II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1347
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make college affordable
and accessible by expanding access to dual or concurrent enrollment
programs and early college high school programs.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL8, 2025
Mr. P
ETERS(for himself and Mr. BOOZMAN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu-
cation, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make college
affordable and accessible by expanding access to dual
or concurrent enrollment programs and early college high
school programs.
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 ‘‘Making Education Af-4
fordable and Accessible Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DUAL OR CONCURRENT ENROLLMENT PROGRAMS 1
AND EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL. 2
Part B of title VII of the Higher Education Act of 3
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1138 et seq.) is amended— 4
(1) by redesignating section 745 as section 746; 5
(2) in section 746, as redesignated by para-6
graph (1), by striking ‘‘fiscal year 2009’’ and insert-7
ing ‘‘fiscal year 2025’’; and 8
(3) by inserting after section 744 the following: 9
‘‘SEC. 745. DUAL OR CONCURRENT ENROLLMENT PRO-10
GRAMS AND EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL. 11
‘‘(a) P
URPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to ex-12
pand access for high school students to the opportunities 13
offered in dual or concurrent enrollment programs and 14
early college high school programs established through 15
partnerships between local educational agencies and insti-16
tutions of higher education that enable such students to 17
earn postsecondary credits while enrolled in a public high 18
school. 19
‘‘(b) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 20
‘‘(1) ESEA
DEFINITIONS.—The terms ‘dual or 21
concurrent enrollment program’, ‘early college high 22
school’, ‘high school’, and ‘parent’ have the mean-23
ings given to those terms in section 8101 of the Ele-24
mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. 25
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‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE INSTITUTION.—The term ‘eligi-1
ble institution’ means an institution of higher edu-2
cation that carries out or plans to carry out a dual 3
or concurrent enrollment program or an early college 4
high school program. 5
‘‘(3) F
IRST-GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENT .— 6
The term ‘first-generation college student’ has the 7
meaning given the term in section 402A(h). 8
‘‘(4) R
URAL SCHOOL.—The term ‘rural school’ 9
means a school designated with a locale code of 41, 10
42, or 43, as determined by the Secretary. 11
‘‘(c) G
RANTSAUTHORIZED.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may award 13
grants to eligible institutions to carry out dual or 14
concurrent enrollment programs or early college high 15
school programs. 16
‘‘(2) D
URATION.—A grant awarded under this 17
subsection shall be for a period of not more than 5 18
years. 19
‘‘(3) R
ENEWAL.—The Secretary may renew a 20
grant awarded to an eligible institution under this 21
subsection if the Secretary determines that the eligi-22
ble institution demonstrated sufficient positive out-23
comes under the program carried out under the 24
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grant, based on the reports submitted under sub-1
section (h). 2
‘‘(d) A
PPLICATION.—An eligible institution that de-3
sires to receive a grant under this section shall submit to 4
the Secretary an application at such time, in such manner, 5
and containing such information as the Secretary may re-6
quire. Such application shall include a description of— 7
‘‘(1) the partnership between the eligible insti-8
tution and each local educational agency involved in 9
carrying out the dual or concurrent enrollment pro-10
gram or early college high school program; and 11
‘‘(2) how the eligible institution will expand stu-12
dent access to a dual or concurrent enrollment pro-13
gram or an early college high school program, espe-14
cially for students described in subsection (e). 15
‘‘(e) P
RIORITY.—In awarding grants under this sec-16
tion, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible institu-17
tions that will use grant funds for dual or concurrent en-18
rollment programs or early college high school programs 19
that serve students from low-income families, students 20
who attend rural schools, or first-generation college stu-21
dents. 22
‘‘(f) U
SE OFFUNDS.—An eligible institution that re-23
ceives a grant under this section shall use the grant funds 24
to carry out a dual or concurrent enrollment program or 25
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an early college high school program for students enrolled 1
in a public high school, which may include activities such 2
as— 3
‘‘(1) providing educators, principals, counselors, 4
and other school leaders with professional develop-5
ment activities, trainings, and certifications that en-6
hance or enable the provision of postsecondary 7
coursework through a dual or concurrent enrollment 8
program or an early college high school program; 9
‘‘(2) designing the sequence of courses for a 10
dual or concurrent enrollment program or an early 11
college high school program— 12
‘‘(A) to match the academic standards and 13
rigor of a corresponding postsecondary course; 14
and 15
‘‘(B) in collaboration with educators from 16
the local educational agency and faculty from 17
the eligible institution; 18
‘‘(3) establishing a course articulation process 19
for defining and approving courses for high school 20
and postsecondary credit or credentials for both 2- 21
year and 4-year institutions of higher education in 22
the State; 23
‘‘(4) establishing outreach programs to provide 24
elementary school and secondary school students, es-25
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pecially those students in middle grades, and their 1
parents, educators, school counselors, and principals 2
with general information about a dual or concurrent 3
enrollment program or an early college high school 4
program, including the eligibility requirements and 5
academic preparation needed for the program; 6
‘‘(5) helping students meet eligibility criteria 7
for postsecondary courses and ensuring that stu-8
dents understand how credits earned will transfer to 9
institutions of higher education in the State; or 10
‘‘(6) coordinating high school transition with 11
academic calendars. 12
‘‘(g) F
LEXIBILITY OFFUNDS.— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 14
an eligible institution that receives a grant under 15
this section may use grant funds for any of the costs 16
associated with carrying out a dual or concurrent 17
enrollment program or an early college high school 18
program, including the costs of— 19
‘‘(A) tuition and fees, books, and required 20
instructional materials for the program so that 21
students will not be required to pay tuition or 22
fees for postsecondary courses; and 23
‘‘(B) transportation to and from the pro-24
gram. 25
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‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—An eligible institution may 1
use not more than 20 percent of grant funds re-2
ceived under this section for transportation costs de-3
scribed in paragraph (1)(B). 4
‘‘(h) E
VALUATION ANDREPORTS.— 5
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Each eligible institution re-6
ceiving a grant under this section shall— 7
‘‘(A) conduct an independent evaluation re-8
garding the effectiveness and rigor of the activi-9
ties as carried out by such eligible institution 10
under this section, which shall include— 11
‘‘(i) data on course-specific student 12
enrollment; and 13
‘‘(ii) the number of resulting postsec-14
ondary credits earned by students through 15
dual or concurrent enrollment programs or 16
early college high school programs sup-17
ported under the grant that are trans-18
ferred to institutions of higher education; 19
and 20
‘‘(B) prepare and submit to the Secretary 21
a report containing the results of the evaluation 22
described in subparagraph (A). 23
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‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS.—The Secretary may es-1
tablish additional requirements for the program eval-2
uations required under paragraph (1). 3
‘‘(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 3 years after the 4
date of enactment of the Making Education Afford-5
able and Accessible Act of 2025, and every 2 years 6
thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a 7
summarized report that describes the findings of the 8
evaluations conducted under paragraph (1)(A).’’. 9
Æ
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