Whereas, this legislation requires that the Department of Education develop standards to ensure that providers of early childhood care and preschool education are appropriately skilled and educated and that the settings for that education are safe and developmentally appropriate; and

Whereas, these standards must be adopted and in place well before the beginning of the next school year; and

Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 20-A MRSA §4255 is enacted to read:

§4255. Coordinated early childhood care and preschool education

1. Approval process for early childhood education. Any school administrative unit that wishes to develop an early childhood care and preschool education program must submit a proposal for approval to the department. The proposal must:

A.__Demonstrate coordination with other community-based early childhood care and preschool education programs to ensure that new preschool services do not duplicate the efforts of other programs;

B.__Demonstrate the coordination outlined in paragraph A by including a sign-off at the local level between the school administrative unit and the regional child care resource development center in that area and at the state level by approval of both the commissioner and the Commissioner of Health and Human Services;

C.__Ensure that services are available to preschool children with disabilities through appropriate coordination with regional Child Development Services System sites; and

D.__Meet the extended child care needs of working parents.

2. Rulemaking. The department and the Department of Health and Human Services may jointly adopt rules to implement this