II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 299
To establish a competitive grant program to support the establishment, expan-
sion, or enhancement of youth mentoring programs for eligible youth,
and to provide for social and emotional learning, employability skill
development, career exploration, work-based learning, and other youth
workforce opportunities.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY29, 2025
Mr. D
URBIN(for himself, Ms. DUCKWORTH, and Mr. BOOKER) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To establish a competitive grant program to support the
establishment, expansion, or enhancement of youth men-
toring programs for eligible youth, and to provide for
social and emotional learning, employability skill develop-
ment, career exploration, work-based learning, and other
youth workforce opportunities.
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 ‘‘Mentoring to Succeed 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. YOUTH MENTORING PROGRAMS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle D of title I of the Work-2
force Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3221 et 3
seq.) is amended— 4
(1) by redesignating section 172 as section 173; 5
and 6
(2) by inserting after section 171 the following: 7
‘‘SEC. 172. YOUTH MENTORING PROGRAMS. 8
‘‘(a) P
URPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to 9
make assistance available for mentoring programs for eli-10
gible youth, in order to— 11
‘‘(1) establish, expand, or support mentoring 12
programs; 13
‘‘(2) assist eligible youth enrolled in secondary 14
schools in developing cognitive and social-emotional 15
skills; and 16
‘‘(3) prepare eligible youth for success in high 17
school, postsecondary education, and the workforce. 18
‘‘(b) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 19
‘‘(1) C
OMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATION .—The 20
term ‘community-based organization’ means a youth- 21
serving private nonprofit organization (which may 22
include a faith-based organization or may be an af-23
filiate of a national organization) that— 24
‘‘(A) is representative of a community or a 25
significant segment of a community; 26
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‘‘(B) has demonstrated expertise and effec-1
tiveness in workforce development; and 2
‘‘(C) has demonstrated expertise— 3
‘‘(i) in the planning and delivery of 4
education, training, and related activities 5
that are included in a career pathway; 6
‘‘(ii) in forging coordination and co-7
operation between educators and other 8
members of the community; and 9
‘‘(iii) in development and implementa-10
tion of data systems that measure the 11
progress of students and outcomes of ca-12
reer pathways. 13
‘‘(2) C
OVERED INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDU -14
CATION.—The term ‘covered institution of higher 15
education’ means— 16
‘‘(A) an institution of higher education, as 17
defined in section 101 of the Higher Education 18
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001); or 19
‘‘(B) a postsecondary vocational institu-20
tion, as defined in section 102(c) of such Act 21
(20 U.S.C. 1002(c)). 22
‘‘(3) C
OVERED PARTNERSHIP .—The term ‘cov-23
ered partnership’ means a partnership between— 24
‘‘(A) a community-based organization; and 25
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‘‘(B)(i) an industry or sector partnership; 1
‘‘(ii) a local educational agency; or 2
‘‘(iii) another public entity or private 3
employer, as appropriate. 4
‘‘(4) C
OVERED RECOGNIZED POSTSECONDARY 5
CREDENTIAL.—The term ‘covered recognized post-6
secondary credential’ means a recognized postsec-7
ondary credential issued by a covered institution of 8
higher education. 9
‘‘(5) D
ISABILITY.—The term ‘disability’ has the 10
meaning given the term for purposes of section 11
602(3) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education 12
Act (20 U.S.C. 1401(3)). 13
‘‘(6) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en-14
tity’ means a community-based organization or cov-15
ered partnership that— 16
‘‘(A) provides mentoring services; and 17
‘‘(B) provides youth workforce readiness 18
programming and career exploration. 19
‘‘(7) E
LIGIBLE YOUTH.—The term ‘eligible 20
youth’ means— 21
‘‘(A) an in-school youth; 22
‘‘(B) a youth who meets all requirements 23
to be an in-school youth, except that— 24
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‘‘(i) in lieu of meeting the require-1
ments of section 129(a)(1)(C)(ii), the 2
youth is in secondary school; or 3
‘‘(ii) in lieu of meeting the require-4
ments of section 129(a)(1)(C)(iv), the 5
youth— 6
‘‘(I) is failing academically or at 7
risk of dropping out of school, is 8
chronically absent, is enrolled in fewer 9
classes or for fewer credit hours than 10
a typical full-time student, has 11
