Index for HR3962: Affordable Health Care for America Act

To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.

Mr. Dingell (for himself, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Waxman, Mr. George Miller of California, Mr. Stark, Mr. Pallone, and Mr. Andrews) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, Education and Labor, Oversight and Government Reform, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

(a) Demonstration Grants.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may make demonstration grants to eligible local educational agencies for the purpose of reducing the student-to-school nurse ratio in public elementary and secondary schools.

(2) SPECIAL CONSIDERATION.—In awarding grants under this section, the Secretary of Education shall give special consideration to applications submitted by high-need local educational agencies that demonstrate the greatest need for new or additional nursing services among children in the public elementary and secondary schools served by the agency, in part by providing information on current ratios of students to school nurses.

(3) MATCHING FUNDS.—The Secretary of Education may require recipients of grants under this subsection to provide matching funds from non-Federal sources, and shall permit the recipients to match funds in whole or in part with in-kind contributions.

(b) Report.—Not later than 24 months after the date on which assistance is first made available to local educational agencies under this section, the Secretary of Education shall submit to the Congress a report on the results of the demonstration grant program carried out under this section, including an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program in improving the student-to-school nurse ratios described in subsection (a) and an evaluation of the impact of any resulting enhanced health of students on learning.

(c) Definitions.—For purposes of this section:

(1) The terms “elementary school”, “local educational agency”, and “secondary school” have the meanings given to those terms in section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).

(2) The term “eligible local educational agency” means a local educational agency in which the student-to-school nurse ratio in the public elementary and secondary schools served by the agency is 750 or more students to every school nurse.

(3) The term “high-need local educational agency” means a local educational agency—

(A) that serves not fewer than 10,000 children from families with incomes below the poverty line; or

(B) for which not less than 20 percent of the children served by the agency are from families with incomes below the poverty line.

(4) The term “nurse” means a licensed nurse, as defined under State law.

(d) Authorization of Appropriations.—To carry out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 2011 through 2015.