CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.House Bill 0683
Florida House of Representatives - 1997 HB 683
By Representative Chestnut
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to education; requiring the
3 Department of Children and Family Services and
4 the Department of Education to develop minimum
5 performance standards for all early education
6 and care programs that serve children from
7 birth through 5 years of age; requiring those
8 departments to submit a joint report to the
9 Legislature by October 1, 1997, presenting the
10 performance standards and recommending funding
11 procedures; providing an effective date.
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13 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
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15 Section 1. Performance standards for early childhood
16 education and care programs.--
17 (1) For purposes of this section, the early childhood
18 education and care programs consist of the prekindergarten
19 early-intervention program, the Florida First Start program,
20 the subsidized child care program, the Title I program, the
21 Title I migrant program, the prekindergarten handicapped
22 program, and the teenage parent program.
23 (2) A joint report by the Department of Children and
24 Family Services and the Department of Education shall be
25 submitted to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of
26 the House of Representatives by October 1, 1997, outlining the
27 recommended performance standards. The report must include
28 recommendations for:
29 (a) Providing enhanced funding to communities that
30 have consistently shown that they are maximizing their
31 existing resources to the fullest extent, evidenced through
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Florida House of Representatives - 1997 HB 683
52-154-97
1 local funding collaboratives, multiple contractual
2 arrangements across various programs, federal revenue
3 maximization, and other components as identified by the
4 departments.
5 (b) Providing incentives for individual programs and
6 providers, through grants or increased payment rates, which
7 ensure that families have access to and receive comprehensive
8 services, including, without limitation, a developmentally
9 appropriate educational program, medical and dental health
10 screening and referral services, transportation services for
11 parent and child, mental health services, parent education and
12 parenting-skills training, nutritional services, and parental
13 involvement activities, including parental involvement in
14 program governance.
15 (c) Increasing federal financial participation at the
16 local level, specifically the certification of expenditures in
17 the prekindergarten early-intervention program on children who
18 are eligible for federal participation under Title IV-A of the
19 federal Social Security Act.
20 (d) Specifying the federal waivers that are necessary,
21 and which the departments are pursuing, to achieve the
22 provisions of this section and to accomplish the foregoing
23 recommendations.
24 (e) Providing sanctions for each school district and
25 each health and rehabilitative service district for programs
26 specified in subsection (1) if there is not an established
27 plan toward meeting the minimum set of performance standards
28 and if there is not measurable progress toward meeting the
29 standards.
30 (f) Proposing procedures to develop a local plan to
31 assist each school district in meeting the first state
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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida House of Representatives - 1997 HB 683
52-154-97
1 education goal, readiness to start school. The procedures
2 must provide guidelines to enable each school board and the
3 health and human services board for the service area of the
4 school district to develop and jointly approve a plan that
5 includes:
6 1. A method to implement the performance standards for
7 early childhood programs developed by the Department of
8 Education and the Department of Children and Family Services;
9 and
10 2. A report of the number of 4-year-old children in
11 the school district who are eligible for a publicly supported
12 preschool program and a schedule for serving all eligible
13 4-year-old children in programs of quality by the 2000-2001
14 school year.
15 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 1997.
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18 SENATE SUMMARY
19 Prescribes performance standards for early childhood
education and care programs.
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