A comprehensive ESEA reauthorization bill was marked up by the Senate HELP Committee in fall 2011, during the first session fo the 112th Congress.  A bill number has yet to be assigned, and report language remains under development as of December 2011.  The Committee has posted the draft of the bill prior to Committee mark-up, as well as text of the amendments that passed and information on the many hearings held during the 111th Congress. The bill could be voted on on the Senate floor in 2012.  The bill includes changes to the 21st CCLC initiative that are of concern to the afterschool community. Several ‘marker’ bills that address individual pieces of ESEA have been introduced:

• Afterschool for America's Children Act. Sens. Boxer (D-CA), Murkowski (R-AK) and Murray (D-WA) introduced this bill to reauthorize and strengthen the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative in July 2011. The bill is based upon many of the recommendations put forth by the afterschool field and strengthens school-community partnerships to include sharing of data and resources, the ability to better leverage relationships within the community and provides an intentional alignment with the school day. The bill also would promote professional development and training of afterschool program staff; encourage innovative new ways to engage students in learning that looks different from a traditional school day, with an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning; science, technology, engineering, and math; and physical activity and nutrition education; support approaches that focus on individualized learning that provide a variety of ways for students to master core skills and knowledge; provide accountability measures that are connected to college- and career-readiness goals and show student progress over time towards meeting indicators of student success including school attendance, grades and on-time grade level advancement; ensure that funding supports programs that utilize evidence-based, successful practices; increase quality and accountability through parent engagement, better alignment with state learning objectives and coordination between federal, state and local agencies. Finally, the legislation does not prioritize any one model of expanded learning opportunity over another and maintains formula grants to states that then distribute funds to local school-community partnerships through a competitive grant process. Read more.

Additional legislation introduced in the Senate this Congress that relates to ESEA and that positively impacts afterschool programs includes:

As of winter 2011, a comprehensive ESEA reauthorization bill has not yet been introduced in the House this Session.  A series of hearings were held in 2010 by the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and the Committee passed three in a series of ESEA bills that address charter schools, program duplication and flexibility. Among the ESEA related bills introduced this Congress on specific issues, several relate to afterschool programs: 

On Saturday, March 13, 2010, the Obama Administration released its "Blueprint" for revising ESEA "to help states raise expectations of students and reward schools for producing dramatic gains in student achievement." Key elements of the proposal include:

• Consolidating afterschool along with a longer school day and community schools under 21st CCLC.
• Changing from state competitions in all 50 states with funding amounts for each state determined by formula to two national competitions run by the Department: one competition for State Education Agencies (SEAs), the other for Local Education Agencies (LEAs).
• Under the Department's Blueprint proposal for a national LEA competition, community based organizations (CBOs) could not apply for 21st CCLC funds nor act as the lead partner. Instead priority would be given to LEAs that apply in partnership with CBOs. Additional details of the partnership requirement have not been shared.

Many questions remain including whether CBOs would be able to apply directly for funds at the state level from SEAs that win the national competition among states; the amount in dollars of grant awards to be made available to states versus districts; the status of current grants - will these continue their remaining years or transfer to the new structure; and the portion of funds to be awarded to extended day versus afterschool versus community schools.

Additional proposals within the ESEA Blueprint also impact afterschool program. The Administration has proposed consolidating the Physical Activity Program (PEP) grants into a new Safe, Successful and Healthy Students program. The consolidation raises the question as to whether the same amount of PEP funding will be remain available to school districts and community based organization to promote physical activity.

Several of the school turnaround models under the School Improvement Grant section of the Title I portion of the Act allow extended learning time as part of the allowable uses of funds.

Released in spring 2011, the Presidents FY2012 Budget Request included policy proposals for 21st CCLC that are very similar to those in the ESEA Blueprint referenced above. Read more here.

In fall 2011, the Department of Education annouced a waiver plan to allow states greater flexibility from No Child Left Behind requirements. The waiver process included an optional 11th waiver that would allow states to divert 21st CCLC funds towards a longer school day, with few requirements on how the time would be spent. More here.