (20 U.S.C. 8
9122)) that offers workforce development activities 9
at no cost to individuals. 10
‘‘(c) G
RANTSAUTHORIZED.—From funds made 11
available under section 172(g), the Secretary is authorized 12
to make grants to eligible entities to carry out the purpose 13
of this section. 14
‘‘(d) A
PPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a grant 15
under this section, an eligible entity shall submit an appli-16
cation to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and 17
containing such information as the Secretary may require. 18
‘‘(e) U
SES OFFUNDS.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An eligible entity that re-20
ceives a grant under this section shall use funds 21
made available through the grant to establish a col-22
lege and career navigator program within the li-23
brary, community-based organization, or agency that 24
is a partner of such eligible entity. 25
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‘‘(2) ACTIVITIES OF PROGRAM .—A college and 1
career navigator program established under para-2
graph (1) may hire, train, support, or retain 1 or 3
more college and career navigators to provide career 4
navigation services in coordination with a State or 5
local workforce development system.’’. 6
(l) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 7
172 (20 U.S.C. 3227) is amended by adding at the end 8
the following: 9
‘‘(g) L
IBRARY-BASED AND COMMUNITY-BASED 10
N
AVIGATORS.—There are authorized to be appropriated to 11
carry out section 171A, $135,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 12
and each of the 4 succeeding fiscal years.’’. 13
TITLE II—ADULT EDUCATION 14
AND LITERACY 15
SEC. 201. PURPOSE. 16
Section 202(1) of the Adult Education and Family 17
Literacy Act (29 U.S.C. 3271(1)) is amended— 18
(1) by inserting ‘‘(including digital literacy 19
skills and information literacy skills)’’ after ‘‘skills’’; 20
and 21
(2) by striking ‘‘and economic self-sufficiency’’ 22
and inserting ‘‘, economic self-sufficiency, and full 23
participation in all aspects of adult life’’. 24
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SEC. 202. DEFINITIONS. 1
Section 203 of the Adult Education and Family Lit-2
eracy Act (29 U.S.C. 3272) is amended— 3
(1) in paragraph (1)— 4
(A) by striking ‘‘postsecondary level’’ and 5
inserting ‘‘college placement level’’; 6
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking 7
‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 8
(C) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as 9
subparagraph (E); and 10
(D) by inserting after subparagraph (B) 11
the following: 12
‘‘(C) develop and use digital literacy skills; 13
‘‘(D) develop and use information literacy 14
skills; and’’; 15
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (3) through 16
(9) and (10) through (17) as paragraphs (6) 17
through (12) and (14) through (21), respectively; 18
(3) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-19
lowing: 20
‘‘(3) C
OLLEGE PLACEMENT LEVEL .—The term 21
‘college placement level’ means the level required for 22
placement in college-level course work, rather than 23
placement in developmental education, as dem-24
onstrated by achievement of a designated score on a 25
placement test or other college-identified measure. 26
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‘‘(4) CONCURRENT ENROLLMENT .—The term 1
‘concurrent enrollment’ means intentional, simulta-2
neous enrollment in more than 1 one-stop partner 3
program, as a strategy for leveraging resources and 4
eliminating duplication of services while achieving 5
the best possible outcomes. 6
‘‘(5) D
IGITAL LITERACY SKILLS .—The term 7
‘digital literacy skills’ means the skills associated 8
with— 9
‘‘(A) using technology to enable users to 10
find, evaluate, organize, create, and commu-11
nicate information; and 12
‘‘(B) developing digital citizenship and the 13
responsible use of technology.’’; 14
(4) in paragraph (7), as redesignated by para-15
graph (2), in subparagraph (C)(i), by striking ‘‘is 16
basic skills deficient’’ and inserting ‘‘has 17
foundational skills needs’’; 18
(5) in paragraph (9), as redesignated by para-19
graph (2), in subparagraph (B)(i)— 20
(A) in subclause (I), by striking ‘‘and’’ 21
