2025 SESSION

INTRODUCED

24101851D

HOUSE BILL NO. 535

Offered January 10, 2024

Prefiled January 8, 2024

A BILL to require the Division of Early Childhood Care and Education of the Department of Education to conduct a comprehensive review of certain findings and recommendations relating to the quality of early childhood care and education in the Commonwealth; report.

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Patrons—Keys-Gamarra, Clark, Convirs-Fowler, Henson, Shin, Simonds and Watts

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Referred to Committee on Education

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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. The Division of Early Childhood Care and Education of the Department of Education, in consultation with the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation and such other stakeholders as it deems appropriate, shall (i) conduct a comprehensive review of the findings and recommendations contained in the 2017 report of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, Improving Virginia's Early Childhood Development Programs, to determine what barriers, gaps, and deficiencies continue to exist in the provision of high-quality early childhood education and care in the Commonwealth, with a particular focus on gaps and deficiencies in the ongoing monitoring of Virginia Preschool Initiative program quality, including the collection and analysis of data relating to outcomes and kindergarten readiness, and (ii) report its findings and any associated policy recommendations to the Board of Education, the Governor, and the General Assembly no later than November 1, 2024.