Federal money to make classes smaller in poor schools.
H.R. 10631 — Smaller Class Sizes for Students and Educators Act of 2026 · Filed by Lucy McBath (D-GA) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 28, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill gives $2 billion to school districts. It pays to hire teachers and make kindergarten through third-grade classes smaller. At least 97% of money goes to hiring teachers, building classrooms, and training staff. The Secretary of Education will check if it works. They will look at student test scores, teacher retention, and working conditions.
Who it affects
Low-income students and their families get smaller classes. Teachers get new jobs and training. Schools serving the poorest families get the money first.
One thing to notice
The bill requires fully certified and qualified teachers. Schools can use up to 15% of money to build or fix classrooms.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- Sep 28, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 28, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- fully certified and qualified teachers — Teachers who have passed all tests and training required by their state.
- Secretary of Education — The head of the federal government office that oversees schools.
- teacher retention — How many teachers stay in their jobs instead of leaving.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (8,788 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal money to make classes smaller in poor schools.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr10631/simple Report an error
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