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HR 5181 Cleared committee

Modifies the D.C. school voucher program by extending grant terms, loosening residency and accreditation rules for participating schools, expanding allowable uses of scholarship funds, and changing how the program is evaluated and reported on.

Official title: SOAR Act Improvements Act

Next stop House floor: awaiting a vote
Timeline each lane is a chamber; dates pull from congress.gov actions
House
Introduced 08-SEP-2025
Referred 08-SEP-2025
Approved by committee 10-SEP-2025
Key points
  • Allows grants to be renewed for up to 5 more years without a competitive process, and lets the program's board residency rule cover the Washington metropolitan region instead of only D.C.
  • Extends scholarship funds to pre-kindergarten, allows tutoring for students who need extra academic help, and raises the annual funding cap from $2,000,000 to $2,200,000.
  • Requires the Institute of Education Sciences to assess academic progress of students in grades 3 through 8 and to issue a public report by January 1, 2027, and every 7 years after that.
  • Extends the program's authorization of appropriations through fiscal year 2032 and changes the funding split between the two authorized categories from one-third each to one-half and one-sixth.
AI-generated from the Introduced in House text of 08-SEP-2025 · verify · report an error
Official CRS summary

Current. The Congressional Research Service's summary covers the bill's latest wording (Introduced in House, 08-SEP-2025).

CRS is the Library of Congress's nonpartisan research office. Read it on congress.gov
Committee referrals (1) Policy area

Education

Sponsor Virginia Foxx (R-NC) Cosponsors · 1
■ 1 R
1 Republican