I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 954
To amend the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act with respect
to certain funding, testing, and evaluation requirements and to perma-
nently authorize an appropriation for such Act.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY4, 2025
Mr. M
OOLENAARintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
A BILL
To amend the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act
with respect to certain funding, testing, and evaluation
requirements and to permanently authorize an appropria-
tion for such Act.
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 ‘‘SOAR Permanent Au-4
thorization Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO SCHOLARSHIPS FOR OPPOR-1
TUNITY AND RESULTS ACT. 2
(a) C
HANGE INACCREDITATIONREQUIREMENTS.— 3
Section 3007(a)(5)(A)(i)(I) of the Scholarships for Oppor-4
tunity and Results Act (sec. 38–1853.07(a)(5)(A)(i)(I), 5
D.C. Official Code) is amended to read as follows: 6
‘‘(I) is fully accredited by an ac-7
crediting body with jurisdiction in the 8
District of Columbia or that is recog-9
nized by the Student and Visitor Ex-10
change English Language Program 11
administered by U.S. Immigration 12
and Customs Enforcement; or’’. 13
(b) R
EMOVAL OFSTUDENTACADEMICASSISTANCE 14
L
IMIT.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 3007(b) of such Act 16
(sec. 38–1853.07 (b), D.C. Official Code) is amend-17
ed— 18
(A) in the header, by striking ‘‘
ANDPA-19
RENTALASSISTANCE’’ and inserting ‘‘, PAREN-20
TALASSISTANCE, ANDSTUDENTACADEMIC 21
A
SSISTANCE’’; 22
(B) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 23
by striking ‘‘$2,000,000’’ and inserting 24
‘‘$2,200,000’’; and 25
(C) by adding at the end the following: 26
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‘‘(3) The expenses of providing tutoring service 1
to participating eligible students that need additional 2
academic assistance. If there are insufficient funds 3
to provide tutoring services to all such students in 4
a year, the eligible entity shall give priority in such 5
year to students who previously attended an elemen-6
tary school or secondary school identified as one of 7
the lowest-performing schools under the District of 8
Columbia’s accountability system.’’. 9
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 3007 10
of such Act (sec. 38–1853.07, D.C. Official Code) is 11
amended— 12
(A) by striking subsection (c) and redesig-13
nating subsection (d) as subsection (c); and 14
(B) in subsection (c), as so redesignated by 15
paragraph (A)— 16
(i) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking 17
‘‘subsections (b) and (c)’’ and inserting 18
‘‘subsection (b)’’; and 19
(ii) in paragraph (3), by striking 20
‘‘subsections (b) and (c)’’ and inserting 21
‘‘subsection (b)’’. 22
(c) C
HANGE INSTANDARDIZEDTESTINGREQUIRE-23
MENTS.—Section 3008(h) of such Act (sec. 38– 24
1853.08(h), D.C. Official Code) is amended— 25
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(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘section 1
3009(a)(2)(A)(i)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 3009(a)’’; 2
(2) by amending paragraph (2) to read as fol-3
lows: 4
‘‘(2) A
DMINISTRATION OF TESTS .—The Insti-5
tute of Education Sciences may administer assess-6
ments to students participating in the evaluation 7
under section 3009(a) for the purpose of conducting 8
the evaluation under such section.’’; and 9
(3) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘the nation-10
ally norm-referenced standardized test described in 11
paragraph (2)’’ and inserting ‘‘a nationally norm- 12
referenced standardized test’’. 13
(d) C
HANGE IN EVALUATIONFREQUENCY AND 14
S
TANDARDS.—Section 3009(a) of such Act (sec. 38– 15
1853.09(a), D.C. Official Code) is amended— 16
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking ‘‘annually’’ 17
and inserting ‘‘regularly’’; 18
(2) in paragraph (2)— 19
(A) by amending subparagraph (A)(i) to 20
read as follows: 21
‘‘(i) is rigorous; and’’; and 22
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘im-23
pact of the program’’ and all that follows 24
through the end of the subparagraph and in-25
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serting ‘‘impact of the program on academic 1
progress and educational attainment.’’; 2
(3) in paragraph (3)— 3
(A) in the header, by striking ‘‘
ON EDU-4
CATION’’ and inserting ‘‘OF EDUCATION’’; 5
(B) in subparagraph (A)— 6
(i) by inserting ‘‘the academic 7
progress of’’ after ‘‘assess’’; and 8
(ii) by striking ‘‘in each of grades 3’’ 9
and all that follows through the end of the 10
subparagraph and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 11
(C) by striking subparagraph (B); and 12
(D) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as 13
subparagraph (B); and 14
(4) in paragraph (4)— 15
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 16
(i) by striking ‘‘A comparison of the 17
academic achievement of participating eli-18
gible students who use an opportunity 19
scholarship on the measurements described 20
in paragraph (3)(B) to the academic 21
achievement’’ and inserting ‘‘The academic 22
progress of participating eligible students 23
who use an opportunity scholarship com-24
pared to the academic progress’’; and 25
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(ii) by inserting ‘‘, which may include 1
students’’ after ‘‘students with similar 2
backgrounds’’; 3
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘in-4
creasing the satisfaction of such parents and 5
students with their choice’’ and inserting ‘‘those 6
parents’ and students’ satisfaction with the pro-7
gram’’; 8
(C) by striking subparagraphs (D) through 9
(F) and inserting the following: 10
‘‘(D) The high school graduation rates, 11
college enrollment rates, college persistence 12
rates, and college graduation rates of partici-13
pating eligible students who use an opportunity 14
scholarship compared with the rates of public 15
school students described in subparagraph (A), 16
to the extent practicable. 17
‘‘(E) The college enrollment rates, college 18
persistence rates, and college graduation rates 19
of students who participated in the program as 20
the result of winning the Opportunity Scholar-21
ship Program lottery compared to the enroll-22
ment, persistence, and graduation rates for stu-23
dents who entered but did not win such lottery 24
and who, as a result, served as the control 25
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group for previous evaluations of the program 1
under this division. Nothing in this subpara-2
graph may be construed to waive section 3
3004(a)(3)(A)(iii) with respect to any such stu-4
dent. 5
‘‘(F) The safety of the schools attended by 6
participating eligible students who use an op-7
portunity scholarship compared with the schools 8
attended by public school students described in 9
subparagraph (A), to the extent practicable.’’; 10
and 11
(D) in subparagraph (G), by striking 12
‘‘achievement’’ and inserting ‘‘progress’’. 13
(e) P
ERMANENT AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIA-14
TION.—Section 3014 of such Act (sec. 38–1853.14, D.C. 15
Official Code) is amended— 16
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘$60,000,000 17
for fiscal year 2012 and for each fiscal year through 18
fiscal year 2023’’ and inserting ‘‘$75,000,000 for 19
fiscal year 2024 and for each succeeding fiscal 20
year’’; and 21
(2) in subsection (b), by striking 22
‘‘$60,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$75,000,000’’. 23
Æ
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