Expanding Educational Opportunity Through School Choice

This executive order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to allow 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. The scholarships can cover private school tuition, homeschooling costs, special education services, and tutoring.

Federal Register Open PDF 86 FR 219

Impact dates

Date TBD
HHS Secretary to take steps to allow CSBG funds for emergency learning scholarships

Key directives

HHS Secretary shall take steps, consistent with law, to allow CSBG funds to be used for emergency learning scholarships
Scholarships may be used for private/parochial school tuition, homeschool/microschool/learning-pod costs, special education services and therapies, and tutoring/remedial education
Targeted to disadvantaged families for children without access to in-person learning

Who is ordered

Secretary of Health and Human Services · Department of Health and Human Services

Timeline

Immediate

HHS Secretary directed to take steps to allow CSBG fund reallocation

Near term (90d)

Potential implementation of emergency learning scholarship programs by grantees

Long term

Possible structural shift in federal education funding mechanisms; dependent on continuation of pandemic conditions and funding availability

Risks & tensions

No explicit deadline or day count specified for HHS action—'shall take steps' is vague on timing
Implementation explicitly constrained by 'consistent with law' and 'subject to availability of appropriations,' creating legal and fiscal uncertainty
Potential tension with existing CSBG statutory purposes and state grantee flexibility
Order creates no enforceable rights, limiting recourse if implementation lags
Framed around pandemic conditions that may shift with changing public health landscape