001today's presentation will cover pre kindergarten registration and enrollment this presentation is designed for the local educational agency staff please see common acronyms used in today's presentation and today's presentation we will cover the following topics enrollment is ongoing brief eligibility recap pre kindergarten tuition registration information enrollment and documentation common scenarios registration frequently asked questions and registration resources in today's presentation participants will understand pre kindergarten registration and enrollment see tangible examples of documentation and common registration scenarios discover resources for pre kindergarten registration as local educational agencies prepare for the upcoming school year we want to remind everyone that pre kindergarten enrollment is ongoing while there is a big push for pre kindergarten registration in the spring and at the beginning of the year families May enroll eligible children throughout the school year our goal is to ensure
002that all eligible pre kindergarten students have access to of the program and therefore it is important that it this is communicated to families that they may return to register their child at any time during the school year should there be any changes in their eligibility status such as with income if you are not familiar with the student attendance accounting handbook referred to as the saw it is a great resource for any of your staff that registers and enrolls pre- kindergarten students this is updated every year section 7 is the section that includes pre kindergarten information specifically 7.2 contains pre kindergarten eligibility information in this section we will review the requirements of eligibility in order to qualify a student for free public pre kindergarten and enrollment as defined in the Texas Education Code chapter 29 educational
003programs sub chapter e to be eligible for enrollment in free pre kindergarten a child must be at least 3 years of age on or before September 1st of the current school year if a three-year-old program is available or four years of age onor before September 1st of the current school year and meet one of the eligibility requirements including emergent bilingual educationally disadvantaged students experiencing homelessness child of active duty military or Armed Forces member foster care and star of Texas as we proceed through this presentation we will review each requirement briefly remember a district must verify a student's eligibility for free public pre kindergarten in order to receive funding in the pre kindergarten program districts must have the verification document as well as any required documentation on file for their enrollment records the age criteria establishes
004how old a child must be to be eligible to enroll in Pre kindergarten in addition to that requirement statute provides further clarification on how a child's eligibility and age play a cohesive role in serving children for pre kindergarten a child who is 3 years old is eligible for pre kindergarten only if the district operates a three-year-old pre kindergarten program a child who is eligible enrolls in a pre kindergarten class at the age of three remains eligible for enrollment in a pre kindergarten class for the following school year if a child is automatically eligible for a for old pre kindergarten program due to being eligible and enrolled in a three-year-old public pre kindergarten program The District or charter school should still ensure a child is appropriately coded for more information on pre kindergarten for 3-year-olds you
005can see our pre kindergarten 3 materials on our web pages and that link is included in our resource materials at the end of the presentation before diving into the other eligibility criteria further in this presentation I want to take take a moment to speak on Senate Bill 1697 or the parental option for student retention with Senate Bill 1697 statute was established for outlining the parental options for students to repeat or enroll in Pre kindergarten under this statute a parent can request that a child enroll in Pre kindergarten If the child would have been eligible to enroll during the previous school year under the Texas Education Code 29153 B and the child has not yet enrolled in kindergarten District ensure that serving students who are not eligible for the program does not interfere with students who
006are eligible for the program additional guidance and information regarding this statute the parental option for student retention can be found on the early childhood education frequently asked questions page under the title Senate Bill 1697 it contains several frequently asked questions as well as links to the restart grade page and a guidance table these links are also available in the resources page at the end of this presentation I want to highlight how Senate Bill 1697 or the parental option for student retention impacts our emergent bilingual students as we do receive this question from time to time the frequently Asked question reads A Child did not attend pre kindergarten this year but the parent now wants to enroll the child in prek for the upcoming year rather than enrolling the child in kindergarten how do you qualify
007a student based on previous year eligibility if qualifying by language if a child did not attend prek this year and considering that the child has had a year of language development what documentation would be used to establish eligibility in this scenario here are three scenario answers one if the child registered was eligible for prek last year never enrolled and the parents wish to enroll in Pre kindergarten again under Senate Bill 1697 then the child is eligible to enroll in prek any prek eligibility qualification from the prior year remains in effect for the purpose of eligibility for the following prek year regardless of change in language language proficiency level If the child registered was eligible for pre last year never enrolled and the parents wish to enroll in kindergarten based on the child's age then regular
