PRESCHOOL DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

FY2017 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORT

Preschool Development Grants AUGUST 2018

Rhode Island
ED 524B Page 1 of 36

U.S. Department of Education 

PDG Grant Performance Report Cover Sheet 

Based on ED 524B OMB No. 1894-0003 Exp. 08/31/2020

General Information 

1. PR/Award #: S419B150033 2. Grantee Federal Information Processing Code:

3. Project Title: Preschool Development Grants- Expansion 

4. Grantee Name: Rhode Island Department of Education

5. Grantee Address:255 Westminster Street

City: Providence State: Rhode Island Zip: 02903

6. Project Director Name: Mary Anne Snider

Title: Chief, Educator Excellence and Instructional Effectiveness 

Phone #: (401) 222-8942 Ext.: Fax #:(401) 222-3605

Email Address: maryann.snider@ride.ri.gov

Check only one box per Program Office instructions. ✔ Annual Performance Report Final Performance Report

Reporting Period Information 

7. Reporting Period: From: 01/01/2017 To: 12/31/2017

8. Budget Expenditures (To be completed by your Business Office. See instructions.)

Budget Period Federal Grant Funds Non-Federal Funds (Match/Cost Share)

a. Previous Budget Period

b. Current Budget Period

c. Entire Project Period 

(For Final Performance Reports only)

9. Indirect Cost Information (To be completed by your Business Office. See Instructions.)

a. Are you claiming indirect costs under this grant? Yes No

b. If yes, do you have an Indirect Cost Rate Agreement approved by the Federal Government? Yes No

c. If yes, provide the following information: 

Period Covered by the Indirect Cost Rate Agreement: From: 07/01/2017 To: 06/30/2018

Approving Federal agency: ✔ ED Other Specify other:

Type of Rate: (Final Performance Reports only) Provisional ✔ Final Specify other:

d. For Restricted Rate Programs (check one) -- Are you using a restricted indirect cost rate that:

Is included in your approved Indirect Cost Rate Agreement

Complies with 34 CFR 76.564(c)(2)?

Other

10. Performance Measures Status

a. Are complete data on performance measures for the current budget period included in the 

Project Status Chart?

Yes No

b. If no, when will the data be available and submitted to the Department?
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U.S. Department of Education 

PDG Annual Performance Report 

Executive Summary 

Based on ED 524B OMB No. 1894-0003 Exp. 08/31/2020

Grantee State: RI PR/Award #: S419B150033

You are required to submit an Executive Summary of up to 3000 words with your Annual Performance 

Report. This summary should relate to your approved application and summarize the goals and 

objectives that have been achieved under your grant, what you learned, and any evaluation results. 

Describe any unanticipated outcomes or benefits from your project and any barriers that you may have 

encountered. If there have been any changes to the project from the approved application, those 

should be explained as well.

The third year of Rhode Island's Preschool Development Grant (PDG) focused on five main areas: continuing to 

expand access, further supporting high quality instructional practices, the implementation of comprehensive 

services, conducting the state Pre-K program evaluation, deepening itinerant special education model and 

evidenced based inclusion efforts. The 2016-2017 school year closed with 56 funded classrooms, in 11 

communities, serving a total of 1,008 children. Of the children enrolled that year, 17% were English Language 

Learners, less than 1% experienced homelessness, 8% were in the child welfare system and 12% were 

identified as having disabilities and IEPs. During the fall of 2017, the following communities offered State Pre-K: 

Central Falls, Cranston, East Providence, Johnston, Providence, North Providence, Pawtucket, Newport, 

Warwick, West Warwick, and Woonsocket. The addition of the federal Expansion Grant funds, along with 

additional state funds, allowed the state to accelerate its planned expansion and for the first time to reach its 

projected total number of 60 classrooms, serving 1,080 children during the start of the 2017 school year. Of 

these children, 95 (8.7% were identified as having special needs, 18 (1.6%) are from military families, 4 (.37%) 

are from migrant families, 14 (1.29%) reported being homeless, 86 (7.9%) were in the child welfare system, and 

