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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 1 / Monday, January 4, 2021 / Presidential Documents A failure to quickly resume in-person learning options is likely to have long-term economic effects on children and their families. According to a recent study, if in-person classes do not fully resume until January 2021, the average student could lose $61,000 to $82,000 in lifetime earnings, or the equivalent of a year of full-time work. Additionally, in 2019, more than 90 percent of children under the age of 18 had at least one employed parent. Many employed parents do not have the option of engaging in remote work that allows them the flexibility to supervise their children during the day when in-person learning options are not available. Without the resumption of in-person learning opportunities, the economic and social harms resulting from such lost employment opportunities will continue to compound.
To help mitigate these harms, the Department of Health and Human Services recently announced additional relief for low-income parents by allowing States to use funds available through the Child Care and Development Fund to subsidize child care services and services that supplement academic instruction for children under the age of 13 who are participating in virtual instruction. Nevertheless, virtual instruction is an inadequate substitute for in-person learning opportunities and this aid is insufficient to meet current needs.
While some families, especially those with financial means, have been able to mitigate school disruptions through in-person options such as homeschooling, private schools, charter schools, and innovative models like microschools and learning pods, for many families, their childrens residentially assigned public school remains their only financially available option.
Unfortunately, more than 50 percent of all public-school students in the United States began school remotely this fall. These children, including those with special needs, are being underserved due to the public education systems failure to provide in-person learning options.
Students whose families pay tuition for their education are also facing significant hardships due to the economic disruptions caused by the pandemic. Scores of private schools, including approximately 100 Catholic schools, have permanently closed since the onset of COVID19, and more than half of our Nations private schools are believed to have lost enrollment due to the pandemic. These closures and declining enrollments are harmful to students, bad for communities, and likely to impose increased strain on public school systems.
I am committed to ensuring that all children of our great Nation have access to the educational resources they need to obtain a high-quality education and to improving students safety and well-being, including by empowering families with emergency learning scholarships.
Sec. 2. Providing Emergency Learning Scholarships for Students. The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall take steps, consistent with law, to allow 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 for use by any child without access to in-person learning. These scholarships may be used for:
i tuition and fees for a private or parochial school;
ii homeschool, microschool, or learning-pod costs;
iii special education and related services, including therapies; or iv tutoring or remedial education.
Sec. 3. General Provisions. a Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
i the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or ii the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

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