H.R. 5181: SOAR Act Improvements Act

SOAR Act Improvements Act

This bill reauthorizes through FY2032 and modifies the District of Columbia (DC) Opportunity Scholarship Program, which is a federal program that funds private school scholarships for low-income students in DC.

Under the program, the Department of Education (ED) issues grants to nonprofit organizations to pay for income-qualified DC residents to attend DC private elementary or secondary schools of their choice. The bill expands the program to include pre-kindergarten students and authorizes ED to renew grants for up to five years without a new application. 

Current law requires nonprofits to ensure that if more scholarship students apply to a particular school than the school can accommodate, students will be randomly selected for admission. The bill specifies that this only applies if random selection would not interfere with the school's regular admission standards or procedures.

Current law also requires schools to be properly accredited in order to participate in the program (i.e., enroll scholarship students). The bill authorizes a nonparticipating school to enroll scholarship students provided it obtains accreditation within five years of first pursuing participation in the program.

The bill also makes other administrative changes to the program, including (1) authorizing the majority of voting members of a nonprofit’s board to live in the DC metropolitan area, rather than in DC itself; (2) removing a cap on the use of funds for tutoring students; and (3) directing ED and the mayor of DC to periodically evaluate and publicly report on the program.