153 (14%) were ELL's. Of those participating in the program, 38 (3.5%) utilized before school services, 76 (7%) 

afterschool services and 131 (12%) both before and afterschool services. The home languages of the children 

were reported as: English 738 (68%), Spanish 211 (19.5%), Portuguese 9 (.83%), Chinese 5 (.46%), Tagalong 4 

(.37%), Vietnamese 2 (.18%), French 1 and 110 (10%) other. Lastly, 5 (.46%) were American Indian, 377 (34.9%) 

were Caucasian, 59 (5.4%) were Asian, 3 (.27%) were Pacific Islanders, 160 (14.8%) were African American, 366 

(33.8%) were Hispanic and 110 (10.18%) were reported as being two or more races. 

During the spring of 2016, in anticipation of the 2017-2018 school year, 4 new classrooms were awarded. This 

work began in January 2017, when a Request for Proposals to operate a state-funded Pre-K program was 

posted. Applications were due March 31st. Application reviews were conducted by the RIDE team and 

selected sub-grantees were notified in mid -May. The expansion increased the number of classrooms available 

in each community identified in the state's Pre-K application, and included additional new classrooms in 

Pawtucket, Warwick, Central Falls and Providence. The number of classrooms funded was informed by the 

needs of the community. Existing wait list data, combined with Head Start availability and overall Census data 

was used to determine where additional classrooms were needed. The chart below outlines the school year 

(SY) expansion: 

 

Community # of classrooms # of classrooms # of classrooms # of classrooms 

SY 14-15 SY 15-16 SY 16-17 SY 17-18 

 

 

Central Falls 1 3 4 5 

 

Cranston 1 2 3 3 

 

East Providence 0 1 8 8 

 
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Johnston 0 0 1 1 

 

Newport 2 3 3 3 

 

North Providence 0 0 1 1 

 

Pawtucket 1 1 5 6 

 

Providence 5 11 18 20 

 

Warwick 3 3 2 3 

 

West Warwick 2 3 4 3 

 

Woonsocket 2 5 7 7 

 

Rhode Island 17 32 56 60 

 

Existing Pre-K programs and new sub-grantees then began the process of recruiting families for application to 

the state Pre-K lottery. Throughout the year, RIDE worked closely with its Head Start partners on coordinated 

recruitment and data sharing, efforts established winter 2016. Additionally, it increased its efforts working with 

the Department of Children Youth and Families on coordinated recruitment of children in foster care. 

State Pre-K sub-grantees are required to actively participate in Pre-K recruitment. Pre-K applications are 

entered into an electronic application either directly by the parent or by the sub-grantee on behalf of the 

parent. RIDE staff track the number of applications entered by community on an ongoing basis. Feedback from 

communities also informed a series of revisions to the lottery application for the 2017-2018 school year. For 

example, the system now accounts for parents to indicate their preference of setting when multiple settings 

are available in a community, the system also accounts for multiples and accepts multiples together within a 

family. The 2017 lottery was conducted on July 5th, 2017. At that time, there were 2,066 applications for the 

1,080 seats. At the same time, Pre-K grant agreements were being finalized for the July 1 start date, which 

coincides with the state fiscal year. This process included reviewing and approving proposed budgets to ensure 

compliance with state Pre-K budget guidelines, which ensure adequate expenditures in key areas, notably 

teacher salaries in order to ensure pay parity, staff time to participate in PD/TA activities, and educational 

materials and supplies corresponding with quality needs. By July 1, 2017, all 32 grantees and 60 classroom 

contracts for the 2017-2018 school year were completed. Following the Pre-K lotter which was run on July 5th, 

sub-grantees began contacting selected families and verifying income and residency information. Income levels 

in the states formula match those of the representative community, so for each classroom the number of 

children below poverty and above poverty varies based on that community. Sub-grantees are allowed to 

determine their own school start dates and all 2017-2018 classrooms were fully operational by September 8, 

2017. In most cases, prior to the start of school grantees conducted a family orientation, which is a 

requirement of their contract as a way to welcome and orient families to the start of Pre-K. 

