S. 2206 (es) To amend the Head Start Act, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act ...

	Web GovRecords.org

        S.2206

                       One Hundred Fifth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-
                                  eight


                                 An Act


 
 To amend the Head Start Act, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act 
 of 1981, and the Community Services Block Grant Act to reauthorize and 
  make improvements to those Acts, to establish demonstration projects 
that provide an opportunity for persons with limited means to accumulate 
                     assets, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Community Opportunities, 
Accountability, and Training and Educational Services Act of 1998'' or 
the ``Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998''.

SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    The table of contents for this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.

                      TITLE I--HEAD START PROGRAMS

Sec. 101. Short title.
Sec. 102. Statement of purpose.
Sec. 103. Definitions.
Sec. 104. Financial assistance for Head Start programs.
Sec. 105. Authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 106. Allotment of funds.
Sec. 107. Designation of Head Start agencies.
Sec. 108. Quality standards.
Sec. 109. Powers and functions of Head Start agencies.
Sec. 110. Head Start transition.
Sec. 111. Submission of plans to Governors.
Sec. 112. Participation in Head Start programs.
Sec. 113. Early Head Start programs for families with infants and 
          toddlers.
Sec. 114. Technical assistance and training.
Sec. 115. Professional requirements.
Sec. 116. Research and evaluation.
Sec. 117. Reports.
Sec. 118. Repeal of consultation requirement.
Sec. 119. Repeal of Head Start Transition Project Act.

            TITLE II--COMMUNITY SERVICES BLOCK GRANT PROGRAM

Sec. 201. Reauthorization.
Sec. 202. Conforming amendments.

              TITLE III--LOW-INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE

Sec. 301. Short title.
Sec. 302. Authorization.
Sec. 303. Definitions.
Sec. 304. Natural disasters and other emergencies.
Sec. 305. State allotments.
Sec. 306. Administration.
Sec. 307. Payments to States.
Sec. 308. Residential Energy Assistance Challenge option.
Sec. 309. Technical assistance, training, and compliance reviews.

                    TITLE IV--ASSETS FOR INDEPENDENCE

Sec. 401. Short title.
Sec. 402. Findings.
Sec. 403. Purposes.
Sec. 404. Definitions.
Sec. 405. Applications.
Sec. 406. Demonstration authority; annual grants.
Sec. 407. Reserve Fund.
Sec. 408. Eligibility for participation.
Sec. 409. Selection of individuals to participate.
Sec. 410. Deposits by qualified entities.
Sec. 411. Local control over demonstration projects.
Sec. 412. Annual progress reports.
Sec. 413. Sanctions.
Sec. 414. Evaluations.
Sec. 415. Treatment of funds.
Sec. 416. Authorization of appropriations.

                      TITLE I--HEAD START PROGRAMS

SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE.

    This title may be cited as the ``Head Start Amendments of 1998''.

SEC. 102. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.

    Section 636 of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831) is amended to 
read as follows:

``SEC. 636. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.

    ``It is the purpose of this subchapter to promote school readiness 
by enhancing the social and cognitive development of low-income 
children through the provision, to low-income children and their 
families, of health, educational, nutritional, social, and other 
services that are determined, based on family needs assessments, to be 
necessary.''.

SEC. 103. DEFINITIONS.

    Section 637 of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9832) is amended--
        (1) by redesignating paragraphs (1) and (2) as paragraphs (16) 
    and (17) and inserting the paragraphs at the end of the section;
        (2) by inserting before paragraph (3) the following:
        ``(1) The term `child with a disability' means--
            ``(A) a child with a disability, as defined in section 
        602(3) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; and
            ``(B) an infant or toddler with a disability, as defined in 
        section 632(5) of such Act.
        ``(2) The term `delegate agency' means a public, private 
    nonprofit, or for-profit organization or agency to which a grantee 
    has delegated all or part of the responsibility of the grantee for 
    operating a Head Start program.'';
        (3) by striking paragraph (4);
        (4) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4);
        (5) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following:
        ``(3) The term `family literacy services' means services that 
    are of sufficient intensity in terms of hours, and of sufficient 
    duration, to make sustainable changes in a family, and that 
    integrate all of the following activities:
            ``(A) Interactive literacy activities between parents and 
        their children.
            ``(B) Training for parents regarding how to be the primary 
        teacher for their children and full partners in the education 
        of their children.
            ``(C) Parent literacy training that leads to economic self-
        sufficiency.
            ``(D) An age-appropriate education to prepare children for 
        success in school and life experiences.'';
        (6) in paragraph (6), by adding at the end the following: 
    ``Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to require an agency 
    to provide services to a child who has not reached the age of 
    compulsory school attendance for more than the number of hours per 
    day permitted by State law (including regulation) for the provision 
    of services to such a child.'';
        (7) by striking paragraph (12) and inserting the following:
        ``(12) The term `migrant and seasonal Head Start program' 
    means--
            ``(A) with respect to services for migrant farmworkers, a 
        Head Start program that serves families who are engaged in 
        agricultural labor and who have changed their residence from 
        one geographic location to another in the preceding 2-year 
        period; and
            ``(B) with respect to services for seasonal farmworkers, a 
        Head Start program that serves families who are engaged 
        primarily in seasonal agricultural labor and who have not 
        changed their residence to another geographic location in the 
        preceding 2-year period.'';
        (8) by inserting after paragraph (14) the following:
        ``(15) The term `scientifically based reading research'--
            ``(A) means the application of rigorous, systematic, and 
        objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge relevant to 
        reading development, reading instruction, and reading 
        difficulties; and
            ``(B) shall include research that--
                ``(i) employs systematic, empirical methods that draw 
            on observation or experiment;
                ``(ii) involves rigorous data analyses that are 
            adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the 
            general conclusions drawn;
                ``(iii) relies on measurements or observational methods 
            that provide valid data across evaluators and observers and 
            across multiple measurements and observations; and
                ``(iv) has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or 
            approved by a panel of independent experts through a 
            comparably rigorous, objective, and scientific review.''; 
            and
        (9) in paragraph (17) (as redesignated in paragraph (1))--
            (A) by striking ``Term'' and inserting ``term'';
            (B) by striking ``Virgin Islands,'' and inserting ``Virgin 
        Islands of the United States, and the Commonwealth of the 
        Northern Mariana Islands, but for fiscal years ending before 
        October 1, 2001 (and fiscal year 2002, if the legislation 
        described in section 640(a)(2)(B)(iii) has not been enacted 
        before September 30, 2001), also means''; and
            (C) by striking ``Palau, and the Commonwealth of the 
        Northern Mariana Islands.'' and inserting ``and the Republic of 
        Palau.''.