after the semicolon; 22
(B) in subclause (II), by striking ‘‘or’’ and 23
inserting ‘‘and’’; and 24
(C) by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(III) development of digital lit-1
eracy skills and information literacy 2
skills; or’’; 3
(6) in paragraph (12), as redesignated by para-4
graph (2), in the matter preceding subparagraph 5
(A), by inserting ‘‘and educational’’ after ‘‘in the 6
economic’’; 7
(7) by inserting after paragraph (12), as redes-8
ignated by paragraph (2), the following: 9
‘‘(13) I
NFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS .—The 10
term ‘information literacy skills’ means the set of 11
skills needed to find, retrieve, understand, evaluate, 12
analyze, discern the reliability and accuracy of, and 13
effectively use information (which encompasses spo-14
ken and broadcast words and videos, printed mate-15
rials, and digital content, data, and images).’’; 16
(8) in paragraph (15), as redesignated by para-17
graph (2), by inserting ‘‘(and may be provided con-18
currently with other activities and services, such as 19
adult basic education)’’ after ‘‘workforce training’’; 20
(9) in paragraph (17), as redesignated by para-21
graph (2), by striking ‘‘and solve problems, at levels 22
of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in 23
the family of the individual, and in society’’ and in-24
serting ‘‘solve problems, and use digital literacy 25
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skills and information literacy skills at levels of pro-1
ficiency necessary to function effectively as an em-2
ployee, a parent or family member, and a member 3
of society’’; and 4
(10) in paragraph (21), as redesignated by 5
paragraph (2)— 6
(A) by inserting ‘‘information literacy 7
skills,’’ after ‘‘digital literacy skills,’’; and 8
(B) by striking ‘‘and completion of’’. 9
SEC. 203. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 10
Section 206 of the Adult Education and Family Lit-11
eracy Act (29 U.S.C. 3275) is amended by striking ‘‘this 12
title’’ and all that follows through the period at the end 13
and inserting ‘‘this title $810,000,000 for fiscal year 14
2026, $945,000,000 for fiscal year 2027, $1,080,000,000 15
for fiscal year 2028, $1,215,000,000 for fiscal year 2029, 16
and $1,350,000,000 for fiscal year 2030.’’. 17
SEC. 204. RESERVATION OF FUNDS. 18
Section 211 of the Adult Education and Family Lit-19
eracy Act (29 U.S.C. 3291) is amended in subsection 20
(a)(1), by striking ‘‘$15,000,000’’ and inserting 21
‘‘$25,000,000’’. 22
SEC. 205. PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM. 23
Section 212 of the Adult Education and Family Lit-24
eracy Act (29 U.S.C. 3292) is amended to read as follows: 25
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‘‘SEC. 212. PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM. 1
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.— 2
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in sub-3
section (b), programs and activities authorized under 4
this title are subject to all of the performance ac-5
countability provisions described in section 116. 6
‘‘(2) A
DDITIONAL MEASURABLE SKILL GAINS .— 7
With respect to the application to programs and ac-8
tivities authorized under this title of the indicator of 9
measurable skill gains under section 10
116(b)(2)(A)(i)(IV), such measurable skill gains 11
may include those relating to the purpose described 12
in section 202. 13
‘‘(b) P
ILOT FORINNOVATIVEPERFORMANCE AC-14
COUNTABILITYSYSTEMS.— 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall ap-16
prove an application from an eligible agency to pilot, 17
for a subset of eligible providers within its State and 18
as an alternative to the performance accountability 19
system described in section 116, an innovative per-20
formance accountability system that uses alternative 21
indicators of performance that have the potential to 22
more accurately reflect the objectives and adult edu-23
cation and literacy activities of the eligible providers’ 24
programs if the Secretary determines that an appli-25
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cation from such an eligible agency meets the re-1
quirements of this subsection. 2
‘‘(2) P
