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 is hosting additional Tribal consultations.
Invitation
Sessions
Comment Deadline
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. The deadline for comments is Friday, July 25, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