SEC. 104. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR HEAD START PROGRAMS.

    Section 638(1) of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9833(1)) is 
amended--
        (1) by striking ``aid the'' and inserting ``enable the''; and
        (2) by striking the semicolon and inserting ``and attain school 
    readiness;''.

SEC. 105. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    Section 639 of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9834) is amended--
        (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``1995 through 1998'' and 
    inserting ``1999 through 2003''; and
        (2) in subsection (b), by striking paragraphs (1) and (2) and 
    inserting the following:
        ``(1) for each of fiscal years 1999 through 2003 to carry out 
    activities authorized under section 642A, not more than $35,000,000 
    but not less than the amount that was made available for such 
    activities for fiscal year 1998;
        ``(2) not more than $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 1999 
    through 2003 to carry out impact studies under section 649(g); and
        ``(3) not more than $12,000,000 for fiscal year 1999, and such 
    sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 2000 through 
    2003, to carry out other research, demonstration, and evaluation 
    activities, including longitudinal studies, under section 649.''.

SEC. 106. ALLOTMENT OF FUNDS.

    (a) Allotments.--Section 640(a) of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 
9835(a)) is amended--
        (1) in paragraph (2)--
            (A) in subparagraph (A)--
                (i) by striking ``and migrant'' the first place it 
            appears and all that follows through ``handicapped 
            children'', and inserting ``Head Start programs, services 
            for children with disabilities, and migrant and seasonal 
            Head Start programs'';
                (ii) by striking ``and migrant'' each other place it 
            appears and inserting ``Head Start programs and by migrant 
            and seasonal''; and
                (iii) by striking ``1994'' and inserting ``1998'';
            (B) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``(B) payments'' and 
        all that follows through ``Virgin Islands according'' and 
        inserting the following:
        ``(B) payments, subject to paragraph (7)--
            ``(i) to Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the 
        Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands of the United 
        States;
            ``(ii) for fiscal years ending before October 1, 2001, to 
        the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the 
        Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau; and
            ``(iii) if legislation approving renegotiated Compacts of 
        Free Association for the jurisdictions described in clause (ii) 
        has not been enacted before September 30, 2001, for fiscal year 
        2002 to those jurisdictions;
    according'';
            (C) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``; and'' and 
        inserting ``, of which not less than $3,000,000 of the amount 
        appropriated for such fiscal year shall be made available to 
        carry out activities described in section 648(c)(4);'';
            (D) in subparagraph (D), by striking ``related to the 
        development and implementation of quality improvement plans 
        under section 641A(d)(2).'' and inserting ``carried out under 
        paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of section 641A(d) related to 
        correcting deficiencies and conducting proceedings to terminate 
        the designation of Head Start agencies; and'';
            (E) by inserting after subparagraph (D) the following:
        ``(E) payments for research, demonstration, and evaluation 
    activities under section 649.''; and
            (F) by adding at the end the following: ``No Freely 
        Associated State may receive financial assistance under this 
        subchapter after fiscal year 2002.'';
        (2) in paragraph (3)--
            (A) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking ``equal'' and all 
        that follows through ``amount;'' and inserting ``equal to the 
        sum of--
        ``(I) 60 percent of such excess amount for fiscal year 1999, 50 
    percent of such excess amount for fiscal year 2000, 47.5 percent of 
    such excess amount for fiscal year 2001, 35 percent of such excess 
    amount for fiscal year 2002, and 25 percent of such excess amount 
    for fiscal year 2003;'';
            (B) in subparagraph (B)--
                (i) in clause (ii)--

                    (I) by striking ``adequate qualified staff'' and 
                inserting ``adequate numbers of qualified staff''; and
                    (II) by inserting ``and children with 
                disabilities'' before ``, when'';

                (ii) in clause (iv), by inserting before the period the 
            following: ``, and to encourage the staff to continually 
            improve their skills and expertise by informing the staff 
            of the availability of Federal and State incentive and loan 
            forgiveness programs for professional development'';
                (iii) in clause (v), by inserting ``and collaboration 
            efforts for such programs'' before the period;
                (iv) in clause (vi), by striking the period and 
            inserting ``, and are accessible to children with 

Other Popular 105th Congressional Bills Documents:

Other Documents:

105th Congressional Bills Records and Documents