State Legislative Efforts

Provides a $28 million grant to extend the New York Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness Program (NY GEAR UP). This grant has been awarded to New York for four consecutive years and has served more than 6,200 students. The program supports students in low-income communities with tutoring, college and career advisement, mentoring, and college-related services from 7th grade through their college freshman year. The grant will be housed in colleges and universities across New York State and will be responsible for recruiting, hiring, and training college students to serve as tutors.

Launches the New Mexico Math Tutoring Corps in January of 2023. The statewide tutoring initiative provides math tutoring for 8th-12th grade students with a significant focus on Algebra 1. Virtual tutoring includes a 1:5 tutor to student ratio for 45 minute sessions, three days a week. The New Mexico State Department of Education will be responsible for the hiring, onboarding, and training of eligible tutors. A portion of training consists of a review of the SAGA curriculum that is implemented in sessions.

Proposes the establishment of the High Efficiency Accelerated Learning (HEAL) Grant Program and the Tutoring Advisory Commission. HEAL is intended to provide high-impact tutoring opportunities to students around the state in order to mitigate the effect of learning loss or interrupted learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tutoring Advisory Commission is responsible for overseeing the development, implementation, and evaluation of the HEAL program.

Requires The Iowa Department of Education to form a learning recovery task force to evaluate the degree of learning loss experienced by students due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The task force is expected to study, identify, and recommend remedial measures, of which specialized, individualized tutoring is outlined as an option. The bill outlines requirements for the make-up of the task force which includes: demographics, educator types, and other stakeholders.

Provides families in South Dakota with an educational savings account (ESA). The bill requires The Department of Education to create a savings account for students who withdrew from public schools and currently attend a non-public school. Public funds are deposited into SEAs and are used to aid students in receiving various educational resources, most relevant is private tutoring.

Provides Idaho caregivers with children in grades K-12 with educational grants of up to $1,000 per student, per year, and up to $3,000 per household. Grants are funded through the $50 million “Empowering Parents Grants” program, an initiative to address pandemic-related learning loss and part of Gov. Brad Little’s “Leading Idaho” initiative. The grant program supports families in acquiring a wide range of education-related expenses, some of which include technology, textbooks, tutoring and therapy services, etc.

Funds $47 million in emergency assistance to address the disruptions and challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes a $1.3 million allocation for the teacher pipeline of which $789,730 goes towards the expansion of the Georgia Math & Reading Corps program in Southwest Georgia. The emergency assistance fund allows colleges and universities across Georgia to recruit college students to serve as tutors, specifically in rural districts.