{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heitkamp.senate.gov//public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=7B4F5F7A-E603-45A8-9DFD-552CD8FEB362", "Heitkamps Bipartisan Bill to Support Native Youth Education Passes in the U.S. Senate & U.S. House, Headed to Get Signed into Law", "2018-12-20", "2018", "2018-12", "Democrat", "House", "ND", "Heidi Heitkamp", "H001069", "www.heitkamp.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Approximately 500,000 Eligible Native American & Alaska Native Students Are Excluded from Education Resources they are Promised Under Federal Law\r\nSenator's Bipartisan Legislation Will Require an Accurate Count of All Eligible Students, Push for Greater Access to Culturally Relevant Learning Programs\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C.  U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp today announced that her bipartisan bill to make sure Native American students receive the federal education support they need has now passed in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. The legislation will now head to the President's desk to be signed into law.\r\nAccording to recent Census Bureau estimates, about 500,000 potentially eligible Native American students are excluded from accessing federal resources to address their academic needs. Heitkamp's bill would make sure more Native American students can receive federal learning resources that they are eligible to obtain under law.\r\nStudies have indicated that culturally relevant learning programs help Native students perform better in the classroom\" said Heitkamp. \"But too often, these federal programs meant to address the specific needs of American Indian and Alaska Native students are underfunded or poorly implemented. It's a huge deal that my bipartisan bill -- that just passed in Congress and will soon be signed into law -- willrequire that accurate counts of Native American students are performed, so that these underserved students and schools can receive the support they deserve. This important and needed legislation continues my decades-long work to stand up for Native children and families, and it comes soon after my bill, Savanna's Act also passed in Senate and we're trying to get it across the finish line in the U.S. House to help address the crisis of missing and murderedNative women. Congress must continue to pass critical legislation to support tribal communities and I'll continue to advocate to help make that happen.\r\nCurrently, the federal government relies on two-decade old Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) data to determine Native students' eligibility for federal funding needs and distribution for the Johnson-O'Malley (JOM) program  a federal cultural educational support program that works to boost academic achievement among underserved students in Native populations. Heitkamp's bipartisan Johnson O'Malley Supplemental Indian Education Program Modernization Act  which she introduced alongside U.S. Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Steve Daines (R-MT)  would work to change that by requiring the federal government to accurately count all Native students who could be served under the program. By providing accurate eligibility data, Heitkamp aims to narrow the significant achievement gaps among Native students and make sure they are able to access programs that help them improve academically.\r\nDuring a time when Native students graduate from high school at a rate far lower than any other racial or ethnic demographic in the country, Heitkamp is working to make sure that the cultural programs in public schools that have been linked to boosting Native students' morale, as well as academic performance and attendance, are readily available in classrooms. Despite the stark need for such programs, the last official count in 1995 by BIA identified 271,884 Native students eligible for such resources. Since that time, the BIA has attempted to officially verify Native students eligible for the program without success, while the National Congress of American Indians has recently indicated a large gap in access to these programs  with a marked increase of more than 500,000 Native young people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which means there were close to 800,000 students nationwide in 2010 that could be eligible for JOM cultural resources.\r\nHeitkamp's bipartisan bill, which unanimously passed out of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in October, would call on the U.S. Department of the Interior to update its severely outdated count of Native students in a timely manner by using existing public information from various data sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), to show underserved students who are potentially eligible under the program. This data is crucial for making sure Native students in public schools can access the cultural and educational investments critical to their success. By providing more accurate and updated eligibility data, this bipartisan bill aims to help close significant achievement gaps among Native students and make sure they are able to access programs that help them improve academically.\r\nIn a U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing last May, Heitkamp reinforced the need to pass her bipartisan bill to make sure programs designed to enrich the academic performance among Native students are reaching students as intended.\r\nBackground\r\nHeitkamp has long worked to make sure Native young people living in Indian Country have access to the quality educational opportunities and resources they need to succeed by:\r\n \r\nIdentifying challenges faced by Native young people: Heitkamp's top priorities include comprehensively addressing the challenges Native children face. Her first bill introduced as a U.S. Senator, a bipartisan bill to create a Commission on Native Children, was signed into law in 2016.\r\nProtecting and strengthening Native languages and cultures: Building on her work to reauthorize legislation to help preserve endangered Native languages, Heitkamp encouraged Congressional leaders in November 2015 to protect cultural language enrichment and immersion programs in the U.S. Senate's K-12 education reform bill that boosts pride and morale in Native communities and improves students' academic performance and attendance.\r\nImproving access to educational resources for Native youth: Heitkamp has long promoted safe after-school programs like 21st Century Community Learning Centers for vulnerable and at-risk youth in Indian Country, and pushed to include provisions reinstating resources dedicated to such programs in the U.S. Senate's K-12 education reform bill in April 2015. Heitkamp also convened North Dakota educators to discuss challenges Native students in rural areas face in accessing academic opportunities, and met with the head of U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) in 2014 on improving connectivity to make sure Native students in rural areas can access technology for educational and economic opportunities.\r\n \r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.heitkamp.senate.gov//public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=7B4F5F7A-E603-45A8-9DFD-552CD8FEB362"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6715419478714466, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}