The Transition-To-Success Mentoring Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARSON. Madam Speaker, as we mark National Mentoring Month, I am proud to reintroduce legislation to the Transition-To-Success Mentoring Act to help local education agencies prepare at-risk students for the transition from middle school to high school.

I have had many mentors at every stage of my life, whether it was my theatre teacher in school who encouraged me to be who I am and elevated the confidence in myself to pursue sports, or my grandmother who raised me, and who was the reason I find myself following her large footsteps in public service. Mentors are important at every stage in life and especially at a young age. We should help children foster these mentor/ mentee relationships to look up to someone bigger than themselves.

The Transition-To-Success Mentoring Act would establish a grant program for school-based mentoring programs targeted at helping at-risk middle school students transition from middle to high school. Under my legislation, participating students would develop and execute a formalized plan for success in high school and beyond, and be supported by a school faculty member or volunteer from the community known as a ``Success Coach.''

Middle school is a uniquely challenging time for students and ensuring a smooth transition from middle to high school is critical to their long-term success. School-based mentoring is an innovative supplement to the traditional learning that takes place in the classroom, providing underserved and at-risk students with attention and support to keep them engaged in school. This legislation is a small step towards providing some of the most vulnerable students with individual attention to help cross the bridge towards high school, college, and career.

Madam Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in recognizing the need for mentors for our children by signing on to this important legislation.

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