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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
A bill to be entitled 1
An act relating to early learning; amending s. 2
1002.61, F.S.; revising requirements for 3
prekindergarten instructors; amending s. 1002.67, 4
F.S.; prohibiting private prekindergarten provider and 5
public school curricula from using a coordinated 6
screening and progress monitoring program or other 7
specified methods for direct student instruction; 8
amending s. 1002.68, F.S.; authorizing alternative 9
methods for calculating program assessment composite 10
scores; requiring prekindergarten providers and public 11
schools to notify parents under certain circumstances; 12
revising exceptions for a good cause exemption; making 13
technical changes; amending s. 1002.82 , F.S.; revising 14
the performance standards adopted by the Department of 15
Education relating to the Voluntary Prekindergarten 16
Education Program; amending s. 1002.83, F.S.; 17
authorizing an early learning coalition to appoint a 18
certain additional board member; amending s. 1002.89, 19
F.S.; revising school readiness program expenditures 20
that are subject to certain cost requirements; 21
providing an effective date. 22
23
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 24
25
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
Section 1. Subsection (4) of section 1002.61, Florida 26
Statutes, is amended to read: 27
1002.61 Summer prekindergarten program delivered by public 28
schools and private prekindergarten providers. — 29
(4) Notwithstanding ss. 1002.55(3)(c)1. and 1002.63(4), 30
each public school and private prekinderg arten provider must 31
have, for each prekindergarten class, at least one 32
prekindergarten instructor who is a certified teacher or holds 33
one of the educational credentials specified in s. 1002.55(4)(a) 34
or (b), or an educational credential specified in s. 35
1002.55(3)(c)1. as long as the instructor has completed the 36
early literacy micro -credential program under s. 1003.485 or has 37
an instructional support score of 3 or higher on a program 38
assessment conducted under s. 1002.68(2) or s. 1002.82(2)(n) . As 39
used in this subsection, the term "certified teacher" means a 40
teacher holding a valid Florida educator certificate under s. 41
1012.56 who has the qualifications required by the district 42
school board to instruct students in the summer prekindergarten 43
program. In selecting instructional staff for the summer 44
prekindergarten program, each school district shall give 45
priority to teachers who have experience or coursework in early 46
childhood education and have completed emergent literacy and 47
performance standards courses, as pr ovided for in s. 48
1002.55(3)(c)2. 49
Section 2. Paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of section 50
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1002.67, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 51
1002.67 Performance standards and curricula. — 52
(2) 53
(b) Each private prekindergarten provider's and public 54
school's curriculum must be developmentally appropriate and 55
must: 56
1. Be designed to prepare a student for early literacy and 57
provide for instruction in early math skills; 58
2. Develop students' background knowledge through a 59
content-rich and sequential knowledge building early literacy 60
curriculum; 61
3. Enhance the age-appropriate progress of students in 62
attaining the performance standards adopted by the department 63
under subsection (1); and 64
4. Support student learning gains through differentiated 65
instruction that must shall be measured by the coordinated 66
screening and progress monitoring program under s. 1008.25(9). A 67
private prekindergarten provider's or public school's curriculum 68
may not use the coordinated screening and progress monitoring 69
program, any other p rogress monitoring program, or an 70
instructional program that requires one student to one device 71
for direct student instruction. 72
Section 3. Paragraphs (a) and (c) of subsection (4), 73
paragraph (a) of subsection (5), and paragraph (d) of subsection 74
(6) of section 1002.68, Florida Statutes, are amended to read: 75
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1002.68 Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program 76
accountability.— 77
(4)(a) Beginning with the 2024-2025 2023-2024 program 78
year, the department shall adopt a methodology for calculating 79
each private prekindergarten provider's and public school 80
provider's performance metric, which must be based on a 81
combination of the following: 82
1. Program assessment composite scores under subsection 83
(2), which may be calculated differently, based on the 84
methodology adopted by the department, than the program 85
assessment composite score required for contracting in paragraph 86
(5)(a), and which must be weighted at no less than 50 percent. 87
2. Learning gains operationalized as change -in-ability 88
scores from the initial and final progress monitoring results 89
described in subsection (1). 90
3. Norm-referenced developmental learning outcomes 91
described in subsection (1). 92
(c) The program assessment composite score in subsection 93
(5) and performance metric must be cal culated for each private 94
prekindergarten or public school site. 95
(5)(a) Beginning with the 2024 -2025 program year, if a 96
private prekindergarten provider's or public school's 97
performance metric or designation does not maintain falls below 98
the minimum performance metric or designation, the early 99
learning coalition shall: 100
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1. Require the provider or school to submit for approval 101
to the early learning coalition an improvement plan and 102
implement the plan. 103
2. Place the provider or school on probation. 104
3. Require the provider or school to take certain 105
corrective actions, including notifying the parent of each 106
student enrolled in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education 107
Program based on rules adopted by the department and the use of 108
a curriculum approved by the department under s. 1002.67(2)(c) 109
and a staff development plan approved by the department to 110
strengthen instructional practices in emotional support, 111
classroom organization, instructional support, language 112
development, phonological awareness, alphabet kno wledge, and 113
mathematical thinking. 114
(6) 115
(d) A good cause exemption may not be granted to any 116
private prekindergarten provider or public school that has any 117
class I violations or three two or more of the same class II 118
violations, as defined by rule of the Department of Children and 119
Families, within the 2 years preceding the provider's or 120
school's request for the exemption. 121
