BILL REQ. #:  S-4029.2 

Read first time 01/29/14.   Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

     AN ACT Relating to creating a competitive grant program to provide additional classroom space to support all-day kindergarten; and amending RCW 28A.150.315.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 28A.150.315 and 2012 c 51 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Beginning with the 2007-08 school year, funding for voluntary all-day kindergarten programs shall be phased-in beginning with schools with the highest poverty levels, defined as those schools with the highest percentages of students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch support in the prior school year. During the 2011-2013 biennium, funding shall continue to be phased-in each year until full statewide implementation of all-day kindergarten is achieved in the 2017-18 school year. Once a school receives funding for the all-day kindergarten program, that school shall remain eligible for funding in subsequent school years regardless of changes in the school's percentage of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunches as long as other program requirements are fulfilled. Additionally, schools receiving all-day kindergarten program support shall agree to the following conditions:
     (a) Provide at least a one thousand-hour instructional program;
     (b) Provide a curriculum that offers a rich, varied set of experiences that assist students in:
     (i) Developing initial skills in the academic areas of reading, mathematics, and writing;
     (ii) Developing a variety of communication skills;
     (iii) Providing experiences in science, social studies, arts, health and physical education, and a world language other than English;
     (iv) Acquiring large and small motor skills;
     (v) Acquiring social and emotional skills including successful participation in learning activities as an individual and as part of a group; and
     (vi) Learning through hands-on experiences;
     (c) Establish learning environments that are developmentally appropriate and promote creativity;
     (d) Demonstrate strong connections and communication with early learning community providers; and
     (e) Participate in kindergarten program readiness activities with early learning providers and parents.
     (2)(a) It is the intent of the legislature that administration of the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills as required in this subsection (2) and RCW 28A.655.080 replace administration of other assessments being required by school districts or that other assessments only be administered if they seek to obtain information not covered by the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills.
     (b) In addition to the requirements in subsection (1) of this section and to the extent funds are available, beginning with the 2011-12 school year on a voluntary basis, schools must identify the skills, knowledge, and characteristics of kindergarten students at the beginning of the school year in order to support social-emotional, physical, and cognitive growth and development of individual children; support early learning provider and parent involvement; and inform instruction. Kindergarten teachers shall administer the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills, as directed by the superintendent of public instruction in consultation with the department of early learning and in collaboration with the nongovernmental private-public partnership designated in RCW 43.215.070, and report the results to the superintendent. The superintendent shall share the results with the director of the department of early learning.
     (c) School districts shall provide an opportunity for parents and guardians to excuse their children from participation in the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills.
     (3) Subject to funds appropriated for this purpose, the superintendent of public instruction shall designate one or more school districts to serve as resources and examples of best practices in designing and operating a high-quality all-day kindergarten program. Designated school districts shall serve as lighthouse programs and provide technical assistance to other school districts in the initial stages of implementing an all-day kindergarten program. Examples of topics addressed by the technical assistance include strategic planning, developing the instructional program and curriculum, working with early learning providers to identify students and communicate with parents, and developing kindergarten program readiness activities.
     (4)(a) The legislature recognizes that insufficient classroom space has impeded the phase-in of state-funded all-day kindergarten specified in this section even though the school construction assistance program under chapter 28A.525 RCW has included all-day kindergarten in the calculation of necessary classroom space since 2001. The legislature intends to assist school districts in the phase-in of all-day kindergarten with the competitive grant program described in this subsection.
     (b) The all-day kindergarten facility grant program must be administered by the superintendent of public instruction in consultation with an advisory committee. The advisory committee must include three school district facility managers, one each from an urban, suburban, and rural school district, selected by the superintendent of public instruction, and four community members selected by the governor representing parents and organizations concerned with early education and student academic performance. The superintendent of public instruction must develop grant application materials in consultation with the advisory committee, must review applications for accuracy and financial reasonableness, and must administer awarded grants. The advisory committee must review applications against the criteria specified in (d) of this subsection and recommend a single rank-ordered list. The superintendent of public instruction may modify the rank-ordered list received by the advisory committee for inclusion in the agency's capital budget request, but must also submit to the governor and fiscal committees of the legislature the original ranking by the advisory committee with explanations for any changes made to the ranking. The governor may use the original list prepared by the advisory committee or may consider any changes recommended by the office of the superintendent of public instruction in preparing the governor's capital budget request.
     (c) One hundred percent of project costs are eligible for kindergarten classroom grants under this program for:
     (i) Facilities owned by public school districts or public charter schools;
     (ii) Facilities built or modernized prior to 2003; and
     (iii) Project costs for design, construction, purchase and installation of modular buildings, project management, capitalized equipment, and fixtures.
     (d) The criteria listed in this subsection must be used to rank grant requests. In applying these criteria, the advisory committee should seek to recommend funding for projects that provide necessary classroom space in districts furthest behind in implementing state-funded all-day kindergarten, with the highest enrollment percentages of students eligible for free and reduced-price school lunches, in districts least able to provide the necessary classroom space from local sources. The criteria are:
     (i) The extent that implementing state-funded all-day kindergarten is impeded by the lack of classroom space in the district as verified by site visits by the office of the superintendent of public instruction;
     (ii) The kindergarten classroom space is needed in schools with the highest free and reduced-price school lunch enrollment percentages; and
     (iii) Economic conditions within the district that limit the ability of the district to finance the necessary classroom space from local sources.
     (e) For the first competitive round of grant applications to be considered for inclusion in the governor's capital budget request for the 2015-2017 biennium, an expedited grant application and review process must be conducted by the superintendent of public instruction and the advisory committee. The first rank-ordered list of proposed grants must be submitted to the office of financial management and the appropriate committees of the legislature by October 30, 2014. Following that first submission, the superintendent of public instruction must prepare a biennial grant application cycle for subsequent biennia.
     (f) The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall write rules to ensure new space added with funding provided by this grant is included in the eligible inventory for the school construction assistance program. Grant funds provided under this section must not be counted as local match for the school construction assistance program.