(a) For purposes of this section:
(1) “Department” means the Department of Education.
(2) “Preschool-age child” means a child who is not yet attending kindergarten or a higher grade.
(b) The Department is authorized to provide early childhood educational services to eligible children, as defined by the Department, using funds appropriated by the General Assembly for that purpose.
(c) Subject to the availability of appropriations, the Department shall provide free early childhood educational services for preschool-age children who satisfy the eligibility requirements developed by the Department.
(d) The early childhood educational services under subsection (c) of this section must be high quality and align with the quality standards developed under paragraph (g)(1) of this section in all the following categories:
(1) Learning environment and curriculum.
(2) Qualifications and professional development.
(3) Family and community partnerships.
(4) Management and administration.
(e) (1) The Department shall provide the early childhood educational services by contracting with public and private providers, including providers administering federal Head Start programs within this State.
(2) The Department may identify priorities when awarding contracts, including programs offering at least 6 hours per day of early childhood educational services.
(3) State funds paid to the contracting providers may not be used to supplant Delaware state- or federally funded programs or to make a federal Head Start provider ineligible for a Head Start expansion grant.
(4) A contract under this subsection may be in place for up to 5 years, including renewals, if there is sufficient funding contained within the annual appropriations act and the contractor adheres to program standards, as defined by the Department.
(5) A contract under this paragraph must comply with State procurement requirements under Chapter 69 of Title 29.
(f) Each contracting provider shall establish written agreements within the provider’s respective service area with the provider’s local Head Start, other Early Childhood Initiative contracting provider, or both, as well as the local school district, to address issues including service areas, recruitment, transition of children and families, and sharing resources and information.
(g) The Department shall establish a quality improvement system. The quality improvement system must 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 quality improvement system must do all of the following:
(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. The Department shall ensure that the quality improvement system standards are consistent with the regulations of the Office of Child Care Licensing.
(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 improvement system including state agencies, higher education, adult education programs, early childhood organizations, and community-based agencies.
(8) Evaluate the quality improvement system to ensure continuous improvement of the system.
(h) The Interagency Resource Management Committee (IRMC) has administrative responsibility for all appropriations made to the Department under this section. This administrative responsibility includes all of the following:
(1) Determining unserved and underserved areas within the State, to be addressed in any given year. These 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 under this section.
(4) Verifying that the contracting providers use Delaware state funds paid to them for the purposes specified in their contracts.
(i) All public and private providers contracting with the Department under this section shall ensure that every employee receives a minimum of 1 hour of training every year in the detection and reporting of child abuse. The Division of Family Services shall prepare this training, and all materials used in the training.