Expanding Educational Opportunity Through School Choice
The order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take steps allowing Community Services Block Grant funds to be used for emergency learning scholarships for disadvantaged families whose children lack access to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scholarships could cover private or parochial school tuition, homeschooling and learning-pod costs, special education therapies, and tutoring — effectively extending existing federal block grant dollars toward school choice options.
What this order does
What it orders
The order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take steps, consistent with existing law, to permit funds available through the Community Services Block Grant program to be used by grantees and eligible entities to provide emergency learning scholarships to disadvantaged families. Scholarships may be used for tuition at private or parochial schools, homeschool or learning-pod costs, special education services and therapies, or tutoring and remedial education — for any child without access to in-person learning.
The order does not itself appropriate new money or guarantee any scholarship; implementation depends on HHS action within existing legal authority and is subject to the availability of appropriations. The order explicitly states it creates no enforceable legal right or benefit for any individual against the United States or its agencies.
Who it affects
Disadvantaged families with school-age children who lack access to in-person learning, including children with special needs. Community Services Block Grant grantees and eligible entities that would administer scholarships. Private, parochial, and charter schools, tutors, and other educational service providers eligible to receive scholarship funds.
Why it matters
Families relying solely on closed public schools could gain access to private, parochial, or supplemental education options funded by federal block grant dollars. Children with special needs cut off from in-person therapies would be among the eligible recipients. However, the order's impact is contingent on HHS rulemaking and available appropriations.
What must happen and when
How the order is supposed to work
HHS must determine, within its existing legal authority, how to modify Community Services Block Grant program rules so grantees can issue scholarships. No deadline is imposed. Because the order is conditioned on existing law and appropriations availability, it does not itself redirect funds — it instructs HHS to find a legal path to do so. The standard severability clause and no-private-right-of-action language limit any direct legal claims by beneficiaries.
Actions and deadlines
- Take steps to allow Community Services Block Grant funds to be used for emergency learning scholarships to disadvantaged families