H-893                _______________________________________________

                                                    HOUSE BILL NO. 491

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State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1985 Regular Session

By Representatives Lewis, Appelwick, Walk, Vander Stoep, Smitherman, Doty, Rayburn, Walker, Brooks, Allen, Miller, Winsley, May, Silver and Tanner

Read first time 2/4/85 and referred to Committee on Education.

AN ACT Relating to early childhood education; creating new sections; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     (1) The legislature finds that investment in early childhood programs pays dividends in improved performance in school, reduced remedial education costs, and more productive citizens.  There is ample evidence to indicate that a child's first five years of life are the most critical years of learning and that most of the child's learning potential has been formed by the time he or she reaches school age.  If quality opportunities for learning exist, and the child's home environment becomes an effective "learning laboratory," then the probability of success in school and in life is greatly enhanced.

          The legislature further finds that a significant percentage of kindergarten children entering our schools at age five are two or more years academically delayed in areas such as receptive language, fine motor skills, and visual memory skills.  Even with the use of detailed test data and prescriptive teaching to the areas of deficit, these children find it difficult to make up their academic delays and even with extensive and expensive remedial education services or special education services it is often not possible to make up the deficits.

          (2) It is the purpose of this act to establish a pilot program which will serve as a model for other school districts in developing programs to identify and correct academic delays in preschool children before they enter kindergarten.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     (1) A five-year pilot program shall be established under the direction of the superintendent of public instruction.

          (2) The pilot program shall be established through the Yakima school district's early identification and intervention program and shall accomplish the following:

          (a) Identify high-risk three-year old children who are significantly academically delayed or have medical problems and who may need special education or assistance prior to entering kindergarten;

          (b) Provide information to the family of each child who is screened concerning that child's learning readiness level, suggested parent-child enrichment activities, and community resources in preschool education;

          (c) Provide medical services referral information and follow up contact in order to prevent secondary learning difficulties that can result from sensory or other unattended health programs; and

          (d) Provide a home-based parent education program for families of children identified as at high risk of being developmentally delayed upon entering kindergarten.

          (3) The district superintendent shall appoint a coordinator to be responsible for developing and implementing the program.  The coordinator shall supervise a screening team consisting of five to seven professional and paraprofessional staff recruited from current school staff, community agencies, and the private sector.  Staff shall be reimbursed on an hourly basis.

          (4) Eight hundred to one thousand three-year old children shall be screened annually.

          (5) Families of children found to be at high risk of future educational failure shall be eligible for services including:

          (a) Individual home teaching visits;

          (b) Small group home teaching visits; and

          (c) Quarterly leaflet series.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.     The superintendent of public instruction shall evaluate the progress of the pilot program provided for in section 2 of this act and report his findings to the legislature not later than January 1, 1987.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.     To carry out this act, the sum of four hundred ninety thousand five hundred dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated from the general fund to the superintendent of public instruction for the biennium ending June 30, 1987.