US Congress House Bill 4643 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: Introduced on October 11 2019 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2019-10-11 - Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Pending: House Education and Labor Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [PDF]

Addresses accessibility issues of students with disabilities in higher education. Specifically, the bill revises a grant program that supports postsecondary institutions of higher education (IHE) in educating students with disabilities. The Department of Education must award at least five grants to an IHE that provides professional development and technical assistance in order to improve access to and completion of postsecondary education for students, including students with disabilities. The bill also (1) revises and reauthorizes through FY2024 a program for national technical assistance centers that assist students with disabilities, and (2) reauthorizes through FY2024 a program to promote training and job placement of real-time writers to provide closed captioning of videos. Further, the bill establishes a new program that awards grants to IHEs for certain activities that improve accessibility of instruction and materials, such as distance education courses. The bill also establishes an independent commission to develop guidelines for accessible postsecondary electronic instructional materials and related technologies. In addition, the bill requires each IHE to establish an office of accessibility to develop and implement policies that support students with disabilities.

Improving Access to Higher Education Act of 2019

Rep. Mark DeSaulnier [D-CA]	Rep. Jared Huffman [D-CA]	Rep. James Langevin [D-RI]	Rep. Ro Khanna [D-CA]
Rep. Josh Harder [D-CA]	Rep. Ayanna Pressley [D-MA]

Date	Chamber	Action
2019-10-11	House	Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
2019-10-11	House	Introduced in House

HB4674 (Related) 2020-12-28 - Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 583.
HB5312 (Related) 2019-12-05 - Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
SB3095 (Related) 2019-12-18 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Type	Source
Summary	https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4643/all-info
Text	https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hr4643/BILLS-116hr4643ih.pdf