Sponsors (2)
The bill creates a federal standard and pushes adult education/workforce programs to teach digital skills—helping many adults gain job-relevant abilities and improving program consistency—while risking to widen the digital access gap and impose budgetary and administrative burdens on providers.
State and local workforce boards, adult education programs, and learners will have a single federal statutory definition of “digital literacy skills,” enabling more consistent eligibility, curriculum alignment, and program delivery across WIOA and adult education programs.
Adults — including unemployed and low-income individuals — will receive digital skills training that can improve job prospects and economic self-sufficiency.
Parents and family members will be able to develop digital skills that help them support their children’s learning and participate more effectively in civic and family life.
Learners without reliable devices or internet access (especially low-income individuals and some students) risk being left behind if programs assume digital access.
Implementing digital literacy expectations may require additional funding and staff training, straining adult education budgets and potentially diverting resources from other core literacy services.
States and local providers will incur administrative costs to revise materials, guidance, and curricula to conform to the new cross-referenced definition.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Introduced May 23, 2025 by Maggie Goodlander · Last progress May 23, 2025
Adds digital literacy as a defined objective and set of activities within the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act's adult education program. The bill inserts a statutory cross‑reference to an existing definition of “digital literacy skills,” requires adult education objectives and learning outcomes to include digital technology use and problem solving, and creates explicit family/parent digital literacy activities to support children’s learning.