Federal Update | By: Committee for Children Elementary and Secondary Education Act The U.S. Congress is in the process of trying to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). ESEA, currently known as No Child Left Behind, is the main federal policy related to K–12 education. Somewhat surprisingly, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate were able to draft a compromise ESEA bill that unanimously passed a Senate committee on April 16, 2015. The next step in the process will be for the bill to be considered by the full Senate. If passed by the Senate, the bill will then move over for consideration in the U.S. House, where the outlook is very uncertain. Committee for Children has scheduled a mini “Advocacy Day” on Capitol Hill for May 14, 2015. We are bringing a small (but powerful) group of SEL supporters to Washington, DC, and will encourage Congressional offices to include social-emotional learning in whatever ESEA bill moves forward. Be on the lookout for an email update in the near future that will provide information on how you can contact your Congressional offices in support of our advocacy efforts. Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning Act Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio has introduced the Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning Act (HR 850). This bill allows funding for teacher and principal training and professional development to be used for SEL programming. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut has introduced an identical version of this bill in the Senate and named his bill in honor of a young child who was murdered in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Senate bill is known as the “Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators Act.” Committee for Children will continue to work with the staff of both Congressman Ryan and Senator Blumenthal to move these important bills through Congress. Education Research In addition to working on the reauthorization of ESEA, Congress is also working to rewrite the laws that govern our federal education research system. We are pleased to report that the research reauthorization bill moving through Congress adds social-emotional learning to the list of issues that the federal education research system should study and evaluate. We are hopeful that the bill will pass Congress and be signed into law in the first half of 2015.