II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 487
To expand opportunity through greater choice in education, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY6 (legislative day, FEBRUARY5), 2025
Mr. S
COTTof South Carolina (for himself and Mr. WICKER) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To expand opportunity through greater choice in 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 ‘‘Creating Hope and 4
Opportunity for Individuals and Communities through 5
Education Act’’ or the ‘‘CHOICE Act’’. 6
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TITLE I—IMPROVING THE 1
SCHOLARSHIPS FOR OPPOR-2
TUNITY AND RESULTS ACT 3
SEC. 101. PURPOSE. 4
The purpose of this title is to amend the Scholarships 5
for Opportunity and Results Act (Public Law 112–10, 125 6
Stat. 199) in order to improve provisions concerning op-7
portunity scholarships available for low-income students in 8
the District of Columbia. 9
SEC. 102. IMPROVEMENTS TO THE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR OP-10
PORTUNITY AND RESULTS ACT. 11
Section 3013(4) of the Scholarships for Opportunity 12
and Results Act (sec. 38–1853.13(4), D.C. Official Code) 13
is amended, in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 14
by inserting ‘‘, is enrolled, or will be enrolled for the next 15
school year, in a public or private elementary school or 16
secondary school,’’ after ‘‘District of Columbia’’. 17
TITLE II—EDUCATION PORT-18
ABILITY FOR INDIVIDUALS 19
WITH DISABILITIES 20
SEC. 201. PURPOSE. 21
The purpose of this title is to provide options to 22
States to innovate and improve the education of children 23
with disabilities by expanding the choices for students and 24
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parents under the Individuals with Disabilities Education 1
Act (20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq.). 2
SEC. 202. AMENDMENTS TO THE INDIVIDUALS WITH DIS-3
ABILITIES EDUCATION ACT. 4
(a) C
HILDRENENROLLED INPRIVATESCHOOLS BY 5
T
HEIRPARENTS.—Section 612(a)(10)(A) of the Individ-6
uals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 7
1412(a)(10)(A)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-8
lowing: 9
‘‘(viii) P
ARENT OPTION PROGRAM .—If 10
a State has established a program that 11
meets the requirements of section 12
663(c)(11) (whether statewide or in limited 13
areas of the State) and that allows a par-14
ent of a child described in section 15
663(c)(11)(A) to use public funds, or pri-16
vate funds in accordance with section 17
663(c)(11)(B)(ii), to pay some or all of the 18
costs of attendance at a private school— 19
‘‘(I) funds allocated to the State 20
under section 611 may be used by the 21
State to supplement such public or 22
private funds, if the Federal funds are 23
distributed to parents who make a 24
genuine independent choice as to the 25
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appropriate school for their child, ex-1
cept that in no case shall the amount 2
of Federal funds provided under this 3
subclause to a parent of a child with 4
a disability for a year exceed the total 5
amount of tuition, fees, and transpor-6
tation costs for the child for the year; 7
‘‘(II) the authorization of a par-8
ent to exercise this option fulfills the 9
State’s obligation under paragraph (1) 10
with respect to the child during the 11
period in which the child is enrolled in 12
the selected school; and 13
‘‘(III) a selected school accepting 14
such funds shall not be required to 15
carry out any of the requirements of 16
this title with respect to such child.’’. 17
(b) R
ESEARCH ANDINNOVATIONTOIMPROVESERV-18
ICES ANDRESULTS FOR CHILDRENWITHDISABIL-19
ITIES.—Section 663(c) of the Individuals with Disabilities 20
Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1463(c)) is amended— 21
(1) in paragraph (9), by striking ‘‘and’’ after 22
the semicolon; 23
(2) in paragraph (10), by striking the period at 24
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 25
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(3) by adding at the end the following: 1
‘‘(11) supporting the post-award planning and 2
design, and the initial implementation (which may 3
include costs for informing the community, acquiring 4
necessary equipment and supplies, and other initial 5
operational costs), during a period of not more than 6
3 years, of State programs that allow the parent of 7
a child with a disability to make a genuine inde-8
pendent choice of the appropriate public or private 9
school for their child, if the program— 10
‘‘(A) requires that the child be a child who 11
has received an initial evaluation described in 12
section 614(a) and has been identified as a 13
child with a disability, in accordance with part 14
B; 15
‘‘(B)(i) permits the parent to receive from 16
the State funds to be used to pay some or all 17
of the costs of attendance at the selected school 18
