Bill Text: CT SB00944 | 2015 | General Assembly | Comm Sub
Bill Title: An Act Establishing A Full-day Kindergarten Requirement.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-03-25 - Favorable Change of Reference, House to Committee on Appropriations [SB00944 Detail]
Download: Connecticut-2015-SB00944-Comm_Sub.html
General Assembly |
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January Session, 2015 |
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AN ACT ESTABLISHING A FULL-DAY KINDERGARTEN REQUIREMENT.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 10-15 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2017):
Public schools, including kindergartens, shall be maintained in each town for at least one hundred eighty days of actual school sessions during each year, and for the school year commencing July 1, 2014, and each school year thereafter, in accordance with the provisions of section 10-66q. When public school sessions are cancelled for reasons of inclement weather or otherwise, the rescheduled sessions shall not be held on Saturday or Sunday. Public schools may conduct weekend education programs to provide supplemental and remedial services to students. A local or regional board of education for a school that has been designated as a low achieving school pursuant to subparagraph (A) of subdivision (1) of subsection (e) of section 10-223e, or a category four school or a category five school pursuant to [said] section 10-223e, may increase the number of actual school sessions during each year, and may increase the number of hours of actual school work per school session in order to improve student performance and remove the school from the list of schools designated as a low achieving school maintained by the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education (1) may authorize the shortening of any school year for a school district, a school or a portion of a school on account of an unavoidable emergency, [and] (2) may authorize implementation of scheduling of school sessions to permit full year use of facilities which may not offer each child one hundred eighty days of school sessions within a given school year, but which assures an opportunity for each child to average a minimum of one hundred eighty days of school sessions per year during thirteen years of educational opportunity in the elementary and secondary schools, [. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section and section 10-16, the State Board of Education] and (3) may, upon application by a local or regional board of education, approve for any single school year, in whole or in part, a plan to implement alternative scheduling of school sessions [which] that assures at least four hundred fifty hours of actual school work for nursery schools [and half-day kindergartens] and at least nine hundred hours of actual school work for [full-day kindergartens and grades one] grades kindergarten to twelve, inclusive.
Sec. 2. Section 10-16 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2017):
Each school district shall provide in each school year no less than one hundred and eighty days of actual school sessions and nine hundred hours of actual school work for grades kindergarten to twelve, inclusive, [nine hundred hours of actual school work for full-day kindergarten and grades one to twelve, inclusive, and four hundred and fifty hours of half-day kindergarten,] provided school districts shall not count more than seven hours of actual school work in any school day [towards] toward the total required for the school year. [If weather conditions result in an early dismissal or a delayed opening of school, a school district which maintains separate morning and afternoon half-day kindergarten sessions may provide either a morning or afternoon half-day kindergarten session on such day.]
Sec. 3. (Effective July 1, 2015) For the fiscal years ending June 30, 2016, to June 30, 2018, inclusive, the Department of Education shall, within available appropriations, provide support and technical assistance to any local or regional board of education that begins implementation of the full-day kindergarten requirement pursuant to sections 10-15 and 10-16 of the general statutes, as amended by this act.
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections: | ||
Section 1 |
July 1, 2017 |
10-15 |
Sec. 2 |
July 1, 2017 |
10-16 |
Sec. 3 |
July 1, 2015 |
New section |
ED |
Joint Favorable Subst. C/R |
APP |