The Florida Senate

1002.69  Statewide kindergarten screening; kindergarten readiness rates.--

(1)  The department shall adopt a statewide kindergarten screening that assesses the readiness of each student for kindergarten based upon the performance standards adopted by the department under s. 1002.67(1) for the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program. The department shall require that each school district administer the statewide kindergarten screening to each kindergarten student in the school district within the first 30 school days of each school year.

(2)  The statewide kindergarten screening shall provide objective data concerning each student's readiness for kindergarten and progress in attaining the performance standards adopted by the department under s. 1002.67(1).

(3)  The statewide kindergarten screening shall incorporate mechanisms for recognizing potential variations in kindergarten readiness rates for students with disabilities.

(4)  Each parent who enrolls his or her child in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program must submit the child for the statewide kindergarten screening, regardless of whether the child is admitted to kindergarten in a public school or nonpublic school. Each school district shall designate sites to administer the statewide kindergarten screening for children admitted to kindergarten in a nonpublic school.

(5)  The State Board of Education shall adopt procedures for the department to annually calculate each private prekindergarten provider's and public school's kindergarten readiness rate, which must be expressed as the percentage of the provider's or school's students who are assessed as ready for kindergarten. The kindergarten readiness rates must be based exclusively upon the results of the statewide kindergarten screening for students completing the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program, beginning with students completing the program during the 2005-2006 school year who are administered the statewide kindergarten screening during the 2006-2007 school year. The rates must not include students who are not administered the statewide kindergarten screening.

(6)(a)  The State Board of Education shall periodically adopt a minimum kindergarten readiness rate that, if achieved by a private prekindergarten provider or public school, would demonstrate the provider's or school's satisfactory delivery of the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program.

(b)  The minimum rate must not exceed the rate at which more than 15 percent of the kindergarten readiness rates of all private prekindergarten providers and public schools delivering the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program in the state would fall below the minimum rate.

History.--s. 1, ch. 2004-484.