(which may include tuition, fees, and transpor-19
tation costs); or 20
‘‘(ii) permits persons to receive a State tax 21
credit for donations to an entity that provides 22
funds to parents of eligible students described 23
in subparagraph (A), to be used by the parents 24
to pay some or all of the costs of attendance at 25
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the selected school (which may include tuition, 1
fees, and transportation costs); 2
‘‘(C) prohibits any school that agrees to 3
participate in the program from discriminating 4
against eligible students on the basis of race, 5
color, national origin, or sex, except that— 6
‘‘(i) the prohibition of sex discrimina-7
tion shall not apply to a participating 8
school that is operated by, supervised by, 9
controlled by, or connected to a religious 10
organization to the extent that the applica-11
tion of such prohibition is inconsistent with 12
the religious tenets or beliefs of the school; 13
and 14
‘‘(ii) notwithstanding this subpara-15
graph or any other provision of law, a par-16
ent may choose, and a school may offer, a 17
single-sex school, class, or activity; 18
‘‘(D) notwithstanding any other provision 19
of law, allows any school participating in the 20
program that is operated by, supervised by, 21
controlled by, or connected to, a religious orga-22
nization to exercise its right in matters of em-23
ployment consistent with title VII of the Civil 24
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Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.), 1
including the exemptions in that title; 2
‘‘(E) allows a school to participate in the 3
program without, consistent with the First 4
Amendment of the Constitution of the United 5
States— 6
‘‘(i) necessitating any change in the 7
participating school’s teaching mission; 8
‘‘(ii) requiring any private partici-9
pating school to remove religious art, 10
icons, scriptures, or other symbols; or 11
‘‘(iii) precluding any private partici-12
pating school from retaining religious 13
terms in its name, selecting its board 14
members on a religious basis, or including 15
religious references in its mission state-16
ments and other chartering or governing 17
documents; and 18
‘‘(F) requires a participating school se-19
lected for a child with a disability to be— 20
‘‘(i) accredited, licensed, or otherwise 21
operating in accordance with State law; 22
and 23
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‘‘(ii) academically accountable to the 1
parent for meeting the educational needs 2
of the student.’’. 3
TITLE III—MILITARY 4
SCHOLARSHIPS 5
SEC. 301. PURPOSE. 6
The purpose of this title is to ensure high-quality 7
education for children of military personnel who live on 8
military installations and thus have less freedom to exer-9
cise school choice for their children, in order to improve 10
the ability of the Armed Forces to retain such military 11
personnel. 12
SEC. 302. MILITARY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM. 13
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 14
(1) ESEA
DEFINITIONS.—The terms ‘‘child’’, 15
‘‘elementary school’’, ‘‘secondary school’’, and ‘‘local 16
educational agency’’ have the meanings given the 17
terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and Sec-18
ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 19
(2) E
LIGIBLE MILITARY STUDENT .—The term 20
‘‘eligible military student’’ means a child who— 21
(A) is a military dependent student; 22
(B) lives on a military installation selected 23
to participate in the program under subsection 24
(b)(2); and 25
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(C) chooses to attend a participating 1
school, rather than a school otherwise assigned 2
to the child. 3
(3) M
ILITARY DEPENDENT STUDENTS .—The 4
term ‘‘military dependent students’’ has the meaning 5
given the term in section 572(e) of the National De-6
fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (20 7
U.S.C. 7703b(e)). 8
(4) P
ARTICIPATING SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘par-9
ticipating school’’ means a public or private elemen-10
tary school or secondary school that— 11
(A) accepts scholarship funds provided 12
under this section on behalf of an eligible mili-13
tary student for the costs of tuition, fees, or 14
transportation of the eligible military student; 15
and 16
(B) is accredited, licensed, or otherwise op-17
erating in accordance with State law. 18
(5) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 19
the Secretary of Defense. 20
(b) P
ROGRAMAUTHORIZED.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—From amounts made avail-22
able under subsection (g) and beginning for the first 23
full school year following the date of enactment of 24
this Act, the Secretary shall carry out a 5-year pilot 25
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program to award scholarships to enable eligible 1
