2016 Delaware Code
Title 14 - Education
CHAPTER 30. EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROGRAM
§ 3001. State Early Childhood Education Program.

(a) The Department of Education shall be authorized to provide early childhood educational services to eligible children, which shall include preschool age children who live in poverty, using such funds as are appropriated by the General Assembly for that purpose.

(b) The Department of Education shall provide the early childhood educational services by contracting with public and private providers, including, but not limited to, providers administering federal Head Start programs within the State; provided however, that state funds paid to such contracting providers shall not be used to supplant state and/or federally funded programs or to make a federal Head Start provider ineligible for a Head Start expansion grant. All contracts may be in place for a period not to exceed 3 years; provided that there is sufficient funding contained within the annual appropriations act and the contractor adheres to the required Head Start performance standards, which include parental involvement and receipt of acceptable monitoring results which will be completed at least once during the contract period.

(c) Each contracting provider will be required to establish written agreements within the provider's respective service area with their local Head Start and/or other Early Childhood Initiative contracting provider as well as the local school district, to address issues including, but not limited to, service areas, recruitment, transition of children and families and sharing resources and information.

(d) The Department of Education shall establish Delaware Stars for Early Success, a quality rating and improvement system. Such rating system shall measure the level of quality of service provided by an early care and education program to safeguard and ensure the growth, development, and learning of the children. The rating and improvement system shall:

(1) Establish quality standards that build upon the child care licensing regulations and include quality standards in the categories of learning environment and curriculum, qualifications and professional development, family and community partnerships, and management and administration.

(2) Ensure that the standards are based on research on best practice related to early care and education and that support children in being physically and emotionally healthy and eager to learn.

(3) Inform families and other purchasers of early care and education about the level of quality in a simple and easy-to-understand manner.

(4) Develop a quality improvement plan that informs participating early care and education programs of their strengths, weaknesses and strategies to improve the quality of their programs.

(5) Target resources to support and recognize programs as they work on implementing improvement plans and increasing the quality of services to children and families.

(6) Provide professional development and technical assistance to assist programs in accomplishing targeted improvements.

(7) Establish public-private partnerships to implement and sustain the quality rating and improvement system including state agencies, higher education, adult education programs, early childhood organizations and community based agencies.

(8) Evaluate Delaware Stars for Early Success to ensure continuous improvement of the system.

(e) The Interagency Resource Management Committee (IRMC) shall have administrative responsibility for all appropriations made to the Department of Education pursuant to this section. Such administrative responsibility shall include, but not be limited to:

(1) Determining unserved and underserved areas within the State, to be addressed in any given year. Such identified areas will be specified within the Request for Proposal (RFP) issued to prospective providers;

(2) Reviewing, recommending and disbursing grant awards for contracts to qualifying providers to deliver early childhood educational services to preschool-age children who live in poverty;

(3) Reallocating unobligated or unspent appropriations made to the Department of Education pursuant to this section; and

(4) Verifying that the contracting providers use state funds paid to them for the purposes specified in their contracts.

(f) All public and private providers contracting with the Department of Education pursuant to this section shall ensure that each and every employee receives a minimum of 1 hour of training every year in the detection and reporting of child abuse. Such training, and all materials used in such training, shall be prepared by the Division of Family Services.

69 Del. Laws, c. 351, § 1; 71 Del. Laws, c. 132, § 336; 71 Del. Laws, c. 180, § 144; 72 Del. Laws, c. 94, § 355; 72 Del. Laws, c. 173, § 3; 73 Del. Laws, c. 321, §§ 9, 10; 76 Del. Laws, c. 313, §§ 1, 2.;