Since its inception in 1993, the National Guard Youth Challenge Program has produced over 200,000 graduates across dozens of sites located in the states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Currently, the program operates 39 sites. House Report 117-88, accompanying the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2022, included…

The Department of Education's (Education's) Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) initiated the Next Gen program in 2017. Next Gen's purpose was to modernize the systems and processes that students, parents, borrowers, and school partners use to apply for, administer, and/or process federal student aid. This report examines: (1) the status of FSA's…

This report examines: (1) the extent to which veterans pursue STEM degrees using Veterans Affairs (VA) education benefits; (2) challenges these veterans face in obtaining a STEM degree; and (3) how VA administers the Rogers STEM scholarship. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) analyzed VA administrative data and interviewed officials…

When a community loses its Head Start provider, the Office of Head Start (OHS) deploys its interim manager to temporarily operate this federally funded early childhood education program. Since 2000, OHS has placed more than 200 programs under interim management. As of September 2024, 18 of 1,600 Head Start programs nationwide were under interim…

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified and reported on numerous problems since 2013 at the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), within the Department of the Interior (Interior). During this period, GAO issued 24 reports and testimonies and made 38 recommendations to BIE related to the agency's support and oversight of schools. Key…

The Government Accountability Office's (GAO) High-Risk List identifies government operations with vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or in need of transformation. GAO added the area "Improving Federal Management of Programs that Serve Tribes and their Members" to its February 2017 biennial update of high-risk…

Virtual charter schools--public charter schools that operate entirely or mostly online--largely depend on self-paced, asynchronous (accessed at any time) instruction and often rely on parents to act as instructors, according to the US Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) review of a nationally representative sample of virtual charter school…

This guidance applies to all schools and colleges and is for: headteachers, teachers and staff governing bodies, proprietors and management committees It sets out the legal duties that must be followed to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18 in schools and colleges. It is divided into five parts: (1)…

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program was established in 2007 and forgives borrowers' remaining federal student loan balances after they have made at least 10 years of qualifying loan payments while working in public service. Starting in September 2017, the first borrowers potentially became eligible for the PSLF program and began…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play an important and unique role in the higher education system and in their local and regional economies. Small Business Administration (SBA) works with many colleges and universities to provide entrepreneurial training and counseling on campuses. SBA is also part of a long-standing White…

Starting in September 2017, the first borrowers became eligible and began applying to have their loans forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to review the PSLF program. This report examines the (1) number of borrowers pursuing PSLF and the extent to which the…

The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is responsible for managing the care and custody of approximately 175,000 federal inmates--an estimated 20 percent of whom have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to review BOP's efforts to provide drug treatment to federal inmates. This report (1)…

American Indian and Alaska Native students enrolled in public schools have performed consistently below other students on national assessments from 2005-2019. The Johnson-O'Malley (JOM) program provides academic and cultural supports, through contracts, to meet the specialized and unique educational needs of American Indian and Alaska Native…

This Report to Congress is required by Section 658L of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act, as amended. The report provides information about the role of the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which is authorized under the CCDBG Act. This report covers fiscal year (FY) 2016 and (FY) 2017. The data and analysis contained in…

As of September 2013 about $94 billion--over 11 percent of federal student loan volume in repayment--was in default. Loan rehabilitation allows borrowers who make nine on-time monthly payments within 10 months to have the default removed from their credit reports. Department of Education (Education) contracts with collection agencies to assist…