S. 516: Every Child Counts Act

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S. 516: Every Child Counts Act

114th Congress · introduced 2015-02-12 · Education · Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

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Official title

Every Child Counts Act

Plain summary

Every Child Counts Act Amends the school improvement program under part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to allow states to establish alternate academic achievement standards and assessments for students who have the most significant cognitive disabilities. Requires the alternate standards to meet certain conditions, including that they: are aligned with the state's challenging academic content and achievement standards; provide access to the general curriculum for the grade in which the student is enrolled; and establish, at a minimum, two levels of achievement (on-target and advanced) that indicate that a student meets or exceeds the state's proficient level of academic achievement; and establish, at a minimum, a third level of achievement (catch-up) that provides information about a student's progress toward proficiency. Requires each state using alternate assessments to ensure that: (1) not more than 1% of the total number of all students in each grade level in the state who are assessed in a subject are assessed using the alternate assessments, (2) the state's regular academic assessments remain accessible to all students, and (3) the alternate assessments are peer reviewed and based on the best available evidence. Allows each state to count students who are determined to be proficient using such alternate assessments in its determination of the percentage of the state's students who are meeting or exceeding the state's academic content and achievement standards. Requires states' annual report cards to: (1) include the number and percentage of disabled students who take the alternate assessments; and (2) break that information down by grade, subject matter, and disability type.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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Alternatives

Needs sources: no published alternatives yet (for example a different bill, a law instead of an amendment, or keeping current law). We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT] · 1 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Patty Murray (D-WA)

Sponsor's campaign money: Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT] reported raising $14.0 million (2025–2026). Details. Shown for context only; it does not mean any donor supported this bill.

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Sources

• Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)
• Congress.gov
• Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-114s516.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/114/s>

Record fed-us-cong114-s516 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong114 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong114