Federal

Educational Opportunity and Success Act of 2023

Source: Congress.gov · 3,953 words in original text

What This Bill Does

This bill modifies the Federal TRIO programs, which provide educational support to low-income students and first-generation college students. The bill increases minimum grant amounts, changes how applications are reviewed and scored, and updates eligibility documentation and outcome measures for various TRIO programs.

Who It Affects

Students who are low-income or first-generation college students. Organizations that run TRIO programs. The Department of Education. College and university administrators. High school students and their families.

Key Provisions

• Minimum grant amounts increase from $200,000 to $220,000 and from $170,000 to $190,000 (Sec. 2(a)) • The Secretary of Education must issue guidance at least 90 days before grant competitions describing applicants' rights and the application and evaluation process (Sec. 2(b)(8)(A)) • Grant applications cannot be rejected for voluntary page limit and formatting requirements, and only suggested formatting standards may be used without penalty (Sec. 2(b)(8)(B)(i)) • Applicants must receive notice and at least 14 days to correct typographical or rounding errors in budgets before their applications can be rejected (Sec. 2(b)(8)(B)(ii)) • If a peer reviewer makes an error, a secondary review panel automatically reviews the application and the new score replaces the original score (Sec. 2(b)(8)(C)(iii)) • The Secretary must host at least one virtual training using telecommunications technology to provide technical assistance to interested applicants (Sec. 2(c)) • Students can now document low-income status by showing they are eligible for a Federal Pell Grant or by attending a school with a certain percentage of identified students (Sec. 2(d)) • Upward Bound stipend amounts increase from $60 to $90 per month, from $300 to $450 for summer, and from $40 to $60 for academic year. Veterans in projects specifically designed for them may receive up to $100 per month (Sec. 3) • Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program activities can now include "internships or faculty-led research experiences" instead of just "summer internships" (Sec. 4)

What Changes

If this law passes, organizations will receive higher minimum grant amounts for TRIO programs. The application process becomes more flexible and applicant-friendly, with page limits being voluntary only and applicants getting chances to fix budget errors. New ways to document low-income status become available. Upward Bound participants receive higher monthly stipends. Postbaccalaureate programs can offer more types of research experiences beyond summer internships.

Important Definitions

The bill defines "low-income individual" to mean someone from a family whose adjusted gross income (total income before taxes) did not exceed 150 percent of the poverty level, or someone determined eligible for a Federal Pell Grant (federal financial aid for low-income students), or certain students attending schools with high percentages of identified students (students who qualify for free or reduced-price school meals).

