Bill Text: FL S0518 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Failed) 2015-05-01 - Died in Appropriations [S0518 Detail]
Download: Florida-2015-S0518-Introduced.html
Florida Senate - 2015 SB 518 By Senator Gibson 9-00641-15 2015518__ 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to the Voluntary Prekindergarten 3 Education Program; amending s. 1002.53, F.S.; revising 4 provisions relating to calculation of the kindergarten 5 readiness rate for Voluntary Prekindergarten Education 6 Program providers and schools; amending s. 1002.67, 7 F.S.; requiring the administration of a preassessment 8 and postassessment to students based upon adopted 9 performance standards; providing assessment 10 requirements; requiring the assessments to be 11 administered by certain personnel and during certain 12 time periods; requiring the assessments to be used to 13 calculate the kindergarten readiness rate; amending s. 14 1002.69, F.S.; requiring the Office of Early Learning 15 to annually report to the State Board of Education 16 certain student growth data; providing an effective 17 date. 18 19 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 20 21 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (5) of section 22 1002.53, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 23 1002.53 Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program; 24 eligibility and enrollment.— 25 (5) The early learning coalition shall provide each parent 26 enrolling a child in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education 27 Program with a profile of every private prekindergarten provider 28 and public school delivering the program within the county where 29 the child is being enrolled. The profiles shall be provided to 30 parents in a format prescribed by the Office of Early Learning. 31 The profiles must include, at a minimum, the following 32 information about each provider and school: 33 (b) The provider’s or school’s kindergarten readiness rate 34 calculated in accordance with ss. 1002.67 ands.1002.69, based 35 upon the most recent available results of the preassessment and 36 postassessment and the statewide kindergarten screening. 37 Section 2. Paragraph (b) of subsection (1) and subsection 38 (3) of section 1002.67, Florida Statutes, are amended to read: 39 1002.67 Performance standards; curricula and 40 accountability.— 41 (1) 42 (b) The office shall periodically review and revise the 43 performance standards for the preassessment and postassessment 44 administered under this section and the statewide kindergarten 45 screening administered under s. 1002.69 and align the standards 46 to the standards established by the state board for student 47 performance on the statewide assessments administered pursuant 48 to s. 1008.22. 49 (3)(a)Contingent upon legislative appropriation,Each 50 private prekindergarten provider and public school in the 51 Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program must implement an 52 evidence-based preassessment and postassessmentpre- and post53assessmentthat has been approved by rule of the State Board of 54 Education. 55 (b) In order to be approved, the assessmentsassessment56 must: 57 1. Be valid, reliable, developmentally appropriate, and 58 observation-based;and59 2. Be developed using norm samples similar to Florida’s 60 population of children from birth through age 5; 61 3. Be based upon the performance standards adopted by the 62 department under subsection (1) and be designed to measure 63 student progress on domains which must include, but are not 64 limited to, early literacy, numeracy, and language;.65 4. Be appropriate for English language learners and 66 students with disabilities; 67 5. Be available in multiple languages; 68 6. Have processes for ensuring the ongoing reliability of 69 the assessments; and 70 7. Be supported by evidence-based professional development 71 programs. 72 (c) The preassessment and postassessmentpre- and post73assessmentmust be administered by prekindergarten instructors 74individualsmeeting requirements established by rule of the 75 State Board of Education during the first and last 2 weeks of 76 the school-year prekindergarten program or summer 77 prekindergarten program. 78 (d) Each parent who enrolls his or her child in the 79 Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program must submit the 80 child for the preassessment and postassessment. 81 (e) The preassessment and postassessment data shall be used 82 in calculating a private prekindergarten provider’s and public 83 school’s kindergarten readiness rate pursuant to s. 1002.69(5). 84 Section 3. Subsection (5) of section 1002.69, Florida 85 Statutes, is amended to read: 86 1002.69 Statewide kindergarten screening; kindergarten 87 readiness rates; state-approved prekindergarten enrollment 88 screening; good cause exemption.— 89 (5) The office shall adopt procedures to annually calculate 90 each private prekindergarten provider’s and public school’s 91 kindergarten readiness rate, which must be expressed as the 92 percentage of the provider’s or school’s students who are 93 assessed as ready for kindergarten. The methodology for 94 calculating each provider’s kindergarten readiness rate must 95 include student learning gains when available and the percentage 96 of students who meet all state readiness measures. The rates 97 must not include students who are not administered the statewide 98 kindergarten screening. The office shall determine learning 99 gains using a value-added measure based on growth demonstrated 100 by the results of the preassessment and postassessment, pursuant 101 to s. 1002.67, from at least 2 successive years of 102 administration of the preassessment and postassessment. The 103 office shall annually report to the State Board of Education the 104 appropriate level of growth to calculate the kindergarten 105 readiness rate of each Voluntary Prekindergarten Education 106 Program provider. 107 Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2015.