Implementing a System of Continuous Quality Improvement 

A significant focus under the state's Expansion Grant is ensuring that all RI Pre-Kindergarten classrooms 

operate at the highest level of quality. To this end, the following strategies are used to support this goal: 

comprehensive, high-quality program regulations; ongoing program monitoring; clearly defined performance 

goals at the program and teacher level, including defined learning outcomes for children; an aligned system of 

professional development supports, and an external evaluation of Pre-K impact on child outcomes. During their 

first year of funding, Pre-K sub-grantees applied for and received approval under the Comprehensive Early 

Childhood Education (CECE) Program regulations. These regulations meet or exceed accreditation standards 

and national benchmarks for Pre-K quality. The CECE approval process involves a detailed look at Pre-K 

program operations including a facilities visit, teacher and administrator interviews, reviews of written 

narratives describing program systems and policies, classroom observations using ECERS and CLASS, and on-site 

visits to review additional teaching practices and documents. As of spring 2017 all grantees were participating 

in the state's QRIS program and had applied for CECE Approval. CECE Approval is granted on a classroom basis. 

For the 2017 fall school year, we have 4 new classrooms that are first year applicants and will complete the 

approval process in the spring of 2018. All other programs are going through scheduled renewals and the 
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required continuous quality improvement cycle. The continuous quality improvement cycle of the state Pre-K 

system includes the following components: the development of what is called a 1, 2, 3, 4 plan in which 

programs address areas scoring under a 5 in their ECERS, CLASS assessments, and program level Quality 

Improvement Plans and Individual Professional Development Plans. 

In addition to the above, RIDE staff conducts monitoring visits to review compliance with state Pre-K policies, 

which expand upon CECE regulations. During 2017, and with suggestions from Child Trends, RIDE staff worked 

to align the monitoring processes under CECE Approval to incorporate state Pre-K policies to create a more 

comprehensive monitoring system. The feedback from Child Trends helped inform several suggestions for 

monitoring which the state is working to incorporate moving forward. Thus far, this feedback has helped to 

inform the development of revised tabs in the electronic monitoring system, as well as the beginning of a 

conceptual plan for further rubric revisions in order to provide greater specificity on the continuum of 

expectations, as well as to reduce duplication. 

Professional Development and Technical Assistance Supports 

Using data from monitoring and past professional development initiatives, quality improvement goals for the 

state Pre-K system were established and a subsequent professional development vendor was selected to begin 

the 2015-2016 school year. The RI Department of Education selected Education Development Center's (EDC) 

Center for Early Learning Professionals as its professional development and technical assistance vendor. RIDE, 

together with the vendor implemented a services plan, informed by ECERS and CLASS data, as well as program 

Quality Improvement (QI) goals. The resulting plan informed a menu of services which included: 

For education coordinators 

• Community of Practice (COP) meetings (held 4th Thursdays of the month) 

• Small group TA meetings, focusing on CECE application support/systems (held 4th Thursdays of the 

month) 

• Program-level TA 

• Classroom-level TA 

For teachers and teacher assistants 

• Teacher/Teacher assistant Group meetings (held 3rd Wednesdays and 4th Thursdays of the month; 

two meetings to accommodate schedules) 

• TSG Users Group meetings (held 1st Tuesdays of the month) 

• Classroom-level TA 

RIDE worked with the vendor to develop an evaluation plan which would provide key information on the 

usefulness of services. The findings of the evaluation were first made available beginning summer 2016, and 

again for the second year summer of 2017. These results have been subsequently used to inform the service 

plan for the 2017-2018 school year. 

