This bill mandates that school districts receiving preschool education aid establish a mixed delivery system for providing free preschool opportunities. This system requires partnerships between school districts and licensed child care providers as well as Head Start programs within the same or neighboring communities. The bill emphasizes that districts must maximize the availability of free preschool options through these partnerships and prohibits selective assignment of preschool pupils to programs based on age or other characteristics that could influence educational costs.

Additionally, the bill assigns the responsibility of ensuring compliance with these requirements to the Department of Education, which is tasked with providing guidance and technical assistance to school districts and their partners in implementing the mixed delivery system. The new legal language inserted into the current law outlines these requirements and the role of the Department of Education in overseeing the initiative. The bill is set to take effect immediately and will apply to the first full school year following its enactment.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 18A:7F-54