changed schools 3 or more times in 12
the past 180 days, or has a history of 13
multiple suspensions; or 14
‘‘(II)(aa) is a gang member or 15
resides in a community with high 16
rates of, and prevalence of risk factors 17
associated with, violence-related inju-18
ries and deaths, and with other rel-19
evant health and safety risks (includ-20
ing high rates of poverty, suicide, or 21
substance use disorder (including 22
opioid use disorder)) or has a parent 23
or guardian who is struggling with 24
substance use disorder; 25
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‘‘(bb) has 1 or both parents in-1
carcerated; or 2
‘‘(cc) has experienced 1 or more 3
adverse childhood experiences, trau-4
matic events, or toxic stressors, as as-5
sessed through an evidence-based 6
screening; 7
‘‘(C) an out-of-school youth; or 8
‘‘(D) a youth who meets all requirements 9
to be an out-of-school youth, except that— 10
‘‘(i) in lieu of meeting the require-11
ments of section 129(a)(1)(B)(ii), the 12
youth would be placed in secondary school 13
if the youth were attending school; or 14
‘‘(ii) in lieu of meeting the require-15
ments of section 129(a)(1)(B)(iii), the 16
youth is described in subparagraph 17
(B)(ii)(II). 18
‘‘(8) M
ENTORING.—The term ‘mentoring’ 19
means a structured, managed activity— 20
‘‘(A) in which eligible youth are appro-21
priately matched with screened and trained 22
adult or peer volunteer mentors for consistent 23
relationships; 24
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‘‘(B) that provides direct one-on-one, 1
group, or peer mentoring services that focus 2
on— 3
‘‘(i) providing enrichment; 4
‘‘(ii) promoting educational or work-5
force success; 6
‘‘(iii) minimizing risk behaviors; 7
‘‘(iv) promoting social skills and 8
healthy relationships; or 9
‘‘(v) any combination of objectives de-10
scribed in clauses (i) through (iv); 11
‘‘(C) that involves meetings, events, and 12
activities on a regular basis, for a period of not 13
less than 1 year; and 14
‘‘(D) that is intended to meet, in part, the 15
social and emotional development needs of an 16
eligible youth, the need of the eligible youth for 17
involvement with a caring and supportive adult, 18
and the need of the eligible youth for positive 19
role models, connections, and stability. 20
‘‘(9) H
IGH SCHOOL.—The term ‘high school’ 21
has the meaning given the term in section 8101 of 22
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 23
1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 24
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‘‘(10) YOUTH WORKFORCE READINESS PRO -1
GRAMMING.—The term ‘youth workforce readiness 2
programming’ means job training, or a workforce 3
development program providing an employment and 4
training activity, such as mentoring, an activity to 5
promote communication and problem-solving skills, 6
career exploration, a job readiness activity and cer-7
tification, a summer job, or a year-round job oppor-8
tunity or apprenticeship, provided to eligible youth. 9
‘‘(c) P
ROGRAMAUTHORIZED.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—From amounts made avail-11
able for this section, the Secretary shall award 12
grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities to 13
establish, expand, or support mentoring programs in 14
accordance with subsection (d). 15
‘‘(2) D
URATION.—A grant awarded under this 16
section shall be for a period not to exceed 3 years. 17
‘‘(d) A
UTHORIZEDACTIVITIES.— 18
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An eligible entity receiving 19
a grant under this section shall use grant funds to 20
establish, expand, or support not less than 1 men-21
toring program that— 22
‘‘(A) is designed to assist eligible youth in 23
developing cognitive and social-emotional skills 24
to prepare the eligible youth for success in high 25
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school, postsecondary education, and the work-1
force by linking the eligible youth with mentors 2
who— 3
‘‘(i) have received mentor training, in-4
cluding training on trauma-informed prac-5
tices, youth engagement, cultural com-6
petency, and social-emotional learning; and 7
‘‘(ii) have been screened using appro-8
priate reference checks and criminal back-9
ground checks, in accordance with the re-10
quirements of subsection (e)(2)(F)(ii); 11
‘‘(B) serves a population that includes eli-12
gible youth living in or from underserved com-13
munities or communities with employment dis-14
parities; 15
‘‘(C) provides coaching and technical as-16
sistance to mentors participating in the men-17
toring program; 18
‘‘(D) seeks to— 19
‘‘(i) reduce juvenile justice involve-20
ment of eligible youth; 21
‘‘(ii) foster positive relationships be-22
tween eligible youth and their peers, other 23
adults, and family members; 24