Effective Date

Not specified in bill text

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 322 To modify the Federal TRIO programs. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 12, 2023 Mr. DAVIDSON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce A BILL To modify the Federal TRIO 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 ‘‘Educational Oppor- 4 tunity and Success Act of 2023’’. 5 SEC. 2. PROGRAM AUTHORITY AND AUTHORIZATION OF AP- 6 PROPRIATIONS FOR FEDERAL TRIO PRO- 7 GRAMS. 8 (a) MINIMUM GRANTS.—Section 402A(b)(3) of the 9 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a– 10 11(b)(3)) is amended— 11 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 322 IH (1) by striking ‘‘$200,000’’ and inserting 1 ‘‘$220,000’’; and 2 (2) by striking ‘‘$170,000’’ and inserting 3 ‘‘$190,000’’. 4 (b) PROCEDURES FOR AWARDING GRANTS AND CON- 5 TRACTS.—Section 402A(c) of the Higher Education Act 6 of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a–11(c)) is amended— 7 (1) in paragraph (2)(A)— 8 (A) in the subparagraph heading, by strik- 9 ing ‘‘PRIOR EXPERIENCE’’ and inserting 10 ‘‘PRIOR SUCCESS’’; 11 (B) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘prior 12 experience of high quality service delivery’’ and 13 inserting ‘‘prior success in achieving high qual- 14 ity service delivery’’; and 15 (C) in the second sentence— 16 (i) by striking ‘‘prior experience shall 17 not’’ and inserting ‘‘prior success in 18 achieving high quality service delivery shall 19 not’’; and 20 (ii) by striking ‘‘shall not be given 21 prior experience consideration’’ and insert- 22 ing ‘‘shall not be given such consider- 23 ation’’; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 322 IH (2) by striking paragraph (8) and inserting the 1 following: 2 ‘‘(8) REVIEW AND NOTIFICATION BY THE SEC- 3 RETARY.— 4 ‘‘(A) GUIDANCE.—Not less than 90 days 5 before the commencement of each competition 6 for a grant under this chapter, the Secretary 7 shall issue nonregulatory guidance regarding 8 the rights and responsibilities of applicants with 9 respect to the application and evaluation proc- 10 ess for programs and projects assisted under 11 this chapter, including applicant access to peer 12 review comments. The guidance shall describe 13 the procedures for the submission, processing, 14 and scoring of applications for grants under 15 this chapter, including the information de- 16 scribed in subparagraph (B). 17 ‘‘(B) TECHNICAL COMPONENTS OF APPLI- 18 CATIONS.— 19 ‘‘(i) ESTABLISHMENT AND TREAT- 20 MENT OF NONSUBSTANTIVE TECHNICAL 21 COMPONENTS OF APPLICATIONS.—With re- 22 spect to any competition for a grant under 23 this chapter, the Secretary may only estab- 24 lish voluntary page limit and formatting 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 322 IH requirements for grant applications and 1 may not reject grant applications that do 2 not meet those voluntary requirements. 3 The Secretary may suggest page limits and 4 formatting standards (including with re- 5 spect to font size, font style, font type, line 6 spacing, paragraph justification, and page 7 margins), but may not use noncompliance 8 with these suggested requirements as a 9 basis to reject or penalize grant applica- 10 tions. 11 ‘‘(ii) IDENTIFICATION AND TREAT- 12 MENT OF TECHNICAL BUDGET ERRORS IN 13 APPLICATIONS.— 14 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—With respect 15 to any competition for a grant under 16 this chapter, the Secretary may not 17 reject or penalize grant applications 18 on the basis of a typographical or 19 rounding error in a proposed budget 20 until the Secretary has given the ap- 21 plicant an opportunity for correction 22 in accordance with subclause (II). 23 ‘‘(II) NOTICE AND OPPORTUNITY 24 FOR CORRECTION.—The Secretary 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:59 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 322 IH shall provide notice and identification 1 of an error described in subclause (I) 2 by email and phone to the applicant 3 before awarding grants for each com- 4 petition. During a period of not fewer 5 than 14 days, the Secretary shall 6 allow the applicant to submit a re- 7 vised application that corrects the 8 identified error. 9 ‘‘(III) TREATMENT OF REVISED 10 APPLICATIONS.—The Secretary shall 11 treat the revised application in the 12 same manner as a timely submitted 13 application. 14 ‘‘(IV) FAILURE TO CORRECT.