military students to attend the public or private ele-2
mentary schools or secondary schools selected by the 3
eligible military students’ parents. 4
(2) S
COPE OF PROGRAM.— 5
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall se-6
lect not less than 5 military installations to par-7
ticipate in the pilot program described in para-8
graph (1). In making such selection, the Sec-9
retary shall choose military installations where 10
eligible military students would most benefit 11
from expanded educational options. 12
(B) I
NELIGIBILITY.—A military installa-13
tion that provides, on its premises, education 14
for all elementary school and secondary school 15
grade levels through one or more Department 16
of Defense dependents’ schools shall not be eli-17
gible for participation in the program. 18
(3) A
MOUNT OF SCHOLARSHIPS .— 19
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The annual amount of 20
each scholarship awarded to an eligible military 21
student under this section shall not exceed the 22
lesser of— 23
(i) the cost of tuition, fees, and trans-24
portation associated with attending the 25
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participating school selected by the parents 1
of the student; or 2
(ii)(I) in the case of an eligible mili-3
tary student attending elementary school— 4
(aa) $8,000 for the first full 5
school year following the date of en-6
actment of this Act; or 7
(bb) the amount determined 8
under subparagraph (B) for each 9
school year following such first full 10
school year; or 11
(II) in the case of an eligible military 12
student attending secondary school— 13
(aa) $12,000 for the first full 14
school year following the date of en-15
actment of this Act; or 16
(bb) the amount determined 17
under subparagraph (B) for each 18
school year following such first full 19
school year. 20
(B) A
DJUSTMENT FOR INFLATION .—For 21
each school year after the first full school year 22
following the date of enactment of this Act, the 23
amounts specified in subclauses (I) and (II) of 24
subparagraph (A)(ii) shall be adjusted to reflect 25
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changes for the 12-month period ending the 1
preceding June in the Consumer Price Index 2
for All Urban Consumers published by the Bu-3
reau of Labor Statistics of the Department of 4
Labor. 5
(4) P
AYMENTS TO PARENTS .—The Secretary 6
shall make scholarship payments under this section 7
to the parent of the eligible military student in a 8
manner that ensures such payments will be used for 9
the payment of tuition, fees, and transportation ex-10
penses (if any) in accordance with this section. 11
(c) S
ELECTION OFSCHOLARSHIPSRECIPIENTS.— 12
(1) R
ANDOM SELECTION.—If more eligible mili-13
tary students apply for scholarships under the pro-14
gram under this section than the Secretary can ac-15
commodate, the Secretary shall select the scholar-16
ship recipients through a random selection process 17
from students who submitted applications by the ap-18
plication deadline specified by the Secretary. 19
(2) C
ONTINUED ELIGIBILITY.— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—An individual who is 21
selected to receive a scholarship under the pro-22
gram under this section shall continue to re-23
ceive a scholarship for each year of the program 24
until the individual— 25
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(i) graduates from secondary school or 1
elects to no longer participate in the pro-2
gram; 3
(ii) exceeds the maximum age for 4
which the State in which the student lives 5
provides a free public education; or 6
(iii) is no longer an eligible military 7
student. 8
(B) C
ONTINUED PARTICIPATION FOR MILI -9
TARY TRANSFERS.— 10
(i) T
RANSFER TO PRIVATE NON -MILI-11
TARY HOUSING .—Notwithstanding sub-12
paragraph (A)(iii), an individual receiving 13
a scholarship under this section for a 14
school year who meets the requirements of 15
subparagraphs (A) and (C) of subsection 16
(a)(2) and whose family, during such 17
school year, moves into private non-mili-18
tary housing that is not considered to be 19
part of the military installation, shall con-20
tinue to receive the scholarship for use at 21
the participating school for the remaining 22
portion of the school year. 23
(ii) T
RANSFER TO A DIFFERENT MILI -24
TARY INSTALLATION .—Notwithstanding 25
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subparagraph (A)(iii), an individual receiv-1
ing a scholarship under this section for a 2
school year whose family is transferred to 3
a different military installation shall no 4
longer be eligible to receive such scholar-5
ship beginning on the date of the transfer. 6
Such individual may apply to participate in 7
any program offered under this section for 8
the new military installation for a subse-9
quent school year, if such individual quali-10
fies as an eligible military student for such 11
