Washington, DC --- Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, senior member of the Florida Congressional Delegation, is pleased that the FLUENT Act, which would improve the English skills of low income individuals, will be included in the No Child Left Behind legislation. The Fluent Act was introduced by Ros-Lehtinen and Grijalva (D-AZ).  

The bill will make grants available to providers of family literacy services to improve the literacy and English skills of limited English proficient individuals. Amongst other things, the Bill seeks to:

·    Create a $50 million federal to local competitive grant program to support family literacy programs in communities serving high numbers of non-English speaking families. Grants would not be less than $150,000 or more than $1 million.

·    Expand and enhance family literacy services in areas serving large numbers of non-English speaking families.

·    Require that the family literacy provider collaborate with one or more of the following: a local educational agency, an elementary school, a secondary school, or a nonprofit entity.

Said Ros-Lehtinen, “I am pleased that this important piece of legislation will be included in The No Child Left Behind bill.  It is imperative that we work together in a bipartisan way to assure that our children have the educational tools necessary to be competitive in today’s global economy. Both No Child Left Behind and the Fluent Act will achieve this purpose.”

###

Home | Press Releases