Due to the increasing size of the Pre-K program, services have naturally been modified to meet the needs of the 

group. For example, beginning spring of 2016 we began to offer an end of year wrap-up, and again fall 2017 a 

beginning of year kick-off which functioned like a conference for grantees given the size. Participants registered 

as teams, and were able to choose from a variety of break-out sessions. We also featured a keynote speaker 

who provided content relevant to the entire group. Additionally, community of practice meetings have been 

established for those who are new to State Pre-K and/or their roles in order to differentiate those who have 

been in the program for some time and those who need more foundational content around expectations. We 

also implemented a RIDE Update for the 2017/2018 year, where RIDE staff make themselves available to share 

updates, reminders and discuss program elements with Education Coordinators and Administrators directly. 

In Year 2's PDTA evaluation, there was an 81% response rate for Education Coordinators, a 91% response rate 

for Lead teachers and a 63% response rate for Teacher Assistants. On average, Education Coordinators worked 

on 6 to 7 topics with their TA provider during the course of the year. All Education Coordinators ratings of their 

experience with their TA provider were positive. Education Coordinators comments about the support they 

received from their TA specialists indicated that specialists offered a combination of knowledge, resources, and 
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interpersonal encouragement. Overall Education Coordinators felt that the technical assistance provided 

supported their program goals, and that meetings were relevant and helpful for their work. Of those that 

attended small group technical assistance, 82% reported the services as extremely relevant for their work. 

Others, provided feedback on ways to strengthen small group TA such as by creating separate tracks for new 

versus more experienced leaders. 

Of those working directly in classrooms, the majority of respondents indicated that technical assistance was 

helpful or very helpful. Classroom level technical assistance was provided on a multitude of topics such as child 

assessment, teaching Strategies Gold, curriculum planning, classroom environments, daily schedules, inclusion 

etc. These most frequent areas of support requested were related to curriculum planning and child 

assessment. Teachers attended group technical assistance meetings, TSG user groups, and participated in inclass technical assistance. Findings based on attendance and participation reports maintained by the vendor, 

indicated a greater challenge is public-school grantees being able to obtain substitutes so that they could 

attend offerings.. Of the teachers attending the Teacher Group Meetings, 80% reported that they were 

extremely relevant or very relevant. For teachers attending the TSG users groups, the majority reported they 

were relevant and useful, although attendance was consistently lower for these sessions. Among Teacher 

Assistants, 94% rated working with their Technical Assistance Specialist as very helpful. 

Results of the evaluation have informed some changes such as greater differentiation in topics and rigor for 

various participants, increasing opportunities for Education Coordinators to attend with their team, and deeper 

dives into specific areas identified whereby the state brought in national experts to facilitate PDTA on topics 

such as math, equity, and challenging behaviors. 

State Pre-K Evaluation 

RIDE engaged in an RFP process to select a program evaluation vendor. An RFP solicitation was released March 

16, 2016. During this time a technical review committee was formed. There were five received submissions and 

ultimately an award was made to Child Trends on August 22, 2016. The vendor was selected based on their 

understanding of the issues, their experience, developed work plan, capacity and budget proposal. After 

receiving the award, RIDE worked with the vendor to finalize a work plan. The work plan includes a cost study, 

classroom quality study as well as a longitudinal child outcome study. It was determined that given the award 

was made the week before school was to begin, that it was too late to begin child level data collection for fall 

2016. Year 1 activities, as a result, included evaluation staff focusing on program policy and monitoring 

recommendations, hiring and training the staff needed to conduct the evaluations, an analysis of the 2016 

ECERS data in order to report on initial quality, making final selections on child level data collection tools, work 

towards IRB approval, and drafting the parent and teacher consent documents. 

