Tribal Consultation on Executive Order on Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families

Dear Tribal Leader and Indian Education Stakeholder:

On January 29, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) to expand educational freedom and opportunity for families. The EO Section 7 directed the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) within 90 days to review any available mechanisms under which families of students eligible to attend Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools may use their Federal funding for educational options of their choice, including private, faith-based, or public charter schools. EO Section 7 also directed the Secretary to submit a plan to the President describing such mechanisms and the steps necessary to implement them for the 2025-26 school year.

To inform the development of the mechanisms requested in the EO, the BIE conducted two virtual Tribal and education stakeholder consultation sessions on March 14, 2025. The sessions were widely attended, with 484 participants attending the first session and 315 attending the second. As part of the consultation, the BIE received 85 written and 54 verbal comments from Tribes, Tribal community members, Tribal schools, Tribal school boards, Tribal education departments, and other key stakeholders in Indian education. 
To build on those sessions and further uphold the Federal trust responsibility, BIE will host additional formal Tribal consultations on July 14, 2025. During the upcoming consultation, BIE staff will receive comments and review the mechanisms developed as based on feedback from Tribes and stakeholders in March.

Mechanism highlights include:

• Reserving nearly $1.3 million of BIE’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) allocation pursuant to ESEA Section 1003A to allow schools to offer a range of direct student service options. These options will allow parents to exercise a meaningful choice in their child’s education. Such options may include access to advanced courses, dual enrollment, academic tutoring, career and technical education, personalized learning, and out-of-school activities;
• Determining the interests of Tribes exercising authority to assume control of BIE-operated schools under the Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988 and directing ongoing technical assistance to interested parties;
• Increasing the number of Tribal Education Department (TED) grants ahead of the 2025-26 school year to increase local control of education by Tribes and their TEDs; and
• Hosting additional stakeholder input before the 2025-26 school year to strengthen postsecondary pathway development for students.

To develop the above mechanisms, BIE staff analyzed and compiled consultation feedback from 32 Tribes, 14 schools, 2 national organizations, 2 regional organizations, as well as comments received from individual Indian education stakeholders. To inform implementation ahead of the 2025-26 school year deadline, two, 2-hour webinar sessions are scheduled on the EO mechanisms to afford time for input. Because of the unique mission of the BIE, both sessions are open to Tribal Leaders or their delegated representatives or designees, and/or for school boards, parents, teachers, and other public stakeholders.

Additionally, the BIE Chief Academic Officer (CAO) and Division for Performance and Accountability Office will host more specific and separate consultation. This is scheduled for July 15, 2025. Topics include:

• Specific input for strengthening pathways, so identified schools may utilize 1003A funds to further develop such academic programs in alignment with extended learning opportunities for students, including increasing access to advanced courses, career and technical education, credit recovery, and high-quality tutoring; and
• Reviewing in detail the resources and support for transitioning existing BIE-operated schools to BIE-funded, tribally controlled schools.

Oral and written comments will be accepted for all three sessions through 11:59 p.m. PT on 
Friday, July 25, 2025.

The following table lists the dates and registration information for the virtual consultation sessions. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information for joining a meeting.

The language of the EO and associated BIE documents are located at: Tribal Consultation on the Executive Order on Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families | Bureau of Indian Education. The BIE recommends reviewing the information prior to attending a consultation session or submitting written comments to provide meaningful feedback.

If you would like to provide written input, please email your comments to consultationcomments@bie.edu or mail them to Ms. Juanita Mendoza, 1849 C Street, NW, MS 3609, Washington, DC 20240.  If you have any questions regarding the Tribal consultations, you may contact Ms. Juanita Mendoza by phone at (202) 208-3559 or by email at juanita.mendoza@bie.edu.