008guidance applies a new home language survey is administered and the identification process begins again lastly If the child never registered was not deemed eligible for prek enrollment previously the child would not be eligible to enroll in Pre kindergarten under this emergent bilingual language eligibility Criterion the student could still be identified as emergent bilingual and qualify for language Services as a kindergartener childhood education division offers technical assistance and navigating eligibility and support for local educational agencies with questions surrounding pre kindergarten programs our website has many frequently ask questions available for review which can serve as a resource to your Lea a few key points to consider when termining eligibility include once determined eligible a student remains eligible for the remainder of the current school year in which the district and the district in which he or
009she resides or is otherwise entitled to attend for foundation school program benefits each district must develop a system to notify families with eligible Children of the availability of the program students may not be denied or excluded from par participating in a pre kindergarten program for any reason if they are deemed eligible and finally child does include stepchild as local educational agencies prepare for pre kindergarten Lea should Implement an enrollment process and education information that enables families to complete enrollment in a timely manner that fits the needs of families being served Lea should provide assistance when needed to acquire the necessary documentation for example a b certificate Lea should Implement an enrollment plan across all campuses that address all the steps for completing pre kindergarten enrollment including potentially a day or week with extended hours to
010accommodate family schedules and provide enrollment information to families in a manner in which they can understand understanding the population of eligible 3 and four-year-old students in the area helps local educational agencies become more prepared for enrollment and planning for kindergarten programs tea can assist leas in better understanding eligibility estimates in their area the Texas public education information resource or teer is a website that provides reports and data on Texas educational topics including pre kindergarten teper has three reports on pre kindergarten including the pre kindergarten programs report that shows student enrollment another way to prepare for registration is to better understand the number of eligible students who live in the area The Early Childhood team is working to provide estimates for eligible enrollment and you are welcome to contact an early childhood team if you would
011like to explore what enrollment estimations might be available for your school district or Charter School just remember that this data information is an estimate only as there are several factors that can influence the enrollment estimates available in our data simplify the registration process determine communication strategies to notify families of registration provide familyfriendly registration information offer registration packets use familyfriendly language by avoiding acronyms provide examples of a documentation needed for registration and enrollment section we will review brief enrollment differences between prek 3 and prek 4 as well as expand on each pre kindergarten eligibility criteria pre-register pre kindergarten students to determine and plan for the sides of the next school Year's pre kindergarten program districts May begin the process to verify eligibility on or after April 1st of each year once a child is determined to
012be eligible they remain eligible without reverified collection of documentation for any of the eligibility criteria listed may not begin until April 1st of each year districts May begin Communications about pre kindergarten programs and begin collecting preliminary registration information such as student and parent contact information on January 1st of each year attendance accounting handbook and we just like to provide the reminder of how this can be useful and what the timeline could look like in preparing for pre kindergarten registration and enrollment remember on or after April 1st local educational agencies can begin to verify eligibility for free public pre kindergarten by collecting the appropriate documentation this will also help local educational agencies to continue to plan classrooms and class size and remembering that all eligible four-year-old students must be served in full day pre kindergarten here
013are some brief pre kindergarten 3 Program information it is a local decision to serve three-year-olds pre kindergarten 3 eligibility requirements are the exact same as pre kindergarten 4 and eligible pre kindergarten 3 students do generate halfday average daily attendance or Ada which is the same as eligible pre kindergarten for students if an Lea does decide to serve threes not all three-year-olds must be served therefore weight list and lotteries are acceptable for a pre kindergarten 3 Program another thing to note is that eligible and enroll pre K3 students are automatically eligible for pre kindergarten 4 the following school year it is also recommended that leas collaborate with local childcare providers or Head Start programs before making the decision to serve three-year-olds all students need to have documentation of their age such as a birth certificate proof
014of address the parent ID and a copy of their immunization records obtaining proof that the student enrolling is 3 or four years old as of that September 1st deadline of the current school year is extremely important after which pre kindergarten staff can determine eligibility for free public pre kindergarten based on the additional pre kindergarten eligibility criteria for parents who might need support in finding proof of age any of the following documents is acceptable for that proof of identity and age including things like the birth certificate passport and various other records as you can see on the screen as a reminder once age has been verified the student must meet one of the following eligibility criteria to receive free public pre kindergarten unable to speak or comprehend the English language is considered educationally disadvantaged is considered
