Relating to early childhood education; modifying certain frequency and age requirements for early childhood developmental screening, expanding authorized screeners to public or private health care organizations or individual health care providers and requiring programs to include referrals to appropriate resources; requiring school districts to develop and implement community outreach plans to diverse populations for early screening ensurance purposes and encouraging districts to include parents, community partners, public or private health care organizations and individual health care providers in the development of the plans; requiring the commissioner of education to establish a system to assess the school readiness of children entering kindergarten and to set periodic milestones for progress in the number of children reaching proficiency on assessment measures; requiring and providing for phase-in of the school readiness kindergarten assessment initiative in school districts on a voluntary basis, requiring inclusion of the results of the assessments in annual school performance report cards; requiring the commissioner to evaluate the effectiveness of the data gathering system for implementing development assessments at kindergarten entrance on a school by school basis and to periodically report to the legislature on progress toward reaching the milestones; appropriating money to the commissioner for health and developmental screening aid and for the school readiness assessment initiative
(ja)