(a) There is established an Office of Early Childhood. The office shall be under the direction of the Commissioner of Early Childhood, whose appointment shall be made by the Governor. Such appointment shall be in accordance with the provisions of sections 4-5 to 4-8, inclusive. The commissioner shall be responsible for implementing the policies and directives of the office. The commissioner shall have the authority to designate any employee as his or her agent to exercise all or part of the authority, powers and duties of the commissioner in his or her absence. Said office shall be within the Department of Education for administrative purposes only.

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(b) The office shall be responsible for:

(1) Delivering services to young children and their families to ensure optimal health, safety and learning for each young child, including, but not limited to, coordinating agency efforts and data sharing in the two-generational initiative established pursuant to section 17b-112l;

(2) Developing and implementing the early childhood information system, in accordance with the provisions of section 10-501;

(3) Developing and reporting on the early childhood accountability plan, in accordance with the provisions of section 10-503;

(4) Implementing a communications strategy for outreach to families, service providers and policymakers;

(5) Beginning a state-wide longitudinal evaluation of the school readiness program examining the educational progress of children from prekindergarten programs to grade four, inclusive;

(6) Developing, coordinating and supporting public and private partnerships to aid early childhood initiatives;

(7) Developing a state-wide developmentally appropriate kindergarten entrance inventory that measures a child’s level of preparedness for kindergarten, but shall not be used as a measurement tool for program accountability;

(8) Creating a unified set of reporting requirements for the purpose of collecting the data elements necessary to perform quality assessments and longitudinal analysis;

(9) Comparing and analyzing data collected pursuant to reporting requirements created under subdivision (8) of this subsection with the data collected in the state-wide public school information system, pursuant to section 10-10a, for population-level analysis of children and families;

(10) Continually monitoring and evaluating all early care and education and child development programs and services, focusing on program outcomes in satisfying the health, safety, developmental and educational needs of all children;

(11) Coordinating home visitation services across programs for young children;

(12) Providing information and technical assistance to persons seeking early care and education and child development programs and services;

(13) Assisting state agencies and municipalities in obtaining available federal funding for early care and education and child development programs and services;

(14) Providing technical assistance to providers of early care and education programs and services to obtain licensing and improve program quality;

(15) Establishing a quality rating and improvement system developed by the office that covers home-based, center-based and school-based early child care and learning;

(16) Maintaining an accreditation facilitation initiative to assist early childhood care and education program and service providers in achieving national standards and program improvement;

(17) Consulting with the Early Childhood Cabinet, established pursuant to section 10-16z, and the Head Start advisory committee, established pursuant to section 10-16n;

(18) Ensuring a coordinated and comprehensive state-wide system of professional development for providers and staff of early care and education and child development programs and services;

(19) Providing families with opportunities for choice in services including quality child care and community-based family-centered services;

(20) Integrating early childhood care and education and special education services;

(21) Promoting universal access to early childhood care and education;

(22) Ensuring nonduplication of monitoring and evaluation;

(23) Performing any other activities that will assist in the provision of early care and education and child development programs and services;

(24) Developing early learning and development standards to be used by early care and education providers;

(25) Developing and implementing a performance-based evaluation system to evaluate licensed child care centers, in accordance with the provisions of section 17b-749f;

(26) Promoting the delivery of services to infants and toddlers to ensure optimal health, safety and learning of children from birth to three years of age; and

(27) Establishing a parent cabinet to advise the office on ways to strengthen partnership and communication with families, bring awareness to gaps and barriers to services, increase access to services for families and help make improvements to the lives of young children and families in the state.

(c) The Office of Early Childhood may enter into memoranda of agreement with and accept donations from nonprofit and philanthropic organizations to accomplish the purposes of this section.

(d) The Office of Early Childhood shall constitute a successor department, in accordance with the provisions of sections 4-38d, 4-38e and 4-39, to (1) the Department of Education with respect to sections 8-210, 10-16n, 10-16p to 10-16r, inclusive, 10-16u, 10-16w, 10-16aa, 17b-749a, 17b-749c and 17b-749g to 17b-749i, inclusive; (2) the Department of Social Services (A) with respect to sections 17b-12, 17b-705a, 17b-730, 17b-733, 17b-738, 17b-749, 17b-749d to 17b-749f, inclusive, 17b-749j, 17b-749k, 17b-750 to 17b-751a, inclusive, and 17b-751d, and (B) for the purpose of administering the child care development block grant pursuant to the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990; (3) the Department of Public Health (A) with respect to sections 10a-194c, 12-634, 17a-28, 17a-101 and 19a-80f, (B) for the purpose of regulating child care services pursuant to sections 19a-77, 19a-79, 19a-80, 19a-82 and 19a-84 to 19a-87e, inclusive, (C) for the purpose of the conduct of regulation of youth camps, pursuant to sections 19a-420 to 19a-434, inclusive, and (D) for the purpose of administering the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program authorized under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, P.L. 111-148; and (4) the Department of Developmental Services with respect to sections 17a-248, 17a-248b to 17a-248h, inclusive, 38a-490a and 38a-516a.

(e) The Connecticut Head Start State Collaboration Office shall be based in the Office of Early Childhood.