015homeless is the child of an active duty military or Armed Forces member is the child of a military or Armed Forces member who is injured or killed while serving active duty is or ever has been in the foster care either in Texas or another state or territory or is the child of a person who has received the star of Texas award next we will go into each individual eligibility criteria beginning with emergent bilingual student eligibility the identification process for this Criterion there is a standardized letter with three questions if the response to any of these questions includes a language other than English the identification process does begin if there are any questions regarding the home language survey it is important to reach out to your counterpart in the emergent bilingual division at your local school
016district or Charter School to offer a bilingual program with Spanish as the primary or partner language then any student identified as an emergent bilingual who has Spanish as a home language has a right to the access the bilingual program regardless of language proficiency levels as part of the identification process for free public pre kindergarten those documentations would include the home language survey the single Statewide identification assessment and the lpac decision to formally identify a student and make the program identification recommendation here you can find resources for students who are considered emergent bilingual for the purposes of pre kindergarten eligibility here you have resources regarding the home anguage survey and identification questions resources for emergent bilingual students who might also be served by special education and further resources for the last links identification assessment information registration
017the student can be tested at the point of registration and the lpac can meet to identify the student prior to the following Year's enrollment a student who is not identified as an emergent bilingual including the elpac meeting documentation and has no other eligibility criteria should not be granted any kind of temporary status a student who is subsequently not identified as aerg bilingual and can no longer participate in the pre kindergarten program might have a very difficult transition as does the family as such is important and a best practice to ensure that if a student can qualify immediately under any of the other eligibility Criterion and then complete their emergent bilingual identification process as soon as possible that temporary rep placement or placement pending emergent bilingual identification is not used next we have the criteria for
018educationally disadvantaged educationally disadvantaged makes up the largest percentage of children who are eligible for free public break kindergarten a district must verify and document that a student is considered educationally disadvantaged either because the student's family income meets requirements for participation in the national school lunch program or because of categorical eligibility for the national school lunch program the national school lunch program or nslp is a federal program governed by the Texas Department of Agriculture to learn more and to view the nslp guidelines please visit squaremeals.org or speak with your local Child Nutrition director additionally squaremeals.org or the Texas Department agriculture produces the administrator's reference manual or arm sections 3 4 and are most helpful in providing documentation examples and other information documentation for being considered educationally disadvantaged could include things like income qualifiers including a current
019paycheck stub current tax return of self-employed per possible current tanif or snap eligibility letters the national school Lynch program also has categorical qualifiers which automatically qualify a student for free or reduce the lunch this includes snap or tanif things like being being in foster care being in Head Start or Early Head Start and also receiving Medicaid free or reduced if this is directly certified in the Texas Elms or Texas eligibility list management system for more support you can speak to your District's Child Nutrition director or use the arm for resources for documentation we want to provide some clarity and provide tips for this eligibility Criterion it is a good idea to have two verifiers when checking income for the purposes of being considered educationally disadvantaged it is also recommended that if a calculation error occurs
020on the part of the district and it is determined that the district was at fault that the child still be served also economically disadvantaged status is separate from a student being considered educationally disadvantaged as such it is recommended to develop a process to include the echo disc application sometime after July 1st some ideas for this could in could be to include a welcome packet for families to pre kindergarten which includes the echo disc application either as local application or federal application this could give be given to families upon starting school you could also use registration or events or back to school sessions to explain how qualify for prek is different than a student receiving free or reduced meals furthermore we we provide this visual to talk about the differences and verification of educationally disadvantaged for