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‘‘(iii) develop the workforce readiness 1
skills of eligible youth by exploring paths 2
to employment, including encouraging stu-3
dents with disabilities to explore transition 4
services; and 5
‘‘(iv) increase the participation of eli-6
gible youth in community service activities; 7
‘‘(E) encourages eligible youth to set goals 8
and plan for their futures, including making 9
plans and identifying goals for postsecondary 10
education and participation in the workforce; 11
‘‘(F) develops and carries out regular 12
training for mentors, including training on— 13
‘‘(i) the impact of adverse childhood 14
experiences; 15
‘‘(ii) trauma-informed practices and 16
interventions; 17
‘‘(iii) cultural competency; 18
‘‘(iv) social and emotional learning; 19
‘‘(v) positive youth development and 20
engagement practices; and 21
‘‘(vi) disability inclusion practices to 22
ensure access and participation by students 23
with disabilities; 24
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‘‘(G) works in coordination with a private 1
employer and a local educational agency with 2
not less than 1 high-need school (as defined in 3
section 2211(b) of the Elementary and Sec-4
ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 5
6631(b)); 6
‘‘(H) recruits, screens, matches, trains, 7
and, as necessary, compensates mentors; 8
‘‘(I) hires staff, as necessary, to perform or 9
support the objectives of the program; and 10
‘‘(J) provides inclusive and accessible 11
youth engagement activities, such as— 12
‘‘(i) career awareness activities, in-13
cluding job site visits, informational inter-14
views, resume writing, interview prepara-15
tion, and networking; 16
‘‘(ii) academic or postsecondary edu-17
cation preparation activities, including 18
trade or vocational school visits, visits to 19
institutions of higher education, and assist-20
ance in applying to institutions of higher 21
education; 22
‘‘(iii) support for the use of career 23
pathways; 24
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‘‘(iv) paid and unpaid work experi-1
ences that have as a component academic 2
and occupational education, which may in-3
clude— 4
‘‘(I) paid employment opportuni-5
ties; 6
‘‘(II) pre-apprenticeship pro-7
grams and apprenticeship programs; 8
‘‘(III) paid internships; 9
‘‘(IV) job shadowing; and 10
‘‘(V) on-the-job training opportu-11
nities; 12
‘‘(v) work-based learning (as defined 13
in section 3 of the Carl D. Perkins Career 14
and Technical Education Act of 2006 (20 15
U.S.C. 2302)) that provides opportunities 16
for the application of employability skills 17
and hands-on work experiences through 18
partnerships among eligible entities; 19
‘‘(vi) occupational skill training, which 20
shall include priority consideration for 21
training programs that lead to covered rec-22
ognized postsecondary credentials that are 23
aligned with in-demand industry sectors or 24
occupations in the local area involved, if 25
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the local board determines that the pro-1
grams meet the quality criteria described 2
in section 123(a); 3
‘‘(vii) activities that help youth pre-4
pare for and transition to postsecondary 5
education and training; and 6
‘‘(viii) services to help prepare eligible 7
youth for the workforce, such as— 8
‘‘(I) leadership development op-9
portunities; 10
‘‘(II) workforce or workforce 11
readiness opportunities; 12
‘‘(III) financial literacy edu-13
cation; 14
‘‘(IV) entrepreneurial skills train-15
ing; 16
‘‘(V) services that provide labor 17
market and employment information 18
about in-demand industry sectors or 19
occupations available in the local area; 20
‘‘(VI) activities to develop funda-21
mental workforce readiness skills or to 22
develop employability skills (such as 23
communication, creativity, collabora-24
tion, and critical thinking) that sup-25
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port social-emotional development 1
through every developmental stage; 2
and 3
‘‘(VII) career exposure offered by 4
local industry or sector partnerships 5
to provide career assessments, edu-6
cation, and career planning. 7
‘‘(2) A
DDITIONAL ACTIVITIES.—An eligible enti-8
ty receiving a grant under this section may use 9
grant funds to— 10
‘‘(A) provide professional development (as 11
defined in section 3 of the Carl D. Perkins Ca-12
reer and Technical Education Act of 2006 (20 13
U.S.C. 2302)) for training educators and other 14
providers of educational services who partici-15
pate in the mentoring program; 16
‘‘(B) develop assets and resources that as-17
sist an employer or groups of employers or sec-18
tors in working with eligible youth; 19
‘‘(C) in the case of an eligible entity that 20
seeks to implement the program through a 21
partnership with another eligible entity, estab-22
lish the partnership; and 23
