Senate Bill No. 592
(By Senators Hunter, Minear, Facemyer,
Minard, Sharpe, White,
Love, Rowe, Caldwell and Jenkins)
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[Introduced February 20, 2004; referred to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §18-5-44 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to allowing certain rural counties
with limited availability of day care facilities to continue
providing early childhood education programs to three-year-
olds.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-5-44 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-44. Early childhood education programs.
(a) For the purposes of this section, "early childhood
education" means programs for children who have attained the age of
four prior to the first day of September of the school year in
which the pupil enters the program created in this section.
(b) Findings. --
(1) Among other positive outcomes, early childhood education
programs have been determined to:
(A) Improve overall readiness when children enter school;
(B) Decrease behavioral problems;
(C) Improve student attendance;
(D) Increase scores on achievement tests;
(E) Decrease the percentage of students repeating a grade; and
(F) Decrease the number of students placed in special
education programs.
(2) Quality early childhood education programs improve school
performance and low-quality early childhood education programs may
have negative effects, especially for at-risk children;
(3) West Virginia has the lowest percentage of its adult
population with a college degree and the education level of parents
is a strong indicator of how their children will perform in school;
(4) West Virginia currently ranks forty-fourth among the fifty
states in the percentage of school children eligible for free and
reduced lunches and this percentage is a strong indicator of how
the children will perform in school;
(5) For the school year two thousand one--two thousand two,
six thousand eight hundred fifty-three students less than five
years of age were enrolled in the public schools, a number equal to
approximately thirty-three percent of the number of five-year-old
students enrolled in kindergarten;
(6) Projections indicate that total student enrollment in West
Virginia will decline by as much as eighteen percent, or by
approximately fifty thousand students, by the school year two
thousand twelve--two thousand thirteen;
(7) In part, because of the dynamics of the state aid formula,
county boards will continue to enroll four-year-old students to
offset the declining enrollments;
(8) West Virginia has a comprehensive kindergarten program for
five-year olds but the program was established in a manner that
resulted in unequal implementation among the counties which helped
create deficit financial situations for several county school
boards;
(9) Expansion of current efforts to implement a comprehensive
early childhood education program should avoid the problems
encountered in kindergarten implementation;
(10) Because of the dynamics of the state aid formula,
counties experiencing growth are at a disadvantage in implementing
comprehensive early childhood education programs; and
(11) West Virginia citizens will benefit from the
establishment of quality comprehensive early childhood education
programs.
(c) Beginning no later than the school year two thousand
twelve--two thousand thirteen, and continuing thereafter, county
boards shall provide early childhood education programs for all children who have attained the age of four prior to the first day
of September of the school year in which the pupil enters the early
childhood education program.
(d) The program shall meet the following criteria:
(1) It shall be voluntary, except, upon enrollment, the
provisions of section one, article eight of this chapter shall
apply to an enrolled student; and
(2) It may be for fewer than five days per week and may be
less than full day.
(e) Enrollment of students in head start, or in any other
program approved by the state superintendent as provided in
subsection (k) of this section, shall be counted toward satisfying
the requirement of subsection (c) of this section.
(f) For the purposes of implementation financing, all counties
are encouraged to make use of funds from existing sources,
including:
(1) Federal funds provided under the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act pursuant to 20 U.S.C. §6301, et seq.;
(2) Federal funds provided for head start pursuant to 42
U.S.C. §9831, et seq.;
(3) Federal funds for temporary assistance to needy families
pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §601, et seq.;
(4) Funds provided by the school building authority pursuant
to article nine-d of this chapter;
(5) In the case of counties with declining enrollments, funds
from the state aid formula above the amount indicated for the
number of students actually enrolled in any school year; and
(6) Any other public or private funds.
(g) Prior to the school year beginning two thousand three,
each county shall develop a plan for implementing the program
required by this section. The plan shall include the following
elements:
(1) An analysis of the demographics of the county related to
early childhood education program implementation;
(2) An analysis of facility and personnel needs;
(3) Financial requirements for implementation and potential
sources of funding to assist implementation;
(4) Details of how the county board will cooperate and
collaborate with other early childhood education programs
including, but not limited to, head start, to maximize federal and
other sources of revenue;
(5) Specific time lines for implementation; and
(6) Such other items as the state board by policy may require.
(h) Prior to the school year beginning two thousand three, a
county board shall submit its plan to the secretary of the
department of health and human resources. The secretary shall
approve the plan if the following conditions are met:
(1) The county has maximized the use of federal and other available funds for early childhood programs;
(2) The county has provided for the maximum implementation of
head start programs and other public and private programs approved
by the state superintendent pursuant to the terms of subsection (k)
of this section; and
(3) If the secretary of the department of health and human
resources finds that the county has not met one or more of the
requirements of this subsection, but that the county has acted in
good faith and the failure to comply was not the primary fault of
the county board, then the secretary shall approve the plan. Any
denial by the secretary may be appealed to the circuit court of the
county in which the county board is located.
(i) Prior to the school year beginning two thousand three, the
county board shall submit its plan for approval to the state board.
