The SOAR Act Improvements Act makes several changes to Washington D.C.'s school choice scholarship program, which helps students attend private schools. The main changes expand the program's reach and flexibility in a few key ways.

First, the bill allows scholarship grants to be renewed for an additional five years without requiring schools to compete again for funding, as long as the Secretary thinks it's a good idea to keep the program stable. It also expands where students can use these scholarships—instead of just D.C., eligible students can now attend schools in nearby Maryland and Virginia counties (Montgomery and Prince Georges in Maryland, and Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria, and Falls Church in Virginia). The bill also makes it easier for new schools to join the program by giving them up to five years to become fully accredited instead of requiring it upfront.

The bill adds tutoring services as an allowable expense for students who need extra academic help, with priority given to students coming from the lowest-performing schools in D.C. It increases the funding available for these support services from $2 million to $2.2 million. Additionally, the bill lowers the age requirement for scholarships to include pre-kindergarten students, not just kindergarten and up. The bill also extends the program's authorization through fiscal year 2032 and adjusts how remaining funds are distributed among different uses of the program.

Finally, the bill changes how the program is evaluated by requiring reports every seven years instead of more frequently, and it simplifies what information schools must report about student safety and discipline. These changes are designed to make the scholarship program more stable, easier to access for families in the broader Washington region, and better able to support students who need additional academic help.

SOAR Act Improvements Act

Foxx, Virginia

SOAR Act Improvements ActThis 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&nbsp;DC.Under&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;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)&nbsp;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.