8235-8239
EDUCATION CODE
SECTION 8235-8239
8235. (a) The Superintendent shall administer all California state preschool programs. Those programs shall include, but not be limited to, part-day and full-day age and developmentally appropriate programs for three- and four-year old children in educational development, health services, social services, nutritional services, parent education and parent participation, evaluation, and staff development. Preschool programs for which federal reimbursement is not available shall be funded as prescribed by the Legislature in the Budget Act, and unless otherwise specified by the Legislature, shall not utilize federal funds made available through Title XX of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1397). (b) Three- and four-year-old children are eligible for the part-day California state preschool program if the family meets at least one of the criteria specified in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 8263. (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a part-day California state preschool program may provide services to children in families whose income is no more than 15 percent above the income eligibility threshold, as described in Sections 8263 and 8263.1, after all eligible three- and four-year-old children have been enrolled. No more than 10 percent of children enrolled, calculated throughout the participating program's entire contract, may be filled by children in families above the income eligibility threshold. (d) A part-day California state preschool program shall operate for a minimum of (1) three hours per day, excluding time for home-to-school transportation, and (2) a minimum of 175 days per year, unless the contract specifies a lower number of days of operation. (e) Three- and four-year-old children are eligible for full-day California state preschool program services if the family meets at least one of the criteria specified in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 8263, and the parents meet at least one of the criteria specified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 8263. (f) A full-day California state preschool program shall operate (1) full time determined by the number of hours necessary to meet the child care and development needs of families, and (2) a minimum of 246 days per year, unless the contract specifies a lower number of days of operation. (g) Fees shall be assessed and collected for families with children in the full-day California state preschool program pursuant to subdivisions (g) and (h) of Section 8263. Fees shall not be assessed for families whose children are enrolled in the part-day California state preschool program. (h) Any agency described in subdivision (c) of Section 8208 as an "applicant or contracting agency" is eligible to contract to operate a California state preschool program. 8236. (a) (1) Each applicant or contracting agency funded pursuant to Section 8235 shall give first priority to three- or four-year-old neglected or abused children who are recipients of child protective services, or who are at risk of being neglected, abused, or exploited upon written referral from a legal, medical, or social service agency. If an agency is unable to enroll a child in this first priority category, the agency shall refer the child's parent or guardian to local resource and referral services so that services for the child can be located. (2) Notwithstanding Section 8263, after children in the first priority category set forth in paragraph (1) are enrolled, each agency funded pursuant to Section 8235 shall give priority to eligible four-year-old children prior to enrolling eligible three-year-old children. Each agency shall certify to the Superintendent that enrollment priority is being given to eligible four-year-old children. (b) For California state preschool programs operating with funding that was initially allocated in a prior fiscal year, at least one-half of the children enrolled at a preschool site shall be four-year-old children. Any exception to this requirement shall be approved by the Superintendent. The Superintendent shall inform the Secretary for Education and the Department of Finance of any exceptions that have been granted and the reasons for granting the exceptions. (c) The following provisions apply to the award of new funding for the expansion of the California state preschool program that is appropriated by the Legislature for that purpose in any fiscal year: (1) In an application for those expansion funds, an agency shall furnish the Superintendent with an estimate of the number of four-year-old and three-year-old children that it plans to serve in the following fiscal year with those expansion funds. The agency also shall furnish documentation that indicates the basis of those estimates. (2) In awarding contracts for expansion pursuant to this subdivision, the Superintendent, after taking into account the geographic criteria established pursuant to Section 8279.3, and the headquarters preferences and eligibility criteria relating to fiscal or programmatic noncompliance established pursuant to Section 8261, shall give priority to applicant agencies that, in expending the expansion funds, will be serving the highest percentage of four-year-old children. (d) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to preclude a local educational agency from subcontracting with an appropriate public or private agency to operate a California state preschool program and to apply for funds made available for the purposes of this section. If a school district chooses not to operate or subcontract for a California state preschool program, the Superintendent shall work with the county office of education and other eligible agencies to explore possible opportunities in contracting or alternative subcontracting to provide a California state preschool program. (e) Nothing in this section shall prevent eligible children who are currently receiving services from continuing to receive those services in future years pursuant to this chapter. 