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‘‘(D) conduct program evaluation, includ-1
ing acquiring and analyzing the data described 2
in subsection (g). 3
‘‘(3) S
UBGRANTS.—An eligible entity receiving 4
a grant under this section may, with the approval of 5
the Secretary, use grant funds to award subgrants 6
to eligible organizations to carry out activities de-7
scribed in paragraphs (1) and (2). 8
‘‘(e) A
PPLICATION.—An eligible entity desiring a 9
grant under this section shall submit an application to the 10
Secretary at such time, in such manner, and accompanied 11
by such information as the Secretary may require, includ-12
ing— 13
‘‘(1) a needs assessment that includes baseline 14
data on the measures described in subsection 15
(g)(1)(B); and 16
‘‘(2) a plan to establish, expand, or support a 17
mentoring program that meets the requirements of 18
subsection (d)(1), including— 19
‘‘(A) the targeted outcomes, mentor type, 20
and meeting frequency for the program; 21
‘‘(B) a description of and data regarding 22
the eligible youth who will participate as 23
mentees in the program, including— 24
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‘‘(i) any age ranges to be served or 1
any other eligibility criteria; and 2
‘‘(ii) how the eligible entity will ensure 3
that the program serves eligible youth liv-4
ing in or from underserved communities or 5
communities with employment disparities, 6
in accordance with subsection (d)(1)(B); 7
‘‘(C) the number of mentor-mentee 8
matches proposed to be established and main-9
tained annually under the program; 10
‘‘(D) the capacity and expertise of the pro-11
gram to serve eligible youth in a way that is re-12
sponsive to children and youth of color, expect-13
ant and parenting youth, indigenous youth, 14
youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, 15
transgender, or queer, and youth with disabil-16
ities; 17
‘‘(E) actions taken to ensure that the de-18
sign of the program reflects input from eligible 19
youth; 20
‘‘(F) an assurance that mentors supported 21
under the program are appropriately screened 22
and have demonstrated a willingness to comply 23
with aspects of the mentoring program, includ-24
ing— 25
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‘‘(i) a written screening plan that in-1
cludes all of the policies and procedures 2
used to screen and select mentors, includ-3
ing eligibility requirements and preferences 4
for such applicants; 5
‘‘(ii) a description of the methods to 6
be used to conduct criminal background 7
checks on all prospective mentors and the 8
methods in place to exclude mentors with 9
convictions directly related to child safety 10
that occur during the mentor’s participa-11
tion in the program or in the 7-year period 12
preceding the mentor’s participation; and 13
‘‘(iii) a description of the methods to 14
be used to ensure that the mentors are 15
willing and able to serve as a mentor on a 16
long-term, consistent basis as defined in 17
the application; 18
‘‘(G) a description of— 19
‘‘(i) the community-based organiza-20
tions or the covered partnerships through 21
which the eligible entity will implement the 22
program; and 23
‘‘(ii) if a covered partnership will as-24
sist in implementing the program, the col-25
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laboration and coordination that the com-1
munity-based organization in the partner-2
ship has carried out or will carry out with 3
other entities in the partnership, related to 4
that implementation; 5
‘‘(H) in the case of a program that in-6
cludes an opportunity to earn a covered recog-7
nized postsecondary credential, a description of 8
the activities leading to the covered recognized 9
postsecondary credential; and 10
‘‘(I) a budget detailing program activities 11
and administrative costs. 12
‘‘(f) P
RIORITY.—In awarding grants under this sec-13
tion, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible entities 14
that— 15
‘‘(1) prior to receiving a grant, serve eligible 16
youth with the greatest need who reside in— 17
‘‘(A) a high-poverty community; 18
‘‘(B) a rural area; or 19
‘‘(C) a community with high rates of, and 20
prevalence of risk factors associated with, vio-21
lence-related injuries and deaths, and with 22
other relevant health and safety risks (including 23
high rates of poverty, suicide, or substance use 24
disorder (including opioid use disorder)); 25
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‘‘(2) provide eligible youth participating in the 1
mentoring program supported under this section 2
with opportunities for postsecondary education prep-3
aration and career development, including— 4
‘‘(A) job training, professional develop-5
ment, work shadowing, internships, networking, 6
resume writing and review, interview prepara-7
tion, transition or vocational rehabilitation serv-8
