Is The New Rule For VPK Providers Enough?

Posted on 09/23/2011 @ 02:21 PM

Tags: North

By David Abrams, State Coordinator, North Florida
david.abrams@childrensmovementflorida.org

The state Board of Education approved a rule Tuesday requiring that at least 70 percent of a VPK provider's students be considered ready for Kindergarten on two assessment measures. This means any school with fewer than 70 percent will be considered low-performing and can potentially close down if improvements aren't made. The legislature changed the law this year, now requiring the board to set a readiness rate, and hoping children will be better prepared for kindergarten. There was previously no set rate providers had to meet.

While a majority of early-learning officials are supportive of the new rule-there are several concerns, which include last year's budget cuts and the expected increase in the number of low-performing providers. Many officials had recommended the state board to set the rate at 60 percent reducing the risk of thousands of providers becoming low-performing. Susan Main, Executive Director of The Early Learning Coalition of Duval ( and active leader of The Children's Movement of Florida-Jacksonville Chapter) says, "I'm all for improving the readiness rate in children". However, she did go on to mention the new rules come as providers lost close to $200 per child in payments from the state for VPK this school year. The state currently funds $2,383 per child, which is more than a 5 percent decrease from the $2,575 previously funded by the state.

Since we launched a year ago, The Children's Movement of Florida has been advocating for pre and post assessments to illustrate a child's progress before Pre-K to after Pre-K (heading into Kindergarten). I believe it is critical to have our children ready for kindergarten whether it's from VPK assessment, a research based curriculum, or hiring more qualified teachers. I'm also shamefully aware of the limited resources our state is allowing VPK providers to work with. Before this year's budget cuts Florida ranked 34 of 38 in per pupil funding for VPK.

Personally, I'm excited of the new rule-but now it's time to provide our schools with enough per child funding to execute a high readiness rate. This is too important for short-cuts!

Interested in your thoughts!