The 2017-2018 lottery application included information for families on the evaluation, as well as a consent to 

participate, and/or be contacted in order to receive more information. The evaluation vendor used this data, 

obtained from RIDE to manage the list of participating families, as well as to follow up with families who had 

questions about the study prior to participation. Families were identified as being in the control versus 

intervention group based on the initial State Pre-K lottery application and corresponding consent. Child level, 

and classroom quality data began being collected fall 2017. For classroom quality, both CLASS and ECERS-R 

scores are being used and data is being collected in partnership with the Rhode Island Association or the 

Education of Young Children (RIAEYC) who conducts classroom quality assessments for the states QRIS and 

monitoring systems already. For child level data, Child Trends is using the Expressive One Word Picture 

Vocabulary test, the Woodcock Johnson Letter-Word Identification test, Woodcock Johnson Applied Problems 

and the Head Shoulders Knees and Toes assessments. Child level data collection is occurring fall 2017, spring 

2018 and again late fall 2018 when the children are in kindergarten. The final evaluation results will be made 

available winter 2019. 

Consistent Access to Comprehensive Services 

All state Pre-K programs are expected to ensure that families and Pre-K children have access to additional 

services they may need beyond the Pre-K educational program. This expectation is outlined within state Pre-K 

policies and in contract language. However, there are not uniform policies and procedures across Pre-K 

programs, resulting in inconsistent access in some areas. In some cases, for example, Head Start grantees 

utilize existing internal staff for these supports, or public schools may access their nurse. Additionally, some 

Pre-K providers report difficulty in identifying services which are available within the state since eligibility and 

availability can change. As a result, this area was prioritized for improvement within the state's grant 
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application. Currently within the State Pre-K program, there are areas for which clear policies and procedures 

have been implemented. These include: the requirement that all State Pre-K children be screened within 45 

days of enrollment, grantees collaboration and connection to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) for special 

education services, and that programs support the development of knowledge and competencies needed to 

implement a comprehensive services system. During the 2016-2017 school year the state worked with its 

grantees in order to access a Child Outreach Report, called the Environment Report, which provides specific 

information on the outcome of developmental screenings for children. This “Environment Reports” allows 

districts to directly pull live data and provide this to grantees in regards to the status of screens, flags and 

referrals. . 

In an effort to continue to broaden its Comprehensive Services work beyond developmental screening, RIDE 

contracted with a consultant to facilitate the development of a statewide online referral and tracking system. 

The consultant began by engaging in a series of focus groups during 2016, to get a better sense of what 

programs currently do, assess their needs in order to meet with requirement successfully, and to begin to vet a 

revised system. This feedback, allowed RIDE to work with the Department of Health to begin to draft a system. 

Two specific goals were established for the system 1). Enable early childhood program administrators to 

efficiently and effectively assess family needs, to refer to and monitor Pre-K children and their family members 

access to community-based services and resources (special education, early intervention, home visiting, mental 

health, health and social services), and 2). That practitioners can maximize use of technology to support access 

to resource information, and electronic referrals to services where possible. Strategies to meet these goals 

include: developing state-level guidance and policies for a comprehensive support services system, providing 

tools to support programs in addressing the policies, as well as the promotion and support in the utilization the 

online resource directory at DOH and United Way. Work during 2017 focused on broadening those who were 

involved in this work, to include pediatric primary care, pediatric dentistry, and family visiting professionals 

who had vested interest in a database and referral system. During fall 2017, RIDE partnered with the 

Department of Health to share a contract for the facilitation and development of the online system. Once 

contracts were in place, meetings with the facilitator, the DOH and the IT developer began. This work has 

continued to expand, to include additional system levels partners such as the Unified Social Services Director 

Group, made up of community agencies such as United Way, CAP, and Lifespan. Once complete, the 

comprehensive services system will allow programs to identify resources, make, receive and track referrals for 

things such as: food scarcity, family needs for diapers, clothing, car or seats, insurance assistance, help with 

paying utility bills, legal help with housing, immigration, or custody/guardianship issues etc. This system will 

also replace the individual practices of sub-grantees and ensure more consistent access to these services across 

all sub-grantees throughout the state. During the time the system has been in development, State Pre-K 

grantees have begun to write and implement Comprehensive Services Plans within their programs. These plans 

speak to how grantees work together within communities, and support staff, as well as families in identifying 

and accessing resources for comprehensive services. During the course of 2017 grantees submitted draft plans 

to the state for review and revision, and technical assistance was provided on implementation. 

