The Florida Senate
BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
(This document is based on the provisions contained in the legislation as of the latest date listed below.)
Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Committee on Finance and Tax
BILL: CS/SB 990
INTRODUCER: Finance and Tax Committee and Senator Grall
SUBJECT: Child Care and Early Learning Providers
DATE: April 12, 2023 REVISED: 4/13/23
ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR REFERENCE ACTION
1. Sabitsch Bouck ED Favorable
2. Gross Babin FT Fav/CS
3. AP
Please see Section IX. for Additional Information:
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE - Substantial Changes
I. Summary:
CS/SB 990 provides programmatic and financial supports for child care facilities and early
learning providers. Specifically the bill:
 Modifies requirements for Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) classroom instructors, program
and child assessments, and implementation of the accountability measures for VPK
programs.
 Establishes a program to deliver intensive reading interventions to VPK students with
substantial deficiencies in early literacy.
 Modifies requirements for obtaining and maintaining the Gold Seal Quality Care designation.
 Directs early learning coalitions to support the Teacher Education and Compensation Helps
(T.E.A.C.H.) Scholarship Program by assisting with co-pays for providers.
 Modifies requirements related to licensing of child care facilities by the Department of
Children and Families.
 Provides an exemption from licensing for child care facilities owned by certain corporations.
 Clarifies cancelation and coverage from residential property insurance for large family child
care homes.
The bill takes effect on July 1, 2023.
II. Present Situation:
The present situation is presented in Section III under the Effect of Proposed Changes.
BILL: CS/SB 990 Page 2
III. Effect of Proposed Changes:
Voluntary Prekindergarten Program
Present Situation
The Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program
The Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program (VPK) prepares early learners for success in
kindergarten and beyond. VPK helps build a strong foundation for school using educational
material corresponding to various stages in a child's development. To be eligible, children must
live in Florida and be 4 years old on or before September 1 of the current school year.1 Parents
whose children are born between February 2 and September 1 can postpone enrolling their 4-
year-old until the following year when their child is age 5. Private child care centers and schools,
public schools, and specialized instructional services providers offer VPK. Since the program
began in 2005-2006, more than 2.6 million children have benefited from VPK. Data collected by
the Department of Education (DOE) show that children who participate in VPK are more ready
for kindergarten than children who do not participate in VPK.2
For the 2021-2022 VPK program year, 150,212 children participated in the school year VPK
program and 2,882 children participated in the summer VPK program. Program participation was
64.14 percent of the 4-year-old population.3
VPK Administration
The DOE is responsible for ensuring that administrative expenditures are kept to the minimum
necessary for efficient and effective administration of the VPK Program. Each early learning
coalition (coalition) may retain and expend no more than four percent of the funds paid by the
coalition to VPK providers. Funds retained by a coalition may be used only for administering the
VPK Program.4 Total administrative expenditures across all coalitions equaled $12.1 million for
the 2021-2022 VPK program year with only 12 of 30 coalitions spending the full four percent
allowed.5
The DOE is required to establish a single statewide information system that each coalition must
use for the purposes of managing the single point of entry, tracking children’s progress,
coordinating services among stakeholders, determining eligibility of children, tracking child
attendance, and streamlining administrative processes for providers and early learning
coalitions.6
1
Section 1002.53(2), F.S.
2
Florida Division of Early Learning, About Voluntary Prekindergarten, available at
https://www.floridaearlylearning.com/vpk/floridas-vpk-program (last visited April 6, 2023).
3
Office of Economic & Demographic Research, Early Learning Programs Estimating Conference Prekindergarten
Education Program, February 16, 2023, Conference Package, available at
http://edr.state.fl.us/Content/conferences/vpk/index.cfm (last visited April 6, 2023).
4
Section 1002.71(7), F.S.
5
Florida Department of Education, Division of Early Learning, Annual Report 2021-22, available at
https://www.floridaearlylearning.com/Content/Uploads/floridaearlylearning.com/images/DEL%20Annual%20Report%20202
1-2022%20FINAL.pdf (last visited April 6, 2023).
6
Section 1002.82, F.S.
