§ 9-29-12 — Early childhood education and care finance plan

A. The department shall prepare and update a four-year early childhood education and care finance plan to provide the legislature and the governor with demographic information on at-risk children, data on the efficacy of early childhood education and care programs and recommendations for financing the early childhood education and care system. B. The department shall include in the early childhood education and care finance plan: (1) an identification of: (a) the social, emotional, cognitive, health, educational, safety and other needs and risk factors of children by age and location; (b) the availability of, cost of and funding for programs that address those needs and reduce those risks by: 1) type of program; 2) age of program participant; and 3) geographic location; (c) the gaps between those needs and the programs that address those needs and the reasons for those gaps; and (d) the funding for each of the previous four years for programs that address those needs and reduce those risks; (2) an evaluation of the early childhood education and care system by service type; (3) an assessment of whether desired outcomes have been reached for each of the previous four years; and (4) recommendations for legislation, funding and other changes necessary to improve that system and to close the gaps in those programs. C. The department shall post prominently on its website the early childhood education and care finance plan in a user-friendly, searchable format.

Legislative History

Laws 2019, ch. 48, § 12.