Challenges and Lessons Learned 

The 2016 state Pre-K expansion year was the largest yet, and during 2017 we continued work with some of the 

2016 selected grantees. We learned that public schools more often experienced challenges in implementing 

the levels of quality required for the grant. The 2017 selected grantees, were all existing grantee agencies 

which added classrooms, and this made implementation for them somewhat easier. During 2016-2017 the 

state added more public school grantees than ever before. This brought with it new challenges in navigating 

teacher contracts, large internal systems to ensure that all involved understood the specific State Pre-K 

requirements. Public schools, in addition to our existing community based agencies and Head Starts, remain 

essential State Pre-K partners, however, there are nuances which must be worked through in order to 

implement the State Pre-K model with fidelity. For example, we found finding substitutes was more challenging 

for public schools, which made it difficult for their teachers to attend PDTA services. Some public schools also 

had to work with their teacher unions related to sharing classroom quality data from CLASS and ECERS, on the 

implementation of lesson plans and in participation in the evaluation. 

During the transition from the 2016 to 2017 school year, we had a transition in staff who supported Teaching 

Strategies Gold use. While RIDE staff internally absorbed this work for a period of time, a consultant was 

brought on during 2017 to resume this work. However, this still required a period of transition and learning, as 

well as everyone becoming more familiar with the new platform Teaching Strategies released during 2017. 
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The state continued work in using formative assessment data to make ongoing referrals throughout the year, 

and in supporting further screening and team evaluation. This resulted in a total of 499 children who were 

referred to special education and of this 174 children in the state Pre-K communities being found eligible for 

special education services. During the 2018 calendar year, we are working on further enhancing reporting 

within the states KidsNet system to be able to filter this data specifically for state Pre-K children. 

Conclusion 

Rhode Island has been able to leverage its systems work under the RTT-ELC grant in order to utilize the existing 

systems of support for all state Pre-K grantees, as well as to build upon and continue work from lessons 

learned. During 2016 and 2017, the state was able to make further progress on services and supports for 

families and practitioners, which were made available to state Pre-K grantees. 

 

 

 
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U.S. Department of Education 

PDG Annual Performance Report 

Grant Status Form 

Explanation of Progress (524B Section A) 

Based on ED 524B OMB No. 1894-0003 Exp. 08/31/2020

Section A: Performance Objectives Information and Related Performance Measures Data 

(narrative) 

1. Project Objective

Grantee State: RI PR/Award #: S419B150033

1(a) GPRA Performance Measure: The number and percentage of Eligible Children served in 

High-Quality Preschool Programs funded by the grant. Describe the State's progress in meeting 

this Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) measure based on enrollment of Eligible 

Children in High-Quality Preschool Programs funded by the grant as of December 1, 2017.

Rhode Island's Pre-K program is a mixed income model where some enrolled children are in families with 

incomes above 200% of poverty and are subsequently paid for using state dollars. The states PDG application 

targets were set using estimates that 20% of children selected via the lottery would be above 200% of poverty 

and therefore ineligible for federal PDG funding. The program has subsequently mixed federal and state 

dollars, and as a result, has been able to ensure mixed income classrooms. The program design, is built around 

evidence that mixed income classrooms are beneficial to all children enrolled, and that classroom should be 

representative of the broader community. The mixed income model will continue to be used as a philosophical 

foundation beyond the PDG grant. Rhode Island's enrollment goal for the 2015-2016 school year included 763 

children, 2016-2017 included 1,008 children which was more than the anticipated 954 children, and 2017-2018 

included 1,080 children which is the maximum number of children the program plans to serve under PDG. The 

state was able to expand faster than proposed in its original grant for the 2016-2017 year due to cost savings in 

program operations. 

 

A substantial amount of preparation went into the start of the 2016 and 2017 school years, particularly related 

to discussing opportunities for new grantees. Prior to awards being made to grantees, state staff met with 

districts to explore their capacity and interest in implementing State Pre-K. We also worked closely with 

community childcare programs to explore space which could be utilized for classrooms in the catchment area. 