Section 4. Paragraph (j) of subsection (2) of section 122
1002.82, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 123
1002.82 Department of Educat ion; powers and duties. — 124
(2) The department shall: 125
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(j) Monitor the alignment and consistency of the standards 126
and benchmarks developed and adopted by the department that 127
address the age-appropriate progress of children in the 128
development of school read iness skills. The standards for 129
children from birth to kindergarten entry in the school 130
readiness program must be aligned with the performance standards 131
adopted for children in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education 132
Program and must address the following domains: 133
1. Approaches to learning. 134
2. Cognitive development and general knowledge. 135
3. Numeracy, language, and communication. 136
4. Physical development. 137
5. Executive functioning Self-regulation. 138
Section 5. Present subsections (5) through (16) o f section 139
1002.83, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (6) 140
through (17), respectively, a new subsection (5) is added to 141
that section, and subsection (3) of that section is amended, to 142
read: 143
1002.83 Early learning coalitions. — 144
(3) The Governor shall appoint the chair and two other 145
members of each early learning coalition, who must each meet the 146
qualifications of a private sector business member under 147
subsection (7) (6). In the absence of a governor -appointed 148
chair, the Commissioner of Educa tion may appoint an interim 149
chair from the current early learning coalition board 150
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
membership. 151
(5) Each early learning coalition may choose to appoint an 152
additional public sector board member in order to include a 153
representative of local law enforcement. 154
Section 6. Subsection (4) of section 1002.89, Florida 155
Statutes, is amended to read: 156
1002.89 School readiness program; funding. — 157
(4) COST REQUIREMENTS. —Costs shall be kept to the minimum 158
necessary for the efficient and effective administration of th e 159
school readiness program with the highest priority of 160
expenditure being direct services for eligible children. 161
However, no more than 5 percent of the funds allocated in 162
paragraph (1)(a) may be used for administrative costs and no 163
more than 22 percent of the funds allocated in paragraph (1)(a) 164
may be used in any fiscal year for any combination of 165
administrative costs, quality activities, and nondirect services 166
as follows: 167
(a) Administrative costs as described in 45 C.F.R. s. 168
98.54, which shall include mo nitoring providers using the 169
standard methodology adopted under s. 1002.82 to improve 170
compliance with state and federal regulations and law pursuant 171
to the requirements of the statewide provider contract adopted 172
under s. 1002.82(2)(m). 173
(b) Activities to improve the quality of child care as 174
described in 45 C.F.R. s. 98.53, which shall be limited to the 175
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
following: 176
1. Developing, establishing, expanding, operating, and 177
coordinating resource and referral programs specifically related 178
to the provision of comprehensive consumer education to parents 179
and the public to promote informed child care choices specified 180
in 45 C.F.R. s. 98.33. 181
2. Awarding grants and providing financial support to 182
school readiness program providers and their staff to assist 183
them in meeting applicable state requirements for the program 184
assessment required under s. 1002.82(2)(n), child care 185
performance standards, implementing developmentally appropriate 186
curricula and related classroom resources that support parent 187
engagement curricula, providing literacy supports, and providing 188
continued professional development through the Teacher Education 189
and Compensation Helps (TEACH) Scholarship Program under s. 190
1002.95 and training aligned to the early learning professional 191
development standards and career pathways under s. 1002.995, and 192
reimbursement for background screenings and training. Any grants 193
awarded pursuant to this subparagraph must shall comply with ss. 194
215.971 and 287.058. 195
3. Providing training aligned with the early learning 196
professional development standards and career pathways under s. 197
1002.995, technical assistance, and financial support to school 198
readiness program providers, staff, and parents on standards, 199
child screenings, child assessments, the child development 200
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research and best practices, developmentally appropriate 201
curriculum under s. 1002.82(2)(l), executive functioning 202
curricula, character development , teacher-child interactions, 203
age-appropriate discipline practices, health and safety, 204
nutrition, first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the 205
recognition of communicable diseases, and child abuse detection, 206
prevention, and reporting. 207
4. Providing, from among the funds provided for the 208
activities described in subparagraphs 1. -3., adequate funding 209
for infants and toddlers as necessary to meet federal 210
requirements related to expenditures for quality activities for 211
infant and toddler care. 212
5. Improving the monitoring of compliance with, and 213
enforcement of, applicable state and local requirements as 214
described in and limited by 45 C.F.R. s. 98.40. 215
6. Responding to Warm -Line requests by providers and 216
parents, including providing developmental and health screenings 217
to school readiness program children. 218
(c) Nondirect services as described in applicable Office 219
of Management and Budget instructions are those services not 220
defined as administrative, direct, or quality services that are 221
required to administer the school readiness program. Such 222
services include, but are not limited to: 223
1. Assisting families to complet e the required application 224
and eligibility documentation. 225
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2. Determining child and family eligibility. 226
3. Recruiting eligible child care providers. 227
4. Processing and tracking attendance records. 228
5. Developing and maintaining a statewide child care 229
information system. 230
231
As used in this paragraph, the term "nondirect services" does 232
not include payments to school readiness program providers for 233
direct services provided to children who are eligible under s. 234
1002.87, administrative costs as described in p aragraph (a), or 235
quality activities as described in paragraph (b). 236
Section 7. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024. 237