Expanding Educational Opportunity Through School Choice
| Published date | 04 January 2021 |
| Citation | 86 FR 219 |
| Record Number | 2020-29235 |
| Section | Presidential Documents |
| Court | Executive Office Of The President |
Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 1 (Monday, January 4, 2021)
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 1 (Monday, January 4, 2021)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 219-221]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-29235] Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 1 / Monday, January 4, 2021 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 219]]
Executive Order 13969 of December 28, 2020
Expanding Educational Opportunity Through School
Choice
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, and in order to ensure the education, health,
safety, and well-being of America's children, our most
essential resource upon which the future of our great
Nation depends, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose. As part of their efforts to address
the public health challenges and uncertainties posed by
the COVID-19 pandemic, State and local officials shut
down in-person learning for the vast majority of our
more than 56 million elementary and secondary school
students beginning in late February and early March of
this year. Since then, however, our Nation has
identified effective measures to facilitate the safe
resumption of in-person learning, and the Federal
Government has provided more than $13 billion to States
and school districts to implement those measures.
The prolonged deprivation of in-person learning
opportunities has produced undeniably dire consequences
for the children of this country. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention has stated that school
attendance is negatively correlated with a child's risk
of depression and various types of abuse. States have
seen substantial declines in reports of child
maltreatment while school buildings have been closed,
indicating that allegations are going unreported. These
reductions are driven in part by social isolation from
the schoolteachers and support staff with whom students
typically interact and who have an obligation to report
suspected child maltreatment. The American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP) has also found that school closures
have a ``substantial impact on food security and
physical activity for children and families.''
Additionally, a recent survey of educators found
student absences from school, including virtual
learning, have nearly doubled during the pandemic, and
as AAP has noted, chronic absenteeism is associated
with alcohol and drug use, teenage pregnancy, juvenile
delinquency, and suicide attempts.
School closures are especially difficult for families
with children with special needs. Schools provide not
only academic supports for students with special needs,
but they also provide much-needed in-person therapies
and services, including physical and occupational
therapies. A recent survey found that 80 percent of
children with special needs are not receiving the
services and supports to which they are entitled and
that approximately 40 percent of children with special
needs are receiving no services or supports. Moreover,
the survey found that virtual learning may not be fully
accessible to these students, as children with special
needs are twice as likely to receive little or no
remote learning and to be dissatisfied with the remote
learning received.
Low-income and minority children are also
disproportionately affected by school closures. In low-
income zip codes, students' math progress decreased by
nearly 50 percent while school buildings were closed in
the spring, and the math progress of students in
middle-income zip codes fell by almost a third during
the same period. A recent analysis projected that, if
in-person classes do not fully resume until January
2021, Hispanic, Black, and low-income students will
lose 9.2, 10.3, and 12.4 months of learning,
respectively.
[[Page 220]]
A failure to quickly resume in-person learning options
is likely to have long-term economic effects on
children and their families. According to a recent
study, if in-person classes do not fully resume until
January 2021, the average student could lose $61,000 to
$82,000 in lifetime earnings, or the equivalent of a
year of full-time work. Additionally, in 2019, more
than 90 percent of children under the age of 18 had at
least one employed parent. Many employed parents do not
have the option of engaging in remote work that allows
them the flexibility to supervise their children during
the day when in-person learning options are not
available. Without the resumption of in-person learning
opportunities, the economic and social harms resulting
from such lost employment opportunities will continue
to compound.
To help mitigate these harms, the Department of Health
and Human Services recently announced additional relief
for low-income parents by allowing States to use funds
available through the Child Care and Development Fund
to subsidize child care services and services that
supplement academic instruction for children under the
age of 13 who are participating in virtual instruction.
Nevertheless, virtual instruction is an inadequate
substitute for in-person learning opportunities and
this aid is insufficient to meet current needs.
While some families, especially those with financial
means, have been able to mitigate school disruptions
through in-person options such as homeschooling,
private schools, charter schools, and innovative models
like microschools and ``learning pods,'' for many
families, their children's residentially assigned
public school remains their only financially available
option. Unfortunately, more than 50 percent of all
public-school students in the United States began
school remotely this fall. These children, including
those with special needs, are being underserved due to
the public education system's failure to provide in-
person learning options.
Students whose families pay tuition for their education
are also facing significant hardships due to the
economic disruptions caused by the pandemic. Scores of
private schools, including approximately 100 Catholic
schools, have permanently closed since the onset of
COVID-19, and more than half of our Nation's private
schools are believed to have lost enrollment due to the
pandemic. These closures and declining enrollments are
harmful to students, bad for communities, and likely to
impose increased strain on public school systems.
I am committed to ensuring that all children of our
great Nation have access to the educational resources
they need to obtain a high-quality education and to
improving students' safety and well-being, including by
empowering families with emergency learning
scholarships.
Sec. 2. Providing Emergency Learning Scholarships for
Students. The Secretary of Health and Human Services
shall take steps, consistent with law, to allow funds
available through the Community Services Block Grant
program to be used by grantees and eligible entities to
provide emergency learning scholarships to
disadvantaged families for use by any child without
access to in-person learning. These scholarships may be
used for:
(i) tuition and fees for a private or parochial school;
(ii) homeschool, microschool, or learning-pod costs;
(iii) special education and related services, including therapies; or
(iv) tutoring or remedial education.
Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
[[Page 221]]
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 28, 2020.
[FR Doc. 2020-29235
Filed 12-31-20; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F1-P
