S-3968.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6244

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington   57th Legislature        2002 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Education (originally sponsored by Senators McAuliffe, Carlson, Eide, Kastama, Rasmussen, Regala, Kohl‑Welles, Keiser, Franklin and Fairley)

READ FIRST TIME 02/04/2002.

Establishing an accreditation process for prekindergarten programs.

    AN ACT Relating to prekindergarten; and adding new sections to chapter 28A.215 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature intends to establish a process for public and nonpublic prekindergarten programs to seek voluntary accreditation, by the state board of education, of their child development and educational offerings.  The purpose of the accreditation is to give parents and other consumers of prekindergarten programs some standard to use to assess the quality of prekindergarten programs and the program's ability to prepare children for kindergarten.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  By rule, the state board of education shall adopt standards and procedures for the accreditation of all public and nonpublic prekindergarten programs.  The standards for accreditation shall require that the programs provide the children with the academic skills that are needed for the children to be successful as they enter into the next level of school.  Such programs are encouraged to apply for accreditation.  In developing standards, the state board of education shall review nationally developed standards.  However, before any standards or procedures for accreditation of prekindergarten programs are implemented, the state board of education shall present the standards and procedures to the education committees of the house of representatives and the senate for the committees' review and comment.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  The state board of education shall post a list of accredited prekindergarten programs on the board's internet web site.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.  Sections 1 through 3 of this act are each added to chapter 28A.215 RCW.

                            --- END ---