(a) The department shall provide training and assistance to develop and improve district-wide early education programs that comply with standards adopted by the board under Alaska Stat. § 14.07.165 (a)(5).
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Terms Used In Alaska Statutes 14.03.410

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • board: means the state Board of Education and Early Development. See Alaska Statutes 14.60.010
  • commissioner: means the commissioner of education and early development. See Alaska Statutes 14.60.010
  • department: means the Department of Education and Early Development. See Alaska Statutes 14.60.010
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • state: means the State of Alaska unless applied to the different parts of the United States and in the latter case it includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
(b) The department may award a grant to provide funding for a three-year period for the development or improvement of a district-wide early education program to a district that has not received a grant under this section, applies in a format prescribed by the department, provides the information required under (g) of this section, and is eligible for a grant as specified under (c) of this section. Unless the legislature appropriates another amount, total grant funding awarded to districts under this subsection may not exceed $3,000,000 in a fiscal year.
(c) The department shall rank the performance of each district in the state in accordance with the accountability system and performance designations required under Alaska Stat. § 14.03.123. When approving grants under (b) of this section, the department shall prioritize eligible districts with lower performance based on the department’s ranking of districts under this subsection. A district is eligible for a grant if the department determines an insufficient number of children in the district attend high quality child care programs, including head start programs, early education programs provided by a local government, and early education programs provided by child development agencies, that

(1) meet or exceed the standards adopted by the board under Alaska Stat. § 14.07.165 (a)(5); and
(2) would continue operating after development of a district early education program.
(d) If the department does not approve the early education program of a district awarded a grant under (b) of this section by the end of the district’s three-year grant period, the department may provide a one-year remediation grant to allow the district one additional fiscal year to meet the early education program standards adopted by the board under Alaska Stat. § 14.07.165 (a)(5). If the district is unable to meet the early education program standards at the end of that fiscal year, the department may, in the discretion of the commissioner, provide an additional remediation grant to allow the district not more than one additional fiscal year to meet the standards. Nothing in this section prohibits a district from using its own funds to continue the remediation process.
(e) A student in an early education program may not be counted in a district’s ADM under Alaska Stat. § 14.17.500 unless the department has approved the program.
(f) A grant under this section is subject to appropriation, but may not supplant other early education funding available to districts.
(g) Before applying for a grant under (b) of this section, a district shall, to avoid duplicate programs and facilitate resource sharing to improve early education within the district, consult with each local and tribal head start program within the district’s boundaries. An application submitted under (b) of this section must include documentation establishing that the district consulted with each local and tribal head start program within the district.
(h) In this section,

(1) “ADM” has the meaning given in Alaska Stat. § 14.17.990;
(2) “district” has the meaning given in Alaska Stat. § 14.17.990;
(3) “early education program” means a program, the primary function of which is educational, for children who are four and five years of age and who have not attended a public school kindergarten.
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