The state board shall approve the plan if the county board has
complied substantially with the requirements of subsection (g) of
this section and has obtained the approval required in subsection
(h) of this section.
(j) Every county board shall submit its plan for reapproval by
the secretary of the department of health and human resources and
by the state board at least every two years after the initial
approval of the plan and until full implementation of the early
childhood education program in the county. As part of the
submission, the county board shall provide a detailed statement of the progress made in implementing its plan. The standards and
procedures provided for the original approval of the plan apply to
any reapproval.
(k) Commencing with the school year beginning on the first day
of July, two thousand four, and thereafter, no county board may
increase the total number of students enrolled in the county in an
early childhood program until its program is approved by the
secretary of the department of health and human resources and the
state board has been granted.
(l) The state board annually may grant a county board a waiver
for total or partial implementation if the state board finds that
all of the following conditions exist:
(1) The county board is unable to comply either because:
(A) It does not have sufficient facilities available; or
(B) It does not and has not had available funds sufficient to
implement the program;
(2) The county has not experienced a decline in enrollment at
least equal to the total number of students to be enrolled; and
(3) Other agencies of government have not made sufficient
funds or facilities available to assist in implementation.
Any county seeking a waiver must apply with the supporting
data to meet the criteria for which they are eligible on or before
the twenty-fifth day of March for the following school year. The
state superintendent shall grant or deny the requested waiver on or before the fifteenth day of April of that same year.
(m) The provisions of subsections (b), (c) and (d), section
eighteen of this article relating to kindergarten shall apply to
early childhood education programs in the same manner in which they
apply to kindergarten programs.
(n) On or before the first day of December, two thousand four,
and each year thereafter, the state board shall report to the
legislative oversight commission on education accountability on the
progress of implementation of this section.
(o) During or after the school year beginning in two thousand
four, and except as may be required by federal law or regulation,
no county shall enroll students who will be less than four years of
age prior to the first day of September for the year they enter
school: Provided, That, notwithstanding any provision in this
section to the contrary, a county which is predominantly rural in
nature and has limited availability of day care facilities may
continue to enroll three-year-old students if that county enrolled
three-year-old students in the two thousand three school year. The
state board shall promulgate a rule in accordance with the
provisions of article three-b, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code
setting standards for determining whether a county's rural
population and day care availability warrant the continued
enrollment of three-year-old students.
(p) Neither the state board nor the state department may provide any funds to any county for the purpose of implementing
this section unless the county board has a plan approved pursuant
to subsections (h), (i) and (j) of this section.
(q) The state board shall promulgate a rule in accordance with
the provisions of article three-b, chapter twenty-nine-a of this
code for the purposes of implementing the provisions of this
section. The state board shall consult with the secretary of the
department of health and human resources in the preparation of the
rule. The rule shall contain the following:
(1) Standards for curriculum;
(2) Standards for preparing students;
(3) Attendance requirements;
(4) Standards for personnel; and
(5) Such other terms as may be necessary to implement the
provisions of this section.
(r) The rule shall include the following elements relating to
curriculum standards:
(1) A requirement that the curriculum be designed to address
the developmental needs of four-year-old children, consistent with
prevailing research on how children learn;
(2) A requirement that the curriculum be designed to achieve
long range goals for the social, emotional, physical and academic
development of young children;
(3) A method for including a broad range of content that is relevant, engaging and meaningful to young children;
(4) A requirement that the curriculum incorporate a wide
variety of learning experiences, materials and equipment, and
instructional strategies to respond to differences in prior
experience, maturation rates and learning styles that young
children bring to the classroom;
(5) A requirement that the curriculum be designed to build on
what children already know in order to consolidate their learning
and foster their acquisition of new concepts and skills;
(6) A requirement that the curriculum meet the recognized
standards of the relevant subject matter disciplines;
(7) A requirement that the curriculum engage children actively
in the learning process and provide them with opportunities to make
meaningful choices;
(8) A requirement that the curriculum emphasize the
development of thinking, reasoning, decision-making and
problem-solving skills;
(9) A set of clear guidelines for communicating with parents
and involving them in decisions about the instructional needs of
their children; and
(10) A systematic plan for evaluating program success in
meeting the needs of young children and for helping them to be
ready to succeed in school.
(s) On or before the second day of January, two thousand four, the secretary and the state superintendent submit a report to the
legislative oversight commission on education accountability and
the joint committee on government and finance which address, at a
minimum, the following issues:
(1) A summary of the approved county plans for providing the
early childhood education programs pursuant to this section;
(2) An analysis of the total cost to the state and counties of
implementing the plans;
(3) An A separate analysis of the impact of the plans on
counties with increasing enrollment; and
(4) An analysis of the affect effect of the programs on the
maximization of the use of federal funds for early childhood
programs.
The intent of this subsection is to enable the Legislature to
proceed in a fiscally responsible manner and make any program
improvements as may be necessary based on reported information
prior to implementation of the early childhood education programs.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow certain rural
counties with limited availability of day care facilities to
continue providing early childhood education programs to three-year
olds.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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