ices for students with disabilities, application 9
assistance and visits to institutions of higher 10
education, and leadership development through 11
community service, and relevant program ele-12
ments described in section 129(c)(2)); and 13
‘‘(B) partnerships with the private sector 14
and local businesses to provide internship and 15
career exploration activities and resources; and 16
‘‘(3) consult and engage eligible youth in the 17
development, design, and implementation of the 18
mentoring program, including by demonstrating 19
such consultation and engagement in the application 20
submitted under subsection (e) and agreeing to con-21
tinue such consultation after receiving the grant. 22
‘‘(g) R
EPORTINGREQUIREMENTS.— 23
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 24
after the end of each year of the grant period, an 25
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eligible entity receiving a grant under this section 1
shall submit to the Secretary a report that— 2
‘‘(A) includes— 3
‘‘(i) the number of eligible youth and 4
mentors, and the demographics of eligible 5
youth and mentors, who participated in the 6
mentoring program that was supported 7
with grant funds; 8
‘‘(ii) data on the academic achieve-9
ment, dropout rates, truancy, absenteeism, 10
outcomes of arrests for violent crime, full- 11
time employment, part-time employment, 12
and postsecondary education enrollment of 13
eligible youth participating in the program; 14
and 15
‘‘(iii) data on social-emotional develop-16
ment of eligible youth participating in the 17
program, as assessed with a validated so-18
cial-emotional assessment tool; 19
‘‘(B) may include indicators such as 20
achievement of career competencies, or success-21
ful completion of internships, apprenticeships, 22
or work-based learning opportunities, or high 23
school graduation; and 24
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‘‘(C) includes any other information that 1
the Secretary may require to evaluate the suc-2
cess of the mentoring program. 3
‘‘(2) S
TUDENT PRIVACY .—An eligible entity 4
shall ensure that the report submitted under para-5
graph (1) is prepared in a manner that protects the 6
privacy rights of each eligible youth in the same 7
manner as is required for students under section 8
444 of the General Education Provisions Act (20 9
U.S.C. 1232g; commonly known as the ‘Family Edu-10
cational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974’). 11
‘‘(h) M
ENTORINGPROGRAMRESOURCES ANDTECH-12
NICALASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall work with the 13
Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delin-14
quency Prevention and the Secretary of Education to— 15
‘‘(1) refer eligible entities receiving grants 16
under this section to the National Mentoring Re-17
source Center to obtain resources on best practices 18
and research related to mentoring programs and to 19
request no-cost training and technical assistance; 20
and 21
‘‘(2) provide such eligible entities with informa-22
tion regarding transitional services for eligible youth 23
returning from correctional facilities and transition 24
services for students with disabilities. 25
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‘‘(i) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 1
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 2
such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 3
2026 through 2030.’’. 4
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 5
in section 1(b) of the Workforce Innovation and Oppor-6
tunity Act is amended by striking the item relating to sec-7
tion 172 and inserting the following: 8
‘‘Sec. 172. Youth mentoring programs.
‘‘Sec. 173. Authorization of appropriations.’’.
SEC. 3. STUDY ON MENTORING PROGRAMS.
9
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Labor, acting 10
through the Chief Evaluation Officer of the Department 11
of Labor, shall conduct a study to— 12
(1) identify successful mentoring programs and 13
evidence-based strategies for administering and mon-14
itoring such programs; 15
(2) evaluate the role of mentors in promoting 16
cognitive development and social-emotional learning 17
to enhance academic achievement and to improve 18
workforce readiness; and 19
(3) evaluate the effectiveness of the grant pro-20
gram under section 172 of the Workforce Innovation 21
and Opportunity Act, as added by section 2, on stu-22
dent academic outcomes and youth career develop-23
ment. 24
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•S 299 IS
(b) TIMING.—Not later than 3 years after the date 1
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor, acting 2
through the Chief Evaluation Officer, shall submit the re-3
sults of the study to the appropriate congressional com-4
mittees. 5
Æ
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