8236.1. The department shall annually monitor funding utilized in general child care and development programs for infants and toddlers, and hours of service provided in the California state preschool program, and shall annually report to the Department of Finance and to the Legislature a statewide summary identifying the estimated funding utilized for infants and toddlers, and the number of preschool age children receiving part-time and full-time development services. The annual report shall include a comparison to the prior year on a county-by-county basis. 8236.2. (a) The Superintendent shall encourage California state preschool program contracting agencies to offer full-day services to parents who have a qualifying need. (b) Part-day services shall be reimbursed on a per capita basis, as determined by the Superintendent. (c) Full-day services shall be reimbursed at no more than the standard reimbursement rate with adjustment factors. (d) Federal Head Start funds used to provide services to families receiving California state preschool services shall be deemed nonrestricted funds. 8237. A part-day California state preschool program contracting agency has 120 calendar days prior to the first day of the beginning of the new preschool year to certify eligibility and enroll families into their program. Subsequent to enrollment, a child shall be deemed eligible for a part-day California state preschool program for the remainder of the program year. 8238. As a condition of receipt of funds pursuant to Section 8238.4, a participating program shall include, but not be limited to, both of the following: (a) Age and developmentally appropriate activities for children in participating classrooms that are designed to facilitate their transition to kindergarten. (b) Opportunities for parents and legal guardians to work with their children on interactive literacy activities. For purposes of this subdivision, "interactive literacy activities" means activities in which parents or legal guardians actively participate in facilitating the acquisition by their children of prereading skills through guided activities such as shared reading, learning the alphabet, and basic vocabulary development. 8238.1. As a condition of receipt of funds pursuant to Section 8238.4, a participating program shall coordinate the provision of all of the following: (a) Parenting education for parents and legal guardians of children in participating classrooms to support the development by their children of literacy skills. Parenting education shall include, but not be limited to, instruction in all of the following: (1) Providing support for the educational growth and success of their children. (2) Improving the parent-school communications and parental understanding of school structures and expectations. (3) Becoming active partners with teachers in the education of their children. (b) Referrals, as necessary, to providers of instruction in adult education and English as a second language in order to improve the academic skills of parents and legal guardians of children in participating classrooms. 8238.2. A local educational agency or a participating program on behalf of one or more participating programs may select a family literacy and education coordinator whose duties may include all of the following: (a) Developing a system to coordinate the provision of literacy services to families at the local educational agency and community level. (b) Creating an organizational partnership between each program provider and an adult education program operated by a local educational agency or other community provider, as needed. (c) Promoting parental involvement in participating classrooms. 8238.3. As a condition of receipt of funds pursuant to Section 8238.4, a participating program shall provide staff development for teachers in participating classrooms that includes, but is not limited to, all of the following: (a) Development of a pedagogical knowledge including, but not limited to, improved instructional strategies. (b) Knowledge and application of developmentally appropriate assessments of the prereading skills of children in participating classrooms. (c) Information on working with families, including the use of on site coaching, for guided practice in interactive literacy activities. 8238.4. Of funds appropriated in Schedule (1) of Item 6110-196-0001 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2006 (Ch. 48, Stats. 