ILOT PERIOD.—An eligible agency apply-3
ing to pilot an innovative performance accountability 4
system under this subsection shall propose in its ap-5
plication the period of time that the agency desires 6
to implement such system, except that the period 7
shall not exceed 5 years. 8
‘‘(3) E
XTENSION OF A PILOT PERIOD .—The 9
Secretary shall approve an eligible agency’s request 10
to extend the period of a pilot under this subsection 11
if the Secretary determines that the innovative per-12
formance system is meeting the objectives of this 13
subsection. 14
‘‘(4) A
PPLICATION.— 15
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—An eligible agency de-16
siring to undertake a pilot under this subsection 17
shall submit an application at such time and in 18
such manner as the Secretary may require. 19
‘‘(B) C
ONTENTS.—An application de-20
scribed in subparagraph (A) shall include— 21
‘‘(i) a description of how the eligible 22
agency engaged in an outreach process 23
with eligible providers within its State to— 24
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‘‘(I) inform the eligible providers 1
of the opportunity to implement a 2
pilot under this subsection; and 3
‘‘(II) engage with the eligible 4
providers in the development of alter-5
native indicators of performance; 6
‘‘(ii) an explanation of whether and 7
how the eligible agency established any 8
standards or criteria for the alternative 9
measures of performance that participating 10
eligible providers could elect to use; 11
‘‘(iii) a listing of the eligible providers 12
that will participate in the proposed pilot 13
and a description of the indicators of per-14
formance that each such provider will 15
make use of through the pilot; 16
‘‘(iv) a description of why the eligible 17
agency and the participating eligible pro-18
viders believe the proposed indicators of 19
performance would more accurately meas-20
ure the attainment of the objectives of 21
such providers’ adult education and lit-22
eracy activities than would the indicators 23
of performance described in section 24
116(b)(2); 25
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‘‘(v) an explanation of how the pro-1
posed indicators of performance will be 2
valid and reliable measures of education 3
and employment consistent with purposes 4
of this title; 5
‘‘(vi) a description of how the eligible 6
agency will collect, report to the Secretary, 7
and make publicly available the proposed 8
indicators of performance from each par-9
ticipating eligible provider on a timely 10
basis; and 11
‘‘(vii) an assurance that the eligible 12
agency will, at the end of the pilot period, 13
report to the Secretary on the outcomes of 14
the pilot, including on whether the eligible 15
agency met the objectives of the pilot. 16
‘‘(C) S
ECRETARIAL REVIEW AND AP -17
PROVAL.—The Secretary shall determine wheth-18
er to approve an application under this sub-19
section by not later than 90 days of receiving 20
the application. 21
‘‘(D) D
ISAPPROVAL.—The Secretary shall 22
not disapprove an application under this sub-23
section without giving the applicant the oppor-24
tunity to revise and resubmit the application. 25
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‘‘(5) ADDITIONAL SECRETARIAL RESPONSIBIL -1
ITIES.—The Secretary shall— 2
‘‘(A) through the Director of the Institute 3
of Education Sciences, carry out national eval-4
uations of the implementation and outcomes of 5
the pilots authorized under this subsection, with 6
the first such evaluation to be completed not 7
later than 5 years after the Secretary approves 8
the first application from an eligible entity; 9
‘‘(B) in consultation with the Director of 10
the Institute of Education Sciences, identify 11
best practices in the development and imple-12
mentation of innovative performance account-13
ability systems under this subsection; 14
‘‘(C) disseminate information on those 15
practices, including by making the information 16
available on the website of the Department of 17
Education; and 18
‘‘(D) provide a report to the Committee on 19
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the 20
Senate and the Committee on Education and 21
Workforce of the House of Representatives on 22