021pre kindergarten eligibility purposes versus how that is different than students being eligible for economically disadvantaged status or qualifying for State comped funding which is State compensatory education funding as you can see verification for public pre kindergarden May begin on or after April 1st this is verified against the school year's National School program income chart families will provide this documentation in order to qualify for economically disadvantaged status and to receive the state compensatory education funding this begins after July 1st families would fill out a local application or a federal application with their current income information based on that application students are then determined to be ecodis and then quoted coded accordingly an example of this can look like what you see on your screen here a prek student is determined educationally disadvantaged and eligible for free
022pre during spring registration after April 1st based on the documentation submitted for pre kindergarten enrollment at the beginning of the school year the student does not qualify for free or reduced meals based on the federal national school lunch program application and is not coded as economically disadvantaged however this student is still eligible for pre free prek and his Ada eligibility code would be two eligible for halfday attendance meaning that this student will pull down half day adaa this student is not considered economically disadvantaged and would be coded as 0000 did not qualify as economically disadvantaged the student will continue to draw half day Ada for free public pre kindergarten but will not draw additional State compensatory education funds for being considered economically disadvantaged status more assistance for economically disadvantaged students we encourage local educational agencies
023to work with their education service centers including their Education Service Center data Champions you can also seek support from your local Child Nutrition director or Department as such we are not the experts when it comes to pees nor the national school lunch program these are just tips and tricks to help you when communicating with your pees or Child Nutrition director staff additionally those with teal access can submit a Tims ticket when there is a coding question there is additional guidance in tws as when it comes to national school lunch program and those pieces there are various methods in which the national school lunch program is administered furthermore districts or Charter Schools can contact the State compensatory education team and or the text Department of a agriculture for specific question questions there are some State comp
024Ed resources which are linked on this slide additionally for the school year 2526 the income guidelines are available for the national school lunch program these are available at squaremeals.org on the link that you see on the slide in order to find a specific income eligibility guidelines you would click on the little plus sign that says the following guidelines apply to the ca cfp nslp SBP and sfsp clicking that little plus Mark will show you the table please ensure that you are looking at the table for the school year 2526 and it would say July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 next we have the criteria for students experiencing homelessness to be eligible based on homelessness the district local homeless education liaison identifies the student as homeless regardless of the residence of the child of either
025parent or of the child's guardian or other person having lawful control of the child this process is usually indicated by the homeless education liaison and would Pro be able to provide acceptable forms of documentation next we have the criteria for military service this will include those children of active duty duty military and those children of military members who are injured or killed while serving active duty when determining a student's pre kindergarden eligibility on the basis of membership of a parent in the armed forces those who qualify as a member of the Armed Forces include active duty uniform members of the US Army Navy Marine Corps Air Force or Coast Guard who have eligible children residing in Texas activated or mobilized uniform members of the Texas National Guard army or air guard are activated or M
026Iz members of The Reserve components of the US Army Navy Marine Corps Air Force or Coast Guard who have eligible children residing in Texas additionally children of Uniform service members who are missing in action or who were injured or killed while serving active duty military or Armed Forces for documentation there are several pieces that can serve as proof for the child of a member of the Armed Forces District employee should not make a copy of a member student's Department of Defense photo identification instead a policy should be in place at the school district or Charter School to verify that a Department of Defense photo identification and documentation was used including the district's employees printed name signature and date of verification for information regarding specific documentation the early childhood education frequently asked questions as well as
027the student attendance and accounting handbook in section 7.2.5 include further definitions and examples next we have the criteria for for foster care children who are or were previously in foster care either in Texas or in another state or territory and currently live in Texas are eligible for free public pre kindergarten if a student qualifies for pre- on the basis of ever having been in foster care the student remains eligible for enrollment after the student begins a pre- Kindergarten class even if that student is no longer in foster care resources for foster care could include the student attendance accounting handbook Texas department of family protective services and Tea's own foster care web page documentation required for foster care could include things from the Texas department of family protective services such as a prek verification letter or
