[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1580 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
S.1580
One Hundred Fifteenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday,
the third day of January, two thousand and eighteen
An Act
To enhance the transparency, improve the coordination, and intensify the
impact of assistance to support access to primary and secondary
education for displaced children and persons, including women and girls,
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 ``Protecting Girls' Access to
Education in Vulnerable Settings Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) As of June 2018, more than 68,000,000 people have been
displaced by disasters and conflicts around the world, the highest
number recorded since the end of World War II, of which more than
25,000,000 people are refugees.
(2) More than half of the population of refugees are children
and, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, nearly 4,000,000 school-aged refugee children lack access
to primary education.
(3) Education offers socioeconomic opportunities, psychological
stability, and physical protection for displaced people,
particularly for women and girls, who might otherwise be vulnerable
to severe forms of trafficking in persons (as such term is defined
in section 103(9) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000
(22 U.S.C. 7102(9)), child marriage, sexual exploitation, or
economic disenfranchisement.
(4) Displaced children face considerable barriers to accessing
educational services and, because the duration of such displacement
is, on average, 26 years, such children may spend the entirety of
their childhood without access to such services.
(5) Despite the rising need for educational services, as of
2016, less than two percent of humanitarian aid was directed toward
educational services.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) it is critical to ensure that children, particularly girls,
displaced by conflicts overseas are able to access educational
services because such access can combat extremism and reduce
exploitation and poverty; and
(2) the educational needs of vulnerable women and girls should
be considered in the design, implementation, and evaluation of
related United States foreign assistance policies and programs.
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States to--
(1) partner with and encourage other countries, public and
private multilateral institutions, and nongovernmental and civil
society organizations, including faith-based organizations and
organizations representing parents and children, to support efforts
to ensure that displaced children have access to safe primary and
secondary education;
(2) work with donors to enhance training and capacity-building
for the governments of countries hosting significant numbers of
displaced people to design, implement, and monitor programs to
effectively address barriers to such education; and
(3) coordinate with the governments of countries hosting
significant numbers of displaced people to--
(A) promote the inclusion of displaced children into the
educational systems of such countries; and
(B) in circumstances in which such inclusion is difficult,
develop innovative approaches to providing safe primary and
secondary educational opportunities, such as encouraging
schools to permit children to be educated by extending the
hours of schooling or expanding the number of teachers.
SEC. 5. UNITED STATES ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT EDUCATIONAL SERVICES FOR
DISPLACED CHILDREN.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of State and the Administrator of
the United States Agency for International Development are authorized
to prioritize and advance ongoing efforts to support programs that--
(1) provide safe primary and secondary education for displaced
children;
(2) build the capacity of institutions in countries hosting
displaced people to prevent discrimination against displaced
children, especially displaced girls, who seek access to such
education; and
(3) help increase the access of displaced children, especially
displaced girls, to educational, economic, and entrepreneurial
opportunities, including through the governmental authorities
responsible for educational or youth services in such host
countries.
(b) Coordination With Multilateral Organizations.--The Secretary
and the Administrator are authorized to coordinate with the World Bank,
appropriate agencies of the United Nations, and other relevant
multilateral organizations to work with governments in other countries
to collect relevant data, disaggregated by age and gender, on the
ability of displaced people to access education and participate in
economic activity, in order to improve the targeting, monitoring, and
evaluation of related assistance efforts.
(c) Coordination With Private Sector and Civil Society
Organizations.--The Secretary and the Administrator are authorized to
work with private sector and civil society organizations to promote
safe primary and secondary education for displaced children.
SEC. 6. REPORT.
The Secretary and the Administrator shall include in the report
required under section 7 of the READ Act (division A of Public Law 115-
56; 22 U.S.C. 2151c note) a description of any primary or secondary
educational services supported by programs for natural or manmade
disaster relief or response that specifically address the needs of
displaced girls.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.