Updates were shared with the Department of Education Board, Early Learning Council, Children's Cabinet, and 

Director's Network among others. An expansion, such as the one we saw in 2016 required additional 

infrastructure development which continued into the 2017 school year. The state ensured that there were 

adequate professional development offerings available and that there were resources specific to those 

implementing Pre-K programs for the first time, as well as for the more seasoned providers. The expansion 

meant that there were many new individuals involved in implementing the program, which required a 

substantial amount of relationship building, as well as program and policy implementation support. This meant, 

not only working to build the capacity and understanding of direct service staff, but also behind the scenes 

registration and attendance officers, public school superintendents and school boards, and presidents/CEO's of 

community based organizations. There were regular meetings with many district administrators, RIDE school 

facilities staff, McKinney Vento staff, and food program personnel to ensure that program requirements were 

being met. 

 

The 2017 year, included the addition of four new classrooms, for a total of 72 additional slots, all with existing 

grantees. This made the ramp up for the fall of 2017 significantly easier than the year before as all of these 

grantees have implemented State Pre-K before, and were familiar with the programs requirements and grant 

procedures. The additional classrooms were awarded to: 

• Child Inc, Warwick (Child Inc is a long time Pre-K grantee but the use of this site in Warwick is new) (18 
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children) 

• Pawtucket Public Schools (18 children) 

• Central Falls Public schools (18 children) 

• Children's Friend- Berkshire (18 children) 

Please describe, as required in Program Requirement (k)(2) in the Notice Inviting Applicants (NIA), 

how the State established policies and procedures that ensure that the percentage of Eligible Children 

with disabilities served by the High-Quality Preschool Programs is not less than either the percentage 

of four-year-old children served statewide through part B, section 619 of IDEA (20 U.S.C. 1400 et 

seq.), or the current national average, whichever is greater. 

Note: The current national percentage of four year-old-children receiving services through part B, section 619 of 

IDEA is 6.4%. Source: 2012 IDEA Part B Child Count (www.ideadata.org). States should include detailed 

information on ALL structural elements.

The Rhode Island State Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) Program has two eligibility requirements. Children must be 4 

years of age by September 1 of the relevant school year (making them eligible to attend Kindergarten in the 

following school year) and must reside in a community where State Pre-K is offered. Since the RI State Pre-K 

Program is not yet funded to support universal access for all eligible four-year-old children, the Rhode Island 

Department of Education (RIDE) developed a statewide recruitment plan, regional community plans 

implemented by grantees, and a child application lottery system to randomly select children from eligible 

communities to fill State Pre-K seats. The recruitment processes seeks to engage all families, including families 

of children with disabilities, children experiencing homelessness and those involved in child welfare, in entering 

child lottery applications. To ensure families of children with disabilities are recruited, RIDE coordinates 

recruitment efforts with eligible community school districts, the RI Section 619 State Coordinator, the RI Special 

Education Advisory Committee, and community organizations that support families of children with disabilities, 

(i.e. the Rhode Island Parent Information Network). RIDE works diligently statewide to share the message that 

high quality Pre-K benefits all children, and shares associated ACF and ED resources reinforcing this message via 

its social media streams. For the 2016 school year, 12% of the children were identified with an IEP. For the 

children starting the 2017 school year, the State Pre-K enrollment percentage of eligible children with 

disabilities is (95 of 1,008) 9.4%. The RI statewide average for four-year-olds of 8.11%, which is higher than the 

last available national average (FY12) of children with disabilities which is 6.4%. 

