28.8 - SCHOOL READY CHILDREN GRANT PROGRAM -- ESTABLISHMENT AND ADMINISTRATION.
28.8 SCHOOL READY CHILDREN GRANT PROGRAM --
ESTABLISHMENT AND ADMINISTRATION.
1. The departments of education, human services, and public
health shall jointly develop and promote a school ready children
grant program which shall provide for all of the following
components:
a. Identify the indicators that will be used to assess the
effectiveness of the school ready children grants, including the
amount of early intellectual stimulation of very young children, the
basic skill levels of students entering school, the health status of
children, the incidence of child abuse and neglect, the level of
parental involvement with their children, and the degree of quality
of and accessibility to child care.
b. Identify guidelines and a process to be used for
determining the readiness of a community empowerment area for
administering school ready children grants.
c. Provide for technical assistance concerning funding
sources, program design, and other pertinent areas.
2. The program developed and components identified under
subsection 1 are subject to approval by the Iowa empowerment board.
The Iowa empowerment board shall provide maximum flexibility to
grantees for the use of the grant moneys included in a school ready
children grant.
3. A school ready children grant shall, at a minimum, be used to
provide the following:
a. Preschool services provided on a voluntary basis to
children deemed at risk of not succeeding in elementary school as
determined by the community board and specified in the grant plan
developed in accordance with this section.
b. Family support services and parent education programs
promoted to parents of children from birth through five years of age.
The services and programs shall be offered in a flexible manner to
accommodate the varying schedules, meeting place requirements, and
other needs of working parents. Family support services shall
include but are not limited to home visitation.
c. A comprehensive school ready children grant plan developed
by a community board for providing services for children from birth
through five years of age including but not limited to child
development services, child care services, training child care
providers to encourage early intellectual stimulation of very young
children, children's health and safety services, assessment services
to identify chemically exposed infants and children, family support
services, and parent education programs. At a minimum, the plan
shall do all of the following:
(1) Describe community needs for children from birth through five
years of age as identified through ongoing assessments.
(2) Describe the current and desired levels of community
coordination of services for children from birth through five years
of age, including the involvement and specific responsibilities of
all related organizations and entities.
(3) Identify all federal, state, local, and private funding
sources available in the community empowerment area that will be used
to provide services to children from birth through five years of age.
(4) Describe how funding sources will be used collaboratively and
the degree to which the moneys can be combined to provide necessary
services to children.
(5) Identify the results the community board expects to achieve
through implementation of the school ready children grant program,
and identify community-specific quantifiable performance indicators
to be reported in the annual report.
4. The community board shall submit an annual report on the
effectiveness of the grant program in addressing school readiness and
children's health and safety needs to the Iowa empowerment board and
to the local governing bodies. The annual report shall indicate the
effectiveness of the community board in achieving state and locally
determined goals.
5. a. A school ready children grant shall be awarded to a
community board annually. The Iowa empowerment board may grant an
extension from the award date and any application deadlines based
upon the award date, to allow for a later implementation date in the
initial year in which a community board submits a comprehensive
school ready grant plan to the Iowa empowerment board. However,
receipt of continued funding is subject to submission of the required
annual report and the Iowa board's determination that the community
board is measuring, through the use of performance and results
indicators developed by the Iowa board with input from community
boards, progress toward and is achieving the desired results
identified in the grant plan. If progress is not measured through
the use of performance and results indicators toward achieving the
identified results, the Iowa board may request a plan of corrective
action, withhold any increase in funding, or withdraw grant funding.
b. The Iowa board shall distribute school ready children
grant moneys to community boards with approved comprehensive school
ready children grant plans based upon a determination of readiness of
the community empowerment area to effectively utilize the moneys,
with the grant moneys being adjusted for other federal and state
grant moneys to be received by the area for services to children from
birth through five years of age.
c. A community board's readiness shall be ascertained by
evidence of successful collaboration among public or private early
care, education, health, or human services interests or a documented
program design evincing a strong likelihood of leading to a
successful collaboration between these interests. Other criteria
which may be used by the Iowa board to ascertain readiness and to
determine funding amounts include one or more of the following:
(1) Experience or other evidence of capacity to successfully
implement the services in the plan.
(2) Local public and private funding and other resources
committed to implementation of the plan.
(3) Adequacy of plans for commitment of local funding and other
resources for implementation of the plan.
d. The Iowa board's provisions for distribution of school
ready grant moneys shall take into account contingencies for possible
increases and decreases in the provision of state and local funding
in future fiscal years which may be used for purposes of school ready
children grants and for early childhood programs grants and for
differences in local capacity for program implementation and
provision of local funding. In developing these provisions, the Iowa
board shall consider equity concerns; options for making capacity
adjustments by restricting grant amounts based on service population
size groupings to accommodate small, medium, and large population
groupings; and options for making adjustments to accommodate varying
amounts of time and assistance needed for implementation, such as
extending the grant period to more than one year.
e. The amount of school ready children grant funding the Iowa
empowerment board may carry forward annually shall not exceed twenty
percent. School ready children grant funds received by a community
empowerment board in a fiscal year shall be carried forward to the
following fiscal year. However, any funds which remain unencumbered
and unobligated in excess of twenty percent of the funds received in
a fiscal year shall be subtracted by the Iowa empowerment board from
the allocation to the community empowerment board for the following
fiscal year.
6. The priorities for school ready children grant funds shall
include providing preschool services on a voluntary basis to children
deemed at risk of not succeeding in elementary school, training child
care providers and others to encourage early intellectual stimulation
of very young children, and offering family support services and
parent education programs on a voluntary basis to parents of children
from birth through five years of age. The grant funds also may be
used to provide other services to children from birth through five
years of age as specified in the comprehensive school ready children
grant plan.
7. It is the intent of the general assembly that community
empowerment areas consider whether support services to prevent the
spread of infectious diseases, prevent child injuries, develop health
emergency protocols, help with medication, and care for children with
special health needs are being provided to child care facilities
registered or licensed under chapter 237A. Section History: Recent Form
98 Acts, ch 1206, §8, 20
C99, §7I.7
99 Acts, ch 190, §13, 18--20; 99 Acts, ch 192, §33
CS99, §28.8
2005 Acts, ch 148, §12--14; 2006 Acts, ch 1157, §8--11; 2008 Acts,
ch 1181, §17, 18; 2009 Acts, ch 177, §14
Referred to in §28.4 Footnotes
If sufficient funding is available, a community empowerment area
board may extend eligibility to children with a family income in
excess of the basic income eligibility requirement; 2009 Acts, ch
177, §6