—If 15 an applicant has received a notice and 16 opportunity for correction of a typo- 17 graphical or rounding error in a pro- 18 posed budget in accordance with sub- 19 clause (II) and the applicant fails to 20 correct the error and submit a revised 21 application before the deadline de- 22 scribed in that subclause, the Sec- 23 retary may reject or penalize that 24 grant application. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 322 IH ‘‘(C) REVIEW.— 1 ‘‘(i) REQUEST FOR REVIEW.—With 2 respect to any competition for a grant 3 under this chapter, an applicant may re- 4 quest a review if the applicant— 5 ‘‘(I) has evidence that a specific 6 technical, administrative, or scoring 7 error was made by the Department, 8 an agent of the Department, or a peer 9 reviewer, with respect to the scoring 10 or processing of a submitted applica- 11 tion; and 12 ‘‘(II) has otherwise met all of the 13 requirements for submission of the 14 application. 15 ‘‘(ii) ERROR MADE BY THE DEPART- 16 MENT.—In the case of evidence of error by 17 the Department or an agent of the Depart- 18 ment, other than a peer reviewer, the Sec- 19 retary shall review any evidence submitted 20 by the applicant and provide a timely re- 21 sponse to the applicant. If the Secretary 22 determines that an error was made by the 23 Department or an agent of the Depart- 24 ment, other than a peer reviewer, the Sec- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 322 IH retary shall correct the error and accord- 1 ingly adjust the applicant score. 2 ‘‘(iii) ERROR MADE BY A PEER RE- 3 VIEWER.— 4 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—In the case 5 of evidence of error by a peer re- 6 viewer, a secondary review panel shall 7 automatically and promptly evaluate 8 the application for consideration in 9 the applicable grant competition upon 10 receipt of a request by any such appli- 11 cant. Examples of errors warranting 12 secondary review may include— 13 ‘‘(aa) points withheld for 14 criteria not required in statute, 15 regulation, or guidance governing 16 a program under this chapter or 17 the application for a grant for 18 such program; or 19 ‘‘(bb) information pertaining 20 to selection criteria that was in- 21 correctly determined to be miss- 22 ing from an application. 23 ‘‘(II) TIMELY REVIEW AND RE- 24 PLACEMENT SCORE.—The secondary 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 322 IH review panel described in subclause (I) 1 shall conduct a secondary review in a 2 timely fashion, and the score resulting 3 from the secondary review shall re- 4 place the score from the initial peer 5 review. 6 ‘‘(III) COMPOSITION OF SEC- 7 ONDARY REVIEW PANEL.—The sec- 8 ondary review panel shall be composed 9 of reviewers each of whom— 10 ‘‘(aa) did not review the ap- 11 plication in the original peer re- 12 view; 13 ‘‘(bb) is a member of the co- 14 hort of peer reviewers for the 15 grant program that is the subject 16 of such secondary review; and 17 ‘‘(cc) to the extent prac- 18 ticable, has conducted peer re- 19 views in not less than 2 previous 20 competitions for the grant pro- 21 gram that is the subject of such 22 secondary review. 23 ‘‘(IV) FINAL SCORE.—The final 24 peer review score of an application 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 322 IH subject to a secondary review under 1 this clause shall promptly be adjusted 2 appropriately using the score awarded 3 by the secondary review panel, so as 4 not to interfere with the timely award- 5 ing of grants for the applicable grant 6 competition. 7 ‘‘(iv) FINALITY.— 8 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—A determina- 9 tion by the Secretary under clause (ii) 10 shall not be reviewable by any officer 11 or employee of the Department other 12 than the Secretary. 13 ‘‘(II) SCORING.—The score 14 awarded by a secondary review panel 15 under clause (iii) shall not be review- 16 able by any officer or employee of the 17 Department other than the Secretary. 18 ‘‘(v) FUNDING OF APPLICATIONS 19 WITH CERTAIN ADJUSTED SCORES.—Appli- 20 cations with scores that are adjusted up- 21 ward under clause (ii) or (iii) that equal or 22 exceed the minimum cut-off score for the 23 applicable grant competition shall be fund- 24 ed by the Secretary using general or ad- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 322 IH ministrative funds available to the Sec- 1 retary other than those funds appropriated 2 or allocated for the programs authorized 3 by this chapter.’’. 4 (c) OUTREACH.—Section 402A(d)(3) of the Higher 5 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a–11(d)(3)) is 6 amended by adding at the end the following: ‘‘The Sec- 7 retary shall also host at least one virtual, interactive train- 8 ing using telecommunications technology to ensure that 9 interested applicants have access to technical assistance.’’