This week, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., brought back a bill to have the U.S. Education Department “include a new longitudinal component on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student outcomes and well-being to an existing longitudinal educational study.”

Rubio first introduced the “Assessing Children’s Academic Development and the Emotional and Mental Health Implications of COVID-19 (ACADEMIC) Act” in March 2022 with U.S. Sens. Bob Casey, D-Penn., Maggie Hassan, D-NH, and Tim Scott, R-SC, as co-sponsors. Rubio reintroduced the bill this week with Hassan as the only co-sponsor.

“This legislation would require a measure of the long-term impact from COVID-related school closures, remote learning, and other factors on pre-kindergarten, elementary, and secondary school students, including academic achievement (learning loss); social-emotional well-being; and mental, behavioral, and physical health,” Rubio’s office noted.

“COVID disrupted the lives of students across the country, and we are only beginning to see the harm done to our kids. Understanding the pandemic’s long-term impact on students’ academic achievements and well-being is critical to avoiding future mistakes and correcting the ones we’ve made,” Rubio said this week.

“Students need to be in school and we are only beginning to understand the impact of school closures on kids and teenagers,” Hassan said when the bill was first introduced. “It’s clear that more research needs to be done so we can better assess learning loss and social impacts, as well as other effects. The results of this study will help give us a roadmap to figuring out how we can best help our kids and support their education.”

Rubio’s bill was sent to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. So far, there is no companion bill in the U.S. House.