During the 2017 year, RIDE continued its support to state Pre-K grantees on best practices in early childhood 

special education. During 2017 a professional development offering titled “Supporting Children with Disabilities 

with Screening, Referral and Service Delivery” was provided to all state Pre-K grantees. The agenda including 

the following elements: what children with disabilities need, knowing your students, child outreach screening, 

the referral process and provision of special education services- Itinerant Early Childhood System (IECS). During 

this offering we shared a newly available report through the state KidsNet System called an Environment 

Reports, which grantees are required to obtain from the school district and use for tracking referrals to special 

education. During this event, we also recruited for participants who were interested in attending the PD 

offerings “The Itinerant Early Childhood Special Education Service Delivery Model” (offered twice) and “Intro to 

the Itinerant Early Childhood Special Education Service Delivery Model (IECSE) for General EC Teachers” (also 

offered twice). The “Intro” course was a two-session course on the roles of special educators and general 

education teachers, an introduction and rationale to the model, and information on alignment with existing 

high quality early learning programs. The other course was developed for special educators and therapists to 

take a deeper look at the model and practices. These courses require a commitment from schools and 

programs in that the administrator must sign up to attend with their teacher, as well as to participate in the 

technical assistance services in order to implement the model with fidelity. Participants committed to receiving 

at least 11⁄2 years of targeted and individualized technical assistance to bridge the gap between theory and 

practice and to support the implementation of quality inclusive practices. The training and technical assistance 

helped to support efforts to ensure that young children with disabilities are able to access and actively 

participate in general early childhood environments. This work allowed the state to move forward its Itinerant 
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Early Childhood Special Education services ensure that young children with disabilities are able to access and 

actively participate in general early childhood environments by embedding the necessary support, service, and 

intervention within the daily classroom activities. There were a total of 11 general education State Pre-K 

teachers who participated in the two-day session, and one program administrator who participated in the 

special educator session. Of the 11 state Pre-K communities, this far three have committed to implementing 

the model fully- West Warwick, Woonsocket and the state’s largest community of Providence. 

Additionally, during the 2016-2017 school year, the 619 Coordinator, in partnership with several trainers and 

consultants within the state, continued work conducting The Inclusive Classroom Profile. Five State Pre-K 

grantees participated in the pilot. The Profile was used as a quality improvement tool in order to further 

support high quality inclusion experiences for children in the program. 
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Describe the State's progress in increasing the number and percentage of Eligible Children served in 

High-Quality Preschool Programs funded by the grant.

 In February 2017, the state released another RFP with the goal of awarding 4 additional classrooms to reach its 

projected program growth goal of 60 classrooms. A total of 14 agencies submitted applications requesting a 

total of 20 classrooms, 8 of which were re-compete classrooms and 12 of which were newly requested 

classrooms. A total of four agencies were awarded the four classrooms, and all 8 re-compete classrooms were 

re-awarded. This built off the states previous expansion where in February of 2016, the state posted its 

Request for Proposals to operate additional state Pre-K classrooms. The state was looking to add an additional 

18 classrooms, serving 454 children. In response to the RFP, a total of 22 agencies submitted applications 

requesting a total of 47 classrooms. The review resulted in a total of 30 grantees implementing 56 classrooms 

for the 2016 year, which was the states largest expansion year. 

 

Once awarded, sub-grantees then began the process of recruiting children for enrollment. Beginning in April 

and extending through June 2017, RIDE led, managed and monitored the initial implementation of an online 

child lottery application system. This oversight included monitoring the efforts of sub-grantees to recruit and 

enroll hard-to-reach families within eligible communities. Families were recruited to enter applications for 

eligible children online or by submitting hard copy applications at any of the Pre-K sub-grantees in their 

community. On July 7th, 2017, the child lottery was held, producing lists of selected children and waitlists for 

each sub-grantee. This year's lottery was delayed by several days because of a delay in a final state budget 

being approved. However, once the budget was approved and the lottery could be pulled, sub-grantees then 

took their enrollment information and implemented required Pre-K lottery enrollment procedures; including 

age, residency, and income verification, to finalize their enrollment lists. As sub-grantees moved through this 

process, if families declined the opportunity to enroll their children, sub-grantees worked through wait-lists in 

order to confirm and enroll the next child on the list, all the while communicating with RIDE these updates. 

RIDE in turn, worked very closely with the states