PIERRE - Just weeks ago, the state House of Representatives blocked a governor-backed plan that would have established the framework for public preschool programs throughout South Dakota. But the legislators might not have stopped it all.
Instead, members of his Cabinet are preparing to decide whether to recommend to Gov. Mike Rounds that he pursue the plan anyway and seek a federal grant for the Early
Learning program's establishment.
Their deliberations come at the same time that the state Board of Education has proposed new rules regarding preschools.
The board wants to require that public school districts must submit their preschool enrollment data to the state education department, starting with the upcoming 2010-11 academic year.
The proposed rules also would create for the first time a definition of a full-time preschool student and a formula for determining part-time preschool students.
Those new rules are scheduled for a public hearing May 17 before the state board.
A spokesman for the federal Administration for Children and Families said Wednesday that the agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, plans to send letters regarding the federal Early Childhood Learning and Care program to all governors in the coming weeks.
The letter will ask whether the state intends to apply and what the target date is for the state's submission of its application.
“We hope to have responses from each state by the end of May,” said Kenneth Wolfe, deputy director for the federal agency's Office of Public Affairs.
The federal agency has allocated $500,000 as South Dakota's potential share of the $100 million grant program. The program operates on a
funding split of 30 percent federal and 70 percent state, meaning South Dakota would need to come up with $1.167 million as its match.
The federal criteria don't require a state to adopt any laws to qualify for the grant. Instead a governor is allowed to attach the state's Early Learning Council to an existing entity.
The state legislation rejected by the House of Representatives in March would have created a South Dakota Early Learning Council intended to foster preschool programs for low-income students statewide.
The legislation had the strong support of several members of the governor's Cabinet including Education Secretary Tom Oster and Social Services Secretary Deb Bowman.
It would have established a process for comprehensive pre-kindergarten plans to be developed by communities and reviewed for acceptance by the council.
The Rounds administration has made pre-K programs one of its priorities, but has been repeatedly blocked, meeting the most resistance in the House.
The rules proposal and the federal Early Learning grant could be the governor's last opportunities to establish a foothold for future preschool funding as he completes his eighth and final year in office.
Oster said Wednesday that Education and Social Services officials plan to meet next week to discuss the federal grant and the Early Learning Council. The federal grant criteria include a requirement that the governor establish an Early Learning Council.
“After our meeting we plan to meet with the governor and present our recommendations,” Oster said.
He said the preschool reporting rules are being proposed for a separate reason.
Some school districts already send their preschool enrollment data to the state department.
The proposed requirement that all school districts submit the preschool data is intended to standardize the process. It also would help some school districts that receive federal impact aid, said DOE spokeswoman Mary Stadick Smith.
She said those districts cannot include preschool students in their counts when calculating per-pupil expenditure because their impact aid funding is affected by the status of where their per-pupil expenditure falls in comparison to the statewide average.
Impact aid is federal compensation to school districts that have lost tax base because of federally owned tax-exempt property or have large numbers of federally connected students such as at an armed forces base.
“As a state, we do not collect that preschool data, so we do not have a statewide average. In a nutshell, this situation can put the districts in jeopardy of losing some impact aid dollars,” Stadick Smith said.
She said the proposed rules, if adopted, would bring consistency to the collection and reporting of preschool data statewide.
“Currently, some districts do provide preschool data on a voluntary basis, but others may not since it is not required. Also, when they do provide it, there is not a consistent method to the reporting,” she said.
The proposed rules would define a preschool student as a child age 3 through 5 on or before Sept. 1 who is not enrolled in kindergarten and who is receiving educational services from a public school district.
The primary purpose of the preschool program is to provide an age-appropriate educational experience as prescribed by the local school board to include a minimum of 128 hours.
“A full-time preschool student will be one that is enrolled in a program that operates at least 448 hours per year. Students enrolled in programs operated for a lesser time shall be prorated as a percentage of 448 hours.”
Officials from the Rounds administration have tried for years to get preschool legislation passed in different forms.
The Senate adopted the latest attempt, which would have created the Early Learning Council, on a 19-14 vote in February. Both Bowman and Oster backed it, as did the South Dakota Education Association and the Associated School Boards of South Dakota.
Sen. Tom Dempster, R-Sioux Falls, was prime sponsor of the measure, SB191. During the Senate debate, Dempster said it was intended merely to get information about needs within communities.
However, the bill contained numerous references to qualifying for state and local funding. The bill didn't contain any funding.
A House committee killed the bill on a 9-6 vote, as the South Dakota Family Policy Council and the Concerned Women for America organizations opposed it. An attempt to resurrect it failed in the full House 27-41 on March 8.
Bowman said Wednesday she's been informed by the director of the federal agency that the state match could be met by cash or in-kind contributions related to early childhood development and education programs. She said those could be for existing programs.