028other foster care documents stating closure of a case adoption paperwork or other court documents stating F State foster care involvement lastly we have the the criteria for the star of Texas award the star of Texas award is presented to honores and family members of Peace Officers firefighters and emergency First Responders who are killed or suffer Serious injury in the line of duty the office of the governor criminal justice division honors star of Texas recipients annually in September the resolution or certificate awarded to an individual serves as proof of Eligibility to enroll these children in free public pre if they are age eligible additionally we like to highlight programs providing pre kindergarten tuition as some of our families who will come during spring registration or at some point during the year may not qualify for free
029public pre kindergarten it is a local decision to serve and offer a tuition-based program as such several leas who are providing aition based program for students who are not eligible for free public pre kindergarten this would be a local decision it should be noted that serving tuition-based students must not interfere with the the ability to serve eligible students it is recommended that our local educational agencies use spring registration for eligible students only to determine and plan for the size of the pre kindergarten program this will give leas a better idea of how many tuition slots might be offered notification to families of Acceptance in a tuition-based program should not occur until after the tuition rate has been approved by tea leas must submit a proposed tuition rate letter for approval annually a sample letter and
030process is available on our website under the pre kindergarten tuition section the Lea will determine the tuition rate which may not be higher than is necessary to cover the added cost of providing the additional pre kindergarten classes additionally when submitting a proposed tuition letter local educational agencies must include a brief explanation of the proposed tuition rate as well as assurance that the rate does not exceed current cost for providing the program please encourage local educational agencies or staff with tuition based programs to submit your tuition letters as quickly as possible we are beginning to see some of these letters come in already and we will process those in the order in which they are received slide outlines the proposed tuition letter process again local educational agencies will submit a proposed pre kindergarten tuition rate letter
031on annual basis these letters can be submitted to Rebecca mats at rebecca. mats tea. texas.gov the letter will be reviewed by the agency and if additional information is needed we will reach out notification of approval will be sent to the person indicated in the proposed tuition rate letter we will review some common registration scenarios first my child's birthday is September 3rd is there any waiver from I soon to be four-year-old to attend pre kindergarten answer no there is no waiver for meeting the age criteria to attend pre kindergarten a pre kindergarten 3-year-old program may be available with the local educational agency question I have a Medicaid card why can't I receive free public pre kindergarten answer Medicaid alone is not an eligibility Criterion for free public pre kindergarten a student must meet eligibility by one
032of the eligibility criteria such as is being considered educationally disadvantaged I.E eligible to participate in the national school lunch program question can pre kindergarten pre-registration be hosted prior to April 1st prek pre-registration is in the spring is eligibility verified at that time no verification of Eligibility begins on or after April 1st question do families need to be reverified after the income eligibility guidelines are released on July 1st when verifying income documentation should correlate the eligible school year with the qualifying national school lunch program year in this case the income guidelines for the 25 26 school year should be used with current income level documentation on our after April 1st to determine participation for a student to receive additional State compensatory education funding the appropriate process should be followed in conjunction with the Child Nutrition director
033question a student is transferring to pre kindergarten 4 in our district and previously qualified as homeless in their previous District can they still qualify based on the qualification in the prior District answer the local educational agency should request documentation and or verify that the student was appropriately determined eligible for free public pre kindergarten in the first district or the student initially enrolled even if the student no longer meets eligibility for this Criterion while enrolling in the new local educational agency any additional questions can always be sent to the early childhood education division through our early childhood support portal this would include any lingering questions for registration or enrollment now we will go through some registration resources and any other supports their pre- kinderg guarding registration and enrollment page p is a helpful resource that will
034include resources for pre kindergarten registration and enrollment webinars as well as pre kindergarten resources for prek-3 programs the following resources and links are available to support pre kindergarten registration and enrollment including things like links to the student attendance accounting handbook our prk3 resources our frequently asked questions and the other resources you see on the screen in terms of individual resources for the various eligibility criteria you can see those over the next couple slides this slides includes resources for emergent bilingual and star of Texas criteria this slide includes resources regarding our students who might be considered educationally disadvantaged including resources for the national school lunch program as well as military and Foster Career criteria resources additionally we have resources on our website for Early Childhood including educator resources what we call ECE resources including links to
035other webinars and presentations family resources and again our frequently asked questions this concludes today's presentation thank you for your time and for all you do for our youngest Learners in Texas