the results of the pilot program, including a 23
comparison of the outcomes as measured by the 24
innovative performance accountability systems 25
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implemented under this subsection and the per-1
formance measures described in section 116.’’. 2
SEC. 206. MATCHING REQUIREMENT. 3
Section 222(b) of the Adult Education and Family 4
Literacy Act (29 U.S.C. 3302(b)) is amended by inserting 5
after paragraph (2) the following: 6
‘‘(3) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 7
ON MATCHING FUNDS .—Each eligible agency shall 8
maintain, on the website of such agency and in an 9
easily accessible format, information documenting 10
the non-Federal contributions made available to 11
adult education and literacy programs pursuant to 12
this subsection, including the sources of such con-13
tributions and, in the case of funds made available 14
by the State, the distribution of such funds to eligi-15
ble providers.’’. 16
SEC. 207. STATE LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES. 17
Section 223(a) of the Adult Education and Family 18
Literacy Act (29 U.S.C. 3303(a)) is amended— 19
(1) in paragraph (1)(C)— 20
(A) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘programs,’’ 21
and inserting ‘‘, family literacy,’’; and 22
(B) in clause (iii), by inserting ‘‘and ex-23
pand options for the education of adults’’ after 24
‘‘efficiencies’’; and 25
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(2) in paragraph (2)— 1
(A) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 2
‘‘digital’’ after ‘‘implementation of’’; 3
(B) by redesignating subparagraphs (E) 4
through (L) and subparagraph (M), as sub-5
paragraphs (F) through (M) and subparagraph 6
(O), respectively; 7
(C) by inserting after subparagraph (D) 8
the following: 9
‘‘(E) Developing content and models for 10
family literacy programs.’’; 11
(D) in subparagraph (J), as redesignated 12
by subparagraph (B), in clause (i), by striking 13
‘‘and English language acquisition’’ and insert-14
ing ‘‘English language acquisition, digital lit-15
eracy skills, and information literacy skills’’; 16
(E) in subparagraph (K), as redesignated 17
by subparagraph (B), by inserting ‘‘, such as 18
the development and retention of policies for 19
credentialing of adult educators who dem-20
onstrate effectiveness’’ after ‘‘retention’’; 21
(F) in subparagraph (L), as redesignated 22
by subparagraph (B)— 23
(i) by striking ‘‘adult learners with 24
learning disabilities or’’ and inserting ‘‘spe-25
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cific groups of adult learners, such as 1
those with learning disabilities, those at 2
the lowest levels of literacy, or those who 3
are’’; and 4
(ii) by striking ‘‘at the lowest achieve-5
ment levels’’ and inserting ‘‘in appropriate 6
and meaningful ways’’; and 7
(G) by inserting after subparagraph (M), 8
as redesignated by subparagraph (B), the fol-9
lowing: 10
‘‘(N) Strengthening the quality of adult 11
education and literacy programs in the State 12
through support for improved credentials, pro-13
gram quality standards, and certification and 14
accreditation requirements.’’. 15
SEC. 208. GRANTS AND CONTRACTS FOR ELIGIBLE PRO-16
VIDERS. 17
Section 231 of the Adult Education and Family Lit-18
eracy Act (29 U.S.C. 3321) is amended— 19
(1) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘subpara-20
graphs (A) and (B) of section 203(4)’’ and inserting 21
‘‘subparagraphs (A) and (B) of section 203(8)’’; and 22
(2) in subsection (e)(2), by striking ‘‘learning 23
disabilities’’ and inserting ‘‘learning differences’’. 24
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SEC. 209. LOCAL ADMINISTRATIVE COST LIMITS. 1
Section 233(a) of the Adult Education and Family 2
Literacy Act (29 U.S.C. 3323(a)) is amended— 3
(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘and for pro-4
fessional development’’ after ‘‘literacy activities’’; 5
and 6
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘professional 7
development,’’. 8
SEC. 210. NATIONAL LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES. 9
Section 242 of the Adult Education and Family Lit-10
eracy Act (29 U.S.C. 3332) is amended— 11
(1) in subsection (b)— 12