BILL: CS/SB 990 Page 3
Each coalition administers the VPK Program at the county or regional level for students enrolled
in a school-year VPK program delivered by a private prekindergarten provider.7 Each coalition is
composed of at least 15 but not more than 30 members. The Governor appoints the chair and two
other members of each early learning coalition, who must each meet the qualifications of a
private sector business member. The coalition may appoint additional private sector business
members.8
To be eligible to deliver the VPK program, a private prekindergarten provider must be a licensed
or licensed-exempt child care facility.9 Exempt providers include certain nonpublic schools that
primarily serve children at least 5 years of age or older,10 accredited faith-based child care
providers that are members of a larger organization with published health, safety, and sanitation
standards,11 and certain accredited child development programs on military bases.12
VPK Personnel
All providers, including licensed-exempt providers, must meet requirements for certification of
personnel and background screening.13 For the school year VPK program, a VPK instructor must
successfully complete three emergent literacy training courses that include developmentally
appropriate and experiential learning practices for children and a student performance standards
training course approved by the DOE. The prekindergarten instructor must also complete an
emergent literacy training course at least once every five years after initially completing the three
emergent literacy training courses.14
VPK personnel may also earn a literacy micro-credential and receive a $2,000 stipend.15 The
literacy micro-credential provides instructional personnel with high-quality, evidence-based
strategies for developing emergent literacy skills.16 Enrollment in the program began on
December 31, 2022.17
Instructor requirements are more stringent for the summer VPK program. Each summer VPK
program provider must have, for each prekindergarten class, at least one prekindergarten
instructor who is a certified teacher or holds a bachelor’s or higher degree in early childhood
education, prekindergarten or primary education, preschool education, or family and consumer
7
Section 1002.55(1), F.S.
8
Section 1002.83(6), F.S.
9
Section 1002.55(3)(a), F.S.
10
Section 402.3025(2), F.S.
11
Section 402.316(1), F.S.
12
Section 1002.55(3)(a), F.S.
13
Section 1002.55(3)(b)3., F.S.
14
Section 1002.59, F.S.
15
University of Florida Lastinger Center, Emergent Literacy Micro-Credential, available at
https://lastinger.center.ufl.edu/work/literacy/flamingo-literacy/literacy-microcredentials/emergent-literacy-microcredential/
(last visited April 6, 2023).
16
Section 1003.485(2)(h)1., F.S.
17
University of Florida Lastinger Center, Emergent Literacy Micro-Credential, available at
https://lastinger.center.ufl.edu/work/literacy/flamingo-literacy/literacy-microcredentials/emergent-literacy-microcredential/
(last visited April 6, 2023).
BILL: CS/SB 990 Page 4
science, or hold a certificate to teach any age from birth through grade 6 and holds a bachelor’s
or higher degree in elementary education and is not otherwise disqualified.18
VPK Accountability
Each VPK provider may select or design the curriculum that the provider uses to implement the
VPK Program. The curriculum must be developmentally appropriate and must:19
 Be designed to prepare a student for early literacy and provide for instruction in early math
skills.
 Enhance the age-appropriate progress of students in attaining the performance standards
adopted by the DOE.
 Support student learning gains through differentiated instruction that shall be measured by
the coordinated screening and progress monitoring program.
All VPK providers are required to participate in a program assessment of each VPK classroom
beginning with the 2022-2023 VPK Program. The program assessment measures the quality of
teacher-child interactions, including emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional
support for children ages 3 to 5 years. Early learning coalitions are responsible for the
administration of the program assessments.20
The program assessment score must constitute at least half of the provider performance metric to
be developed by the DOE beginning with the 2022-2023 VPK program year. The performance
metric must include program assessment scores, learning gains, and learning outcomes from the
coordinated screening and progress monitoring system. The methodology is required to include a
statistical latent profile analysis developed by the DOE that produces a limited number of
performance metric profiles which summarize the profiles of all VPK programs in designations
consisting of “unsatisfactory,” “emerging proficiency,” “proficient,” “highly proficient,” and
“excellent” or similar designations.21 Beginning with the 2023-2024 program year, each VPK
provider will be assigned a designation within 45 days after the conclusion of the VPK
Program.22
The coordinated screening and progress monitoring program is the statewide, standardized
assessment program known as Florida's Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) using Star
Early Literacy. This program is used to assess student achievement in early literacy and
mathematics.23 VPK Programs began implementing the FAST using Star Early Literacy in the
2022-2023 VPK Program Year.
A VPK student who exhibits a substantial deficiency in early literacy skills in accordance with
the standards and based upon the results of the administration of the final coordinated screening
and progress monitoring must be referred to the local school district and may be eligible to
18
Section 1002.61(4), F.S.
19
Section 1002.67(2), F.S.
