On March 12, the House Ways & Means Committee gave a favorable report to HB297: Prekindergarten Expansion Act of 2014. The Act, sponsored by the Administration, expands prekindergarten services to four-year-old children from families whose income is no more than 300% of the federal poverty guidelines by establishing a competitive grant program to provide funding to qualified public and private prekindergarten providers.

The House Ways & Means Committee voted the bill with amendments similar to the amendments in the Senate version of the bill, which provide that a qualified vendor that has received a prekindergarten expansion grant in the past will continue to receive the award if the vendor continues to satisfy the requirements established under this section.  From discussion, it sounded like the House Committee also amended the bill to make sure that Pre-K program providers who expand from providing half-day programs to providing full-day programs remain eligible for funding.

The Senate passed the cross-file (SB332) of this bill unanimously on March 6.

Read about the passing of SB332 in a previous post on Conduit Street.