S 1697 · 113th Congress · Education

Strong Start for America's Children Act

Introduced 2013-11-13· Sponsored by Sen. Harkin, Tom [D-IA]· Senate

Bill Progress

Introduced
2
Committee
3
Senate Vote
4
House
5
Enacted
Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.(2013-11-13)

Plain Language Summary

[AI summary unavailable — showing source text] Strong Start for America's Children Act - Directs the Secretary of Education (Secretary) to allot matching grants to states and, through them, subgrants to local educational agencies (LEAs), childhood education program providers, or consortia of those entities to implement high-quality prekindergarten programs for children from low-income families. Allots grants to states based on each state's proportion of children who are age four and who are from families with incomes at or below 200% of the poverty level. Defines "high-quality prekindergarten programs" as those that: serve children who are 3 or 4 by the eligibility determination date or have attained the legal age for state-funded prekindergarten; require staff to have high qualifications, which for teachers include specified alternative requirements that all involve possessing a bachelor's degree; maintain a maximum class size of 20 children and a child-to-instructional staff ratio that does not exceed 10 to 1; offer a full-day program; provide developmentally appropriate, evidence-based curricula and learning environments that are aligned with state early learning and development standards; offer teachers salaries c…

Summarized by Claude AI · Non-partisan · For informational purposes only

Cosponsors (20)

19 Democrats1 Independent