Florida

Overview

During the 2021-2022 school year, Florida preschool enrolled 157,451 children, an increase of 21,309 from the prior year, as the program began to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. State spending totaled $354,904,063, up $27,287,816 (8%), adjusted for inflation since last year. State spending per child equaled $2,254 in 2021-2022, down $152 from 2020-2021, adjusted for inflation. Florida met 2 of 10 quality standards benchmarks. Florida did not complete the State of Preschool survey the last two years. Therefore, information beyond spending and enrollment is based on 2019-2020 data.

What's New

According to the Division of Early Learning’s Annual Report 2021-2022, in 2021, House Bill 419 was signed into law creating a new accountability system that requires all children enrolled in Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program (VPK) to participate in the Coordinated Screening and Progress Monitoring Program and each VPK classroom to be observed using a measure of the quality of teacher-child interactions. House Bill 419 also repealed the use of kindergarten screening and VPK Assessment results for calculation of the VPK provider kindergarten readiness rate. Beginning in the 2022-2023 program year, a new methodology for calculating a VPK provider performance metric was adopted using child learning gains and outcomes based on the Coordinated Screening and Progress Monitoring Program and provider scores from the classroom measure of teacher-child interactions. If a VPK provider’s performance designation falls below the adopted minimum performance designation, the provider will be placed on probation and required to take corrective action including the use of an approved curriculum and a staff development plan.

Background

Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program was launched in 2005 after voters in 2002 approved a constitutional amendment providing prekindergarten access for all 4-year-olds. Parents may postpone enrollment of young 4-year-olds in the VPK program for a year, consequently making 5-year-olds eligible. The program is managed by the Office of Early Learning (OEL), which was established as an independent agency affiliated with the state Department of Education. Age-eligible children are enrolled in either a 300-hour summer program, which every school district is mandated to offer, or a school-year program totaling 540 instructional hours. Teachers in the school-year program are required to have at least a CDA credential or equivalent credential. Teachers in the summer program are required to have a bachelor’s degree. 

VPK is provided in a variety of settings such as public schools, accredited nonpublic schools, licensed child care centers, accredited faith-based centers, and licensed family child care homes. Most children attend VPK in nonpublic school settings. Regional early learning coalitions monitor programs for compliance and administer VPK, distributing funding based on a fixed hourly rate. Programs are required to meet the Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards: 4 Years Old to Kindergarten, which were most recently revised in 2017. 

Florida’s School Readiness Program is a separate initiative, funded by CCDF. The program offers financial assistance for childcare to qualified parents. This report focuses solely on the VPK program.

Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten Program

Access

Some Head Start children may also be counted in state pre-K. Estimates children in special education not also enrolled in state pre-K or Head Start.
Total state pre-K enrollment	157,451
School districts that offer state program	100% (counties)
Income requirement	No income requirement
Minimum hours of operation	Determined locally
Operating schedule	Determined locally
Special education enrollment, ages 3 and 4	19,000
Federally funded Head Start enrollment, ages 3 and 4	31,686
State-funded Head Start enrollment, ages 3 and 4	Not reported

Resources

Pre-K programs may receive additional funds from federal or local sources that are not included in this figure. K–12 expenditures include capital spending as well as current operating expenditures. Head Start per-child spending includes funding only for 3- and 4-year-olds.