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Funding Requirements for School Readiness and VPK

School Readiness Funding Requirements

Program Information

• Ensures children enter school ready to learn, while parents maintain employment.
•Currently the waiting list has grown to more than 80,000 children.
•Only 30% of all eligible, qualified children are actually served.
  • School Readiness supports Florida’s economic development and family self-sufficiency goals while assisting low-income families in accessing quality child care options.
  • The program serves the most vulnerable of the state’s children including those at-risk of abuse, neglect or exploitation and those from families who receive temporary cash assistance.
  • A typical family participating uses about 7% of income to pay for child care. Without this assistance, the cost of child care increases to 50% of income.
  • If families are unable to maintain employment due to lack of child care it could cost state taxpayers 3 to 6 times as much in other assistance programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment compensation, and temporary cash assistance. For Example if the School Readiness program is reduced by:
Amount of State Fund Reductions Loss of Federal Funds Impact on Children Potential Increases for State Spending
$10 million $12.2 million 5,555 $33.2- $63 million

Funding Information

•School Readiness is funded with a combination of state and federal dollars.
•For every $1 million of state funding, the program receives $1.2 million of federal funding.
•The School Readiness program received $105 million of federal ARRA funds.
  • Since the 2008- 2009 Fiscal Year the School Readiness program has lost $37 million in funding. The funds were replaced with non-recurring ARRA funds spread across 2 years.
  • For the upcoming fiscal year, the School Readiness program needs $2.5 million of non-recurring state trust funds to maintain current level funding and to not jeopardize ARRA funding.

Recommendation

Maintain School Readiness funding at $615.4 million - to ensure eligible families continue to receive quality child care, allowing parents to seek or maintain employment.

• Replace $2.5 million dollars of non-recurring funds currently in the School Readiness budget to ensure that the state is able to maximize federal funds.

Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Funding

Program Information
  • Constitutionally mandated prekindergarten program, free to every four year old in Florida.
  • Program has served approximately 654,000 children since it began in 2005 and is the second largest prekindergarten program in the nation.
  • Consists of quality indicators including developmentally appropriate curriculum, teacher credentials and ratios.
  • Children that participate in the VPK program consistently perform better on the Florida Kindergarten Readiness Screener than children that did not participate in VPK.
  • In 2009-2010, it is estimated that the program will serve approximately 70% of all four year olds in Florida. The total projected to be served is 160,555.
  • Program growth is estimated to continue. Current estimates anticipate the program to serve 75% of all four year olds by 2010-2011.
Funding Information
  • The Florida Legislature establishes the Base Student Allocation (BSA) annually during the legislative session. Current BSA is $2,575 for the school year program and $2,190 for the summer.
    • Due to projected growth and a $8.2 million shortfall from 2008-2009 paid out of 2009-2010 funds, the total needed for 2009-2010 is approximately $28 million:
      1. o Approximately $8m for 2008-2009 deficit (paid out of 2009-2010 allocation)
      2. o Approximately $20m for estimated enrollment increase.
    • Due to projected growth in 2010-2011 and the need to replace $38 million of nonrecurring ARRA funds, the program needs approximately $80 million:
      1. o Approximately $38m in nonrecurring ARRA funds
      2. o Approximately $42m for estimated enrollment increase

Recommendation Increase Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) program funding to $411.5 million -

  • Allow the budget to provide funding for all current year (2009-2010) and subsequent year (2010-2011) anticipated growth and shortfalls.
  • Maintains BSA at current levels in order to continue to ensure the high-quality programs Florida voters envisioned.
  • Provides $2 million to continue the work on the Early Learning Information System (ELIS). ELIS will replace the current Enhanced Field System (EFS), an outdated data collection system, and provide estimated savings, related to administrative efficiencies, of approximately $28 million annually.

Click here to downlad the factsheets for School Readiness and VPK.