(A) by striking paragraph (1) and insert-13
ing the following: 14
‘‘(1) assistance to help States meet the require-15
ments of section 116 in order to ensure— 16
‘‘(A) that the outcomes and other data re-17
quired pursuant to section 116 are collected 18
and reported in a timely and accessible manner; 19
and 20
‘‘(B) that such data are reported consist-21
ently across States and eligible providers and 22
are reviewed for quality and consistency at the 23
Federal level.’’; 24
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(B) by redesignating paragraphs (2) 1
through (4) as paragraphs (5) through (7), re-2
spectively; and 3
(C) by inserting after paragraph (1) the 4
following: 5
‘‘(2) technical assistance to participating eligi-6
ble agencies and eligible providers in implementing 7
innovative performance accountability systems under 8
section 212(b)(1); 9
‘‘(3) grants to such agencies and providers to 10
assist them in implementing such systems; 11
‘‘(4) carrying out the national evaluations re-12
quired under section 212(b)(5)(A);’’ and 13
(2) in subsection (c)— 14
(A) in paragraph (1)(C), by inserting 15
‘‘skills and information literacy skills’’ after 16
‘‘digital literacy’’; and 17
(B) in paragraph (2)— 18
(i) in subparagraph (C)(vii)— 19
(I) in the matter preceding sub-20
clause (I), by striking ‘‘best practices’’ 21
and inserting ‘‘effective practices’’; 22
(II) in subclause (I), by striking 23
‘‘adults with learning disabilities and 24
with’’ and inserting ‘‘specific popu-25
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lations, such as adults with learning 1
differences, adults with the lowest lev-2
els of literacy or numeracy, adults 3
who are supporting the education of 4
their children, and’’; 5
(III) by redesignating subclauses 6
(III) and (IV) as subclauses (IV) and 7
(V), respectively; 8
(IV) by inserting after subclause 9
(II) the following: 10
‘‘(III) family literacy programs;’’; 11
and 12
(V) in subclause (IV), as redesig-13
nated by subclause (III), by inserting 14
‘‘, including digital literacy skills and 15
information literacy skills develop-16
ment’’ after ‘‘activities’’; 17
(ii) in subparagraph (D)— 18
(I) in clause (ii), by inserting 19
‘‘for themselves and their children’’ 20
after ‘‘education and training’’; and 21
(II) in clause (iii), by inserting ‘‘, 22
such as counseling, transportation, 23
and child care,’’ after ‘‘support serv-24
ices’’; 25
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(iii) in subparagraph (F), by striking 1
‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 2
(iv) by redesignating subparagraph 3
(G) as subparagraph (K); and 4
(v) by inserting after subparagraph 5
(F) the following: 6
‘‘(G) developing and rigorously evaluating 7
model programs for the preparation of highly 8
effective adult educators; 9
‘‘(H) carrying out initiatives to support the 10
professionalization of adult education through 11
the creation and implementation of full-time 12
staffing models; 13
‘‘(I) providing professional development 14
and technical assistance to adult educators that 15
is designed to help ensure that adult education 16
and family literacy programs build pathways to 17
future success for all adult learners; 18
‘‘(J) strengthening the quality of adult 19
education and literacy programs through sup-20
port for improved credentials, program quality 21
standards, and certification and accreditation 22
requirements that States may adopt on a vol-23
untary basis; and’’. 24
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SEC. 211. INTEGRATED ENGLISH LITERACY AND CIVICS 1
EDUCATION. 2
Section 243 of the Adult Education and Family Lit-3
eracy Act (29 U.S.C. 3333) is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘, in combina-5
tion with integrated education and training activi-6
ties’’; and 7
(2) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘designed’’ 8
and all that follows through the period at the end 9
and inserting the following: ‘‘designed to prepare 10
adults who are English learners for full participation 11
in the economic, educational, and civic life of the 12
community, which may include integration with the 13
local workforce development system.’’. 14
Æ
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