Early learning: school readiness.

Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, among other things, requires the State Department of Education to develop prekindergarten learning development guidelines in accordance with specified criteria. The act also requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to ensure that all contracts for child care and development programs include a requirement that each public or private provider maintain a developmental profile to appropriately identify the emotional, social, physical, and cognitive growth of each child in order to promote the child's success in the public schools. This bill would require the department to develop prekindergarten learning development guidelines, focused on preparing 4- and 5-year-old children for kindergarten, based on current science that reflects how publicly funded programs can close the school readiness gap. The bill would require the department, on or before March 1, 2017, to convene the California Committee for Kindergarten Readiness stakeholder group to evaluate and develop recommendations on what constitutes kindergarten readiness and would require the committee to submit to the state board and the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2018, a kindergarten readiness definition that has clear benchmarks for skills that are predictive of later success in academics and social-emotional and executive functioning skills as evidenced by current research. The bill would specify the membership of the committee and would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2019.