S 650: Relates to amending the universal full-day pre-kindergarten program subscription amount for regions other than New York city.
The bill aims to amend the education law to improve the universal full-day pre-kindergarten program. The program's purpose is to incentivize and fund state-of-the-art innovative pre-kindergarten programs and encourage program creativity through competition. A scoring system will be developed to evaluate applications based on merit and factors such as student and community need. If an application is oversubscribed, a plan will be developed to distribute available slots within the region. The funding for the program will be allocated based on available funding, with the New York City region receiving $300 million and other regions receiving sufficient funding to provide slots for all qualifying programs. Payments will be made upon documentation of eligible expenditures, limited to the actual number of slots operated and paid on a per-pupil basis. The bill will take effect on the first day…
| Jan. 07, 2026 | REFERRED TO EDUCATION |
| Jan. 08, 2025 | REFERRED TO EDUCATION |
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 650 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. GALLIVAN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the universal full-day pre-kindergarten program; and to repeal subdivision 4 of section 3602-ee of such law relating thereto The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 3602-ee of the education law is 2 REPEALED. 3 § 2. Subdivisions 1 and 5 of section 3602-ee of the education law, as 4 added by section 1 of part CC of chapter 56 of the laws of 2014, are 5 amended to read as follows: 6 1. The purpose of the universal full-day pre-kindergarten program is 7 to incentivize and fund state-of-the-art innovative pre-kindergarten 8 programs [and to encourage program creativity through competition]. 9 5. The department shall develop a scoring system, which it shall use 10 to evaluate which applications shall be funded [on a competitive basis] 11 based on merit and factors including but not limited to the criteria 12 listed above and student and community need. [Upon review of applica-13tions, if the program is oversubscribed in any region or regions of the14state, the department shall notify the division of the budget, which15shall develop a plan for distribution of available slots within any16oversubscribed region.] The subscription for the New York city region is 17 three hundred million dollars. The subscription for each region of the 18 state other than the New York city region shall be in an amount suffi- 19 cient to provide slots for all qualifying programs. The department shall 20 allocate full-day pre-kindergarten conversion slots and new full-day 21 pre-kindergarten slots based on available funding and shall make 22 payments upon documentation of eligible expenditures in the base year, 23 which shall be limited to the actual number of slots operated and paid 24 on a per-pupil basis pursuant to subdivision fourteen of this section. 25 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding 26 the date on which it shall have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD01061-01-5