S. 5635 — Arts Education for All Act

This section expands required uses of quality improvement funds under the Child Care and Development Block Grant to include training, coaching, and professional development for providers on evidence-based strategies that promote children's social, emotional, physical, adaptive, communication, and cognitive development, including key programmatic strategies, plus specialized training for children with disabilities and populations prioritized in state plans. It defines key programmatic strategies as those addressing nutrition and physical activity, recommended practices for age-appropriate screen media exposure, and integration of instructional methods across disciplines such as the arts, language, literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies.

This section provides that references in this title to sections or other provisions are to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.).

This section requires each state educational agency plan to describe how the agency will support arts education to improve student achievement in core subjects, including by integrating arts instruction into curricula, increasing the number of arts educators and classes (with emphasis on schools serving high percentages of low-income students, students with disabilities, English learners, or students of color), ensuring sequential standards-based arts courses from grades 6 through 12, training teachers through partnerships with specialized teaching artists, and expanding arts and creative youth development programs in afterschool and summer settings. It also requires each local educational agency plan to describe how the agency will support learning in the arts consistent with the state plan.

This section requires annual state report cards to include information on arts courses, including the number, range, and sequence of offerings; average pupil-to-teacher ratio; average instructional time; and, for each semester, the percentage of schools offering such courses, students taking them, and courses taught by fully certified arts teachers. The data must be disaggregated by high-poverty schools (top quartile) compared to low-poverty schools (bottom quartile).

This section requires comprehensive support and improvement plans for Title I schools identified for improvement to include an evaluation of arts courses offered during the school day and the certification, training, and skills of staff teaching those courses, including teaching artists, and to incorporate arts courses into the school's offerings based on the evaluation.

This section adds activities to increase pathways to rigorous, high-quality teacher certification or licensure for individuals seeking to become arts teachers as an allowable use of subgrant funds to local educational agencies. It requires those agencies to provide professional development for arts teachers and for integrating the arts into instruction in math, reading, English language arts, science, and other subjects.

This section authorizes 21st Century Community Learning Centers grantees to partner with arts services organizations and community-focused arts nonprofits to further creative youth development. It also requires professional development activities funded under the program to include arts education.

This section requires states to describe in their juvenile justice plans how they will coordinate delinquency prevention services and activities with state and local arts agencies, arts organizations, and creative youth development organizations.

This section expands eligible uses of funds under adult offender reentry demonstration projects to include arts education programs and services that facilitate reentry, reduce recidivism, and connect offenders to educational opportunities and employment after release into the community.

This section requires the Research Center to conduct rigorous, peer-reviewed, large-scale research on the use of arts and arts education to identify the most effective, cost-efficient methods that can be applied, duplicated, and scaled up in elementary and secondary classrooms, including low-performing schools. It also includes the use of arts and arts education in improving elementary and secondary education among the Center’s designated research areas.

This section expands the general duties of the Statistics Center to collect, report, analyze, and disseminate statistical data on access to, the integration of, and the inclusion of arts education at the preschool, elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and adult levels.

This section requires the Assessment Board to select the arts as a subject for assessment under the National Assessment of Educational Progress at the same frequency and in the same grades (at a minimum) as scheduled prior to July 24, 2021.