school year. 12
(d) N
ONDISCRIMINATION AND OTHERPROVISIONS.— 13
(1) N
ONDISCRIMINATION.—A participating 14
school shall not discriminate against program par-15
ticipants or applicants on the basis of race, color, 16
national origin, or sex. 17
(2) A
PPLICABILITY AND SINGLE -SEX SCHOOLS, 18
CLASSES, OR ACTIVITIES.— 19
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 20
other provision of law, the prohibition of sex 21
discrimination in paragraph (1) shall not apply 22
to a participating school that is operated by, su-23
pervised by, controlled by, or connected to a re-24
ligious organization to the extent that the appli-25
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cation of paragraph (1) is inconsistent with the 1
religious tenets or beliefs of the school. 2
(B) S
INGLE-SEX SCHOOLS, CLASSES, OR 3
ACTIVITIES.—Notwithstanding paragraph (1) or 4
any other provision of law, a parent may 5
choose, and a participating school may offer, a 6
single-sex school, class, or activity. 7
(3) C
HILDREN WITH DISABILITIES .—Nothing 8
in this section may be construed to alter or modify 9
the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 10
U.S.C. 1400 et seq.). 11
(4) R
ULES OF CONDUCT AND OTHER SCHOOL 12
POLICIES.—A participating school, including the 13
schools described in subsection (e), may require eli-14
gible students to abide by any rules of conduct and 15
other requirements applicable to all other students 16
at the school. 17
(e) R
ELIGIOUSLYAFFILIATEDSCHOOLS.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 19
provision of law, a participating school that is oper-20
ated by, supervised by, controlled by, or connected 21
to, a religious organization may exercise its right in 22
matters of employment consistent with title VII of 23
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et 24
seq.), including the exemptions in that title. 25
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(2) MAINTENANCE OF PURPOSE .—Notwith-1
standing any other provision of law, funds made 2
available under this title to eligible military students 3
that are received by a participating school, as a re-4
sult of their parents’ choice, shall not, consistent 5
with the First Amendment of the Constitution of the 6
United States— 7
(A) necessitate any change in the partici-8
pating school’s teaching mission; 9
(B) require any private participating 10
school to remove religious art, icons, scriptures, 11
or other symbols; or 12
(C) preclude any private participating 13
school from retaining religious terms in its 14
name, selecting its board members on a reli-15
gious basis, or including religious references in 16
its mission statements and other chartering or 17
governing documents. 18
(f) R
EPORTS.— 19
(1) A
NNUAL REPORTS.—Not later than July 30 20
of the year following the year of the date of enact-21
ment of this Act, and each subsequent year through 22
the year in which the final report is submitted under 23
paragraph (2), the Secretary shall prepare and sub-24
mit to Congress an interim report on the scholar-25
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ships awarded under the pilot program under this 1
section that includes the content described in para-2
graph (3) for the applicable school year of the re-3
port. 4
(2) F
INAL REPORT.—Not later than 90 days 5
after the end of the pilot program under this section, 6
the Secretary shall prepare and submit to Congress 7
a report on the scholarships awarded under the pro-8
gram that includes the content described in para-9
graph (3) for each school year of the program. 10
(3) C
ONTENT.—Each annual report under 11
paragraph (1) and the final report under paragraph 12
(2) shall contain— 13
(A) the number of applicants for scholar-14
ships under this section; 15
(B) the number, and the average dollar 16
amount, of scholarships awarded; 17
(C) the number of participating schools; 18
(D) the number of elementary school stu-19
dents receiving scholarships under this section 20
and the number of secondary school students 21
receiving such scholarships; and 22
(E) the results of a survey, conducted by 23
the Secretary, regarding parental satisfaction 24
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with the scholarship program under this sec-1
tion. 2
(g) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 3
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 4
$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029. 5
(h) O
FFSET INDEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONSALA-6
RIES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for 7
fiscal year 2025 and each of the 4 succeeding fiscal years, 8
the Secretary of Education shall return to the Treasury 9
$10,000,000 of the amounts made available to the Sec-10
retary for salaries and expenses of the Department of 11
Education for such year. 12
Æ
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