. 10 (d) DOCUMENTATION OF STATUS AS A LOW-INCOME 11 INDIVIDUAL.—Section 402A(e) of the Higher Education 12 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a–11(e)) is amended— 13 (1) in paragraph (1)— 14 (A) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘or’’ 15 after the semicolon; 16 (B) in subparagraph (D), by striking the 17 period at the end and inserting a semicolon; 18 and 19 (C) by adding at the end the following: 20 ‘‘(E) documentation that the student has been 21 determined to be eligible for a Federal Pell Grant 22 under section 401; or 23 ‘‘(F) for grants authorized under section 402B 24 and 402F of this chapter, documentation that a stu- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 322 IH dent is attending a school that had a percentage of 1 enrolled students who are identified students (as de- 2 fined in section 11(a)(1)(F)(i) of the Richard B. 3 Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 4 1759a(a)(1)(F)(i))) that meets or exceeds the 5 threshold described in section 11(a)(1)(F)(viii) of 6 that Act during the school year prior to the first 7 year of the period for which such grant is award- 8 ed.’’; and 9 (2) in paragraph (2)— 10 (A) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘or’’ 11 after the semicolon; 12 (B) in subparagraph (D), by striking the 13 period at the end and inserting a semicolon; 14 and 15 (C) by adding at the end the following: 16 ‘‘(E) documentation that the student has been 17 determined to be eligible for a Federal Pell Grant 18 under section 401; or 19 ‘‘(F) for grants authorized under section 402B 20 and 402F of this chapter, documentation that a stu- 21 dent is attending a school that had a percentage of 22 enrolled students who are identified students (as de- 23 fined in section 11(a)(1)(F)(i) of the Richard B. 24 Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 322 IH 1759a(a)(1)(F)(i))) that meets or exceeds the 1 threshold described in section 11(a)(1)(F)(viii) of 2 that Act during the school year prior to the first 3 year of the period for which such grant is award- 4 ed.’’. 5 (e) OUTCOME CRITERIA.—Section 402A(f) of the 6 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a–11(g)) 7 is amended— 8 (1) in paragraph (1)— 9 (A) in the paragraph heading, by striking 10 ‘‘PRIOR EXPERIENCE’’ and inserting ‘‘PRIOR 11 SUCCESS’’; 12 (B) by striking ‘‘January 1, 2009’’ and in- 13 serting ‘‘the date of enactment of the Edu- 14 cational Opportunity and Success Act of 2023’’; 15 and 16 (C) by striking ‘‘prior experience of’’ and 17 inserting ‘‘prior success in achieving’’; and 18 (2) in paragraph (3)— 19 (A) in subparagraph (A)— 20 (i) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘that will 21 make such students eligible for programs 22 such as the Academic Competitiveness 23 Grants Program’’ and inserting ‘‘that in- 24 cludes at least 4 years of mathematics, 3 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 13 •HR 322 IH years of science, and 2 years of a foreign 1 language’’; 2 (ii) by redesignating clauses (v) and 3 (vi) as clauses (vi) and (vii), respectively; 4 and 5 (iii) by inserting after clause (iv), the 6 following: 7 ‘‘(v) the completion of financial aid 8 applications, including the Free Applica- 9 tion for Federal Student Aid described in 10 section 483(a) and college admissions ap- 11 plications;’’; 12 (B) in subparagraph (B)— 13 (i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 14 by inserting ‘‘except in the case of pro- 15 grams that are specifically designed for 16 veterans,’’ after ‘‘402C’’; 17 (ii) in clause (v), by striking ‘‘that will 18 make such students eligible for programs 19 such as the Academic Competitiveness 20 Grants Program’’ and inserting ‘‘that in- 21 cludes at least 4 years of mathematics, 3 22 years of science, and 2 years of a foreign 23 language’’; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:18 Jan 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H322.IH H322 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 14 •HR 322 IH (iii) by redesignating clauses (vi) and 1 (vii) as clauses (vii) and (viii), respectively; 2 and 3 (iv) by inserting after clause (v), the 4 following: 5 ‘‘(vi) the completion of financial aid 6 applications, including the Free Applica- 7 tion for Federal Student Aid described in 8 section 483(a) and college admissions ap- 9 plications;’’; 10 (C) by redesignating subpa [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]

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