Title 20EducationRelease 119-73

§1161h Improving college enrollment by secondary schools

Title 20 › Chapter CHAPTER 28— - HIGHER EDUCATION RESOURCES AND STUDENT ASSISTANCE › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER IX— - ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS › Part Part H— - Improving College Enrollment By Secondary Schools › § 1161h

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary must give one grant to a nonprofit to do three things. The nonprofit must publish year-to-year college (post‑high‑school) enrollment rates for high school students by school, while following the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). It must pick at least 50 urban school districts and 5 states with large rural, low‑income populations and do a detailed study of what helps more students go on to college—things like leadership, curriculum and class offerings, teacher and counselor training, attendance and other student factors, how data and incentives are used, and ways to mobilize student leaders. It must also provide full services to improve college enrollment in at least 10 school districts or states that took part in the study and showed commitment, with federal funding for each project dropping by at least 20% each year starting in the second year. The grant recipient must be a nonprofit with proven experience raising schoolwide college enrollment in low‑income communities by offering curriculum, training, and technical help to school staff and student peer leaders, and in running a postsecondary transition data system. Funds as needed are authorized for fiscal year 2009 and each of the five following fiscal years.

Full Legal Text

Title 20, §1161h

Education — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)From the amounts appropriated under subsection (c), the Secretary shall award a grant to one nonprofit organization described in subsection (b) to enable the nonprofit organization—
(1)to make publicly available the year-to-year postsecondary education enrollment rate trends of secondary school students, disaggregated by secondary school, in compliance with section 1232g of this title (commonly known as the “Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974”);
(2)to identify not less than 50 urban local educational agencies and five States with significant rural populations, each serving a significant population of low-income students, and to carry out a comprehensive assessment in the agencies and States of the factors known to contribute to improved postsecondary education enrollment rates, which factors shall include—
(A)the local educational agency’s and State’s leadership strategies and capacities;
(B)the secondary school curriculum and class offerings of the local educational agency and State;
(C)the professional development used by the local educational agency and the State to assist teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators in supporting the transition of secondary students to postsecondary education;
(D)secondary school student attendance and other factors demonstrated to be associated with enrollment into postsecondary education;
(E)the use of data systems by the local educational agency and the State to measure postsecondary education enrollment rates and the incentives in place to motivate the efforts of faculty and students to improve student and schoolwide outcomes; and
(F)strategies to mobilize student leaders to build a college-bound culture; and
(3)to provide comprehensive services to improve the schoolwide postsecondary education enrollment rates of each of not less than ten local educational agencies and States, with the federally funded portion of each project declining by not less than 20 percent each year beginning in the second year of the comprehensive services, that—
(A)participated in the needs assessment described in paragraph (2); and
(B)demonstrated a willingness and commitment to improving the postsecondary education enrollment rates of the local educational agency or State, respectively.
(b)The recipient of the grant awarded under subsection (a) shall be a nonprofit organization with demonstrated expertise—
(1)in increasing schoolwide postsecondary enrollment rates in low-income communities nationwide by providing curriculum, training, and technical assistance to secondary school staff and student peer influencers; and
(2)in a postsecondary education transition data management system.
(c)There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 2009 and each of the five succeeding fiscal years.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2009—Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 111–39 substituted “section 1232g of this title (commonly known as the ‘Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974’)” for “the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2009 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 111–39 effective as if enacted on the date of enactment of Pub. L. 110–315 (Aug. 14, 2008), see section 3 of Pub. L. 111–39, set out as a note under section 1001 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

20 U.S.C. § 1161h

Title 20Education

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73