20
Section 1002.68(2), F.S.
21
Section 1002.68(4)(a), F.S.
22
Section 1002.68(4)(f), F.S.
23
Florida Division of Early Learning, Florida's Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) using Star Early Literacy, available
at https://www.floridaearlylearning.com/vpk/fast (last visited April 6, 2023).
BILL: CS/SB 990 Page 5
receive intensive reading interventions before participating in kindergarten. Such intensive
reading interventions must be paid for using funds from the district’s evidence-based reading
instruction allocation.24
Effect of Proposed Changes
VPK Personnel
The bill modifies s. 1002.55, F.S., to allow a VPK instructor to complete the required three
emergent literacy training courses within 45 days after commencing employment rather than as a
pre-condition of employment.
The bill modifies s. 1002.61. F.S., to add options for personnel to satisfy the certification
requirements for instructors in the summer VPK program. The bill allows a person to serve as an
instructor of a summer VPK program if the person possesses either a Child Development
Associate (CDA), or a credential approved by the Department of Children and families as equal
or greater than a CDA, as long as the instructor has completed the early literacy micro-credential
program or has an instructional support score of 3 or higher on the program assessment.
VPK Administration
The bill modifies s. 1002.82, F.S., to expand the requirements of the statewide data information
program to include the Florida Education Identifier for all instructors and enrolled children in the
VPK and school readiness programs. The bill also directs the DOE to contract for, rather than
establish, a single statewide information system to manage all early learning programs and child
care licensing and training. The bill requires the system to allow parents to locate early learning
programs online, including the provider performance profile by October 1, 2024. It is unclear if
this system is intended to replace the current EFS Modernization Portal.
The bill amends s. 1002.71, F.S., to modify the method used to determine the amount of
administrative funds an early learning coalition may retain for the VPK program. The bill
requires the administrative fee that may be retained by an early learning coalition to be based on
the number of VPK applications processed by the coalition instead of payments made to
providers for VPK enrollments.
This may increase the administrative funds available to a coalition. For example, the base student
allocation for the 2021-2022 VPK school year program was $2,486 for each full-time student.25
Payments made to VPK providers equaled $342.8 million, which meant that administrative funds
were limited to 4 percent or approximately $13.7 million.26 The reported number of applications
processed by all early learning coalitions was 204,576.27 Multiplying the base student allocation
24
Section. 1008.25(5), F.S.
25
Specific Appropriation 86, ch. 2021-36, Laws of Fla.
26
Florida Division of Early Learning, Annual Report 2021-22, available at
https://www.floridaearlylearning.com/Content/Uploads/floridaearlylearning.com/images/DEL%20Annual%20Report%20202
1-2022%20FINAL.pdf (last visited April 8, 2023). Actual administrative expenditures equaled $12.1 million, below the 4
percent limitation.
27
Email correspondence, Florida Department of Education (March 9, 2023) (on file with the Committee on Finance and
Tax).
BILL: CS/SB 990 Page 6
of $2,486 by the number of applications processed (204,576), and if each coalition retained the
full 4 percent as allowed, administrative funds available across all coalitions would have
amounted to $20.3 million. An increase of $7.2 million available for coalition expenditures.
The bill modifies s. 1002.83, F.S., to allow early learning coalitions to appoint additional at-large
members to their board as long as the at-large members do not comprise more than one-third of
the board’s composition. The bill also removes an explicit restriction that the appointed members
be comprised of private sector business members, which would allow a coalition to appoint “at-
large” members from public or private institutions.
VPK Accountability
The bill modifies s. 1002.67, F.S., to prohibit a public or private VPK provider’s curriculum
from:
 Utilizing the coordinated screening and progress monitoring program for direct student
instruction; and
 The use of electronic devices except to complete the coordinated screening and monitoring
program.
The bill modifies s. 1002.68, F.S., to postpone from program year 2022-2023 to 2023-2024 the
requirement that private VPK providers participate in a program assessment. The bill specifies
that the program assessment may be conducted only when at least 75 percent of enrolled students
are in attendance.
The bill also postpones, from program year 2022-2023 to 2023-2024, the requirement for the
DOE to adopt the methodology for calculating each VPK provider’s performance metric. The
bill removes the responsibility for the DOE to develop the performance metric and instead
requires the methodology for the performance metric to include an analysis that has been
conducted by an independent expert with experience in relevant quantitative analysis, early
childhood assessment, and designing state-level accountability syst