S. 3710 — SOAR Permanent Authorization Act

This section revises grant provisions under the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act, which authorizes the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program providing federal scholarships to low-income students in the District of Columbia for private school tuition. Specifically, it (1) extends initial five-year grants by authorizing renewal for up to an additional five years (for a total of up to 10 years) without competition when the Secretary of Education determines it appropriate to maintain program continuity; (2) modifies application requirements to permit participating schools' use of certain processes only if they do not interfere with the school's regular admissions standards or procedures; and (3) expands the residency requirement for board members of eligible scholarship-granting organizations from the District of Columbia to the Washington metropolitan region (i.e., the District of Columbia; Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland; and Arlington and Fairfax Counties and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church in Virginia).

This section revises accreditation requirements for schools participating in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program under the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act. (As background, the SOAR Act provides federally funded scholarships to eligible low-income students in the District of Columbia to attend private schools outside the D.C. public school system.) Specifically, it (1) requires participating schools as of enactment to be recognized by a national or regional accrediting body or an accrediting body cited by the Student and Visitor Exchange English Language Program administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; (2) requires non-participating schools to become fully accredited by such a body not later than five years after beginning the process of pursuing program participation; and (3) strikes the subparagraph requiring a completed accreditation report.

This section amends permissible uses of funds under the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (i.e., D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides federal scholarships to low-income D.C. students to attend participating private schools) as follows: (1) extends funds available for students entering pre-kindergarten (from kindergarten); (2) authorizes eligible entities to establish a maximum scholarship amount below the amount otherwise permitted under the act; and (3) authorizes up to $2.2 million (from $2 million) for tutoring services to participating students needing additional academic assistance, with priority to students previously enrolled in the District's lowest-performing schools; removes the requirement for a completed study on program effectiveness; strikes the former subsection on additional authorized uses; and makes conforming amendments to headings and cross-references.

This section revises standardized testing requirements for the evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (i.e., Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act) by (1) broadening the cross-reference in paragraph (1) from section 3009(a)(2)(A)(i) to section 3009(a); (2) amending paragraph (2) to authorize—but not require—the Institute of Education Sciences to administer assessments to participating students for the section 3009(a) evaluation; and (3) amending paragraph (3) to require a nationally norm-referenced standardized test (rather than the specific test described in paragraph (2)). (Thus, the changes provide greater flexibility in testing for the congressionally mandated evaluation of the federally funded scholarship program for low-income D.C. students to attend private schools.)

This section revises evaluation requirements for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), which provides federally funded scholarships to low-income students to attend participating private schools. (As background: OSP, enacted in 2011, supports school choice for approximately 1,000 students annually amid D.C.'s public school challenges.) Specifically, the section (1) requires the Secretary of Education and D.C. Mayor to contract with the Institute of Education Sciences for program evaluations, with public reports due by January 1, 2028, and every seven years thereafter; (2) mandates that evaluations be rigorous and disseminate results on impacts to academic progress and educational attainment; (3) directs the Institute to assess academic progress of participating students; and (4) specifies evaluation topics, including academic progress, parent/student satisfaction, high school graduation and college enrollment/persistence/graduation rates, and school safety—each compared to similar D.C. public and public charter school students, to the extent practicable—while eliminating analysis of parental exercise of school choice and program costs. The amendments apply to evaluations begun after two years from enactment.

This section revises the contents of reports required from the entity administering scholarships under the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (i.e., the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program providing federal vouchers for low-income D.C. students to attend private schools) as follows: (1) in subsection (b)(1), strikes subparagraph (A) and redesignates subparagraphs (B) and (C) as (A) and (B), respectively; and (2) in subsection (c)(1), eliminates the requirement to report aggregate academic achievement of other participating students at a scholarship student's school in the same grade and revises subparagraph (B) to instead require reporting of any incidents of school violence, student suspensions, and student expulsions. The changes apply to reports for school years beginning on or after the date of enactment.

This section increases the authorized appropriation under the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program—which provides vouchers for low-income students in the District of Columbia to attend private schools—to $75 million for FY2027 and each succeeding fiscal year (from $60 million for FY2012 through FY2023). It also increases the separate authorization for the program's evaluation to $75 million (from $60 million).