A. The children, youth and families department shall fund preschool programs for zero- to five-year-old children in selected school districts. The children, youth and families department shall distribute any appropriation for this purpose to local entities upon approval by that department of an application from an individual school district or community-based early childhood education program. The preschool programs shall collaborate, where possible, with existing headstart programs or with other appropriate early childhood education programs in the community, and the preschool programs shall use one of the following three models:

(1)     a community-based early childhood education program; (2)     a school-based early childhood education program; or (3)     a home-based early childhood education program.

B. School districts may choose to contract with licensed community-based early childhood education programs already in existence. School-based early childhood education programs may be housed in a school accredited by the public education department. A home-based early childhood education program may include a parents- as-teachers program, which supports parents in meeting the developmental learning and social growth needs of their young children.

C. Each preschool program shall have a strong parental involvement component, a staff development component and a procedural process to enable the children, youth and families department to monitor and evaluate the program. The curriculum for each program shall comprehensively address the total developmental needs of the child, including physical, cognitive, social and emotional needs, and shall include aspects of health care, nutrition, safety, the needs of the family and multicultural sensitivity, in coordination with other resources for families.