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
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
- 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.
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.govEducation
■ 1 R
1 Republican