2006) for child development and preschool programs, fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) is available for expenditure by the Superintendent as follows: (a) (1) Forty-five million dollars ($45,000,000) to reimburse participating programs on a per-child basis at the same rate that is used for the state preschool program, as determined in the annual Budget Act or other statute. (2) The funds described in paragraph (1) shall be assigned to programs located in the attendance area of elementary schools in deciles 1 to 3, inclusive, based on the 2005 base Academic Performance Index pursuant to Section 52056. Within elementary schools in deciles 1 to 3, inclusive, based on the 2005 base Academic Performance Index, preference shall be provided to underserved areas as described in subdivision (d) of Section 8279.3. If the funds described in paragraph (1) are offered under a new competitive bidding process after January 1, 2008, due to the termination, suspension, or relinquishment of an original contract award and in order to maintain an existing class, the department shall assign first priority to successful applicants that will maintain that class within the attendance area of the elementary school as originally granted. (3) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, programs receiving funding in this section shall serve children who would attend kindergarten in the subsequent academic year. No child shall receive services from a program under this section for more than one year. (4) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a program receiving funding pursuant to this section may provide services to children in families above the income eligibility threshold, as described in Sections 8263 and 8263.1, if the number of contracted slots exceed the number of eligible children. No more than 20 percent of contracted slots, calculated throughout the participating program' s entire contract, may be filled by children in families above the income eligibility threshold. (5) The department shall report to the Department of Finance and the Legislature in the annual report specified in Section 8236.1 and in the same format used for the annual report, the number of children who are being served by the California state preschool program. The report shall also include the number of children served above the income eligibility threshold and the age of all children served. (b) (1) Five million dollars ($5,000,000) to be distributed to each participating class at a rate of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) per class per school year. Funds received pursuant to this subdivision may be used for all of the following purposes: (A) Compensation and support costs for program coordinators as described in Section 8238.2. (B) Staff development pursuant to Section 8238.3. (C) Family literacy services. (D) Instructional materials, including consumables. (2) In the event that the total amount described in paragraph (1) is insufficient to fund all of the participating class at the per classroom rate described in that paragraph, the class rate shall be prorated accordingly. (3) Eligibility to receive funding pursuant to this subdivision is restricted to participating programs that were eligible to receive funding pursuant to this section in the 2007-08 fiscal year. (c) The appropriation of funds for purposes of this section beyond the amounts described in this section shall be pursuant to the annual Budget Act or other statute. (d) Notwithstanding the provisions of this section to the contrary, programs receiving funding pursuant to this section may participate in all California state preschool programs administered by the Superintendent pursuant to Section 8235. 8238.5. Subject to the availability of funds for purposes of this section, as described in subdivision (c) of 8238.4, the Superintendent shall conduct an evaluation of the effectiveness of prekindergarten and family literacy programs established pursuant to this article. To the extent feasible, the evaluation shall do both of the following: (a) Rely on quantifiable measures of academic achievement of participating children, including, but not limited to, performance on the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program test and the English language development test administered in grade 3. (b) Estimate the costs and benefits of the programs. 8238.6. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, up to five million dollars ($5,000,000) of unearned contract funds appropriated in Schedule (1.5)(a) of Item 6110-196-0001 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2005 (Ch. 38, Stats. 2005) for general child care programs is available for expenditure by the Superintendent to provide direct child care services for children in participating classrooms to meet the child care needs of parents for the portion of each day that is not covered by services provided as part of a preschool program pursuant Section 8238.4. 8239. The Superintendent shall encourage state preschool program applicants or contracting agencies to offer full-day services through a combination of part-day preschool slots and part-day general child care and development programs. In order to facilitate a full-day of services, all of the following shall apply: (a) Part-day preschool programs provided pursuant to this section shall operate between 175 and 180 days. (b) Part-day general child care and development programs provided pursuant to this section may operate a minimum of 246 days per year unless the child development contract specified a lower minimum days of operation. Part-day general child care and development programs may operate a full-day for the remainder of the year after the completion of the preschool program. (c) Full day services provided under this section shall be reimbursed at no more than the standard reimbursement rate with adjustment factors. (d) Notwithstanding any provision of law, to be eligible for part-day child care, a child who is enrolled in a preschool program shall be required to meet the eligibility requirements specified in paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of Section 8238.4 and the requirements pursuant to Sections 8263 and 8263.1 at the time of enrollment in a preschool. Subsequent to enrollment, a child shall be deemed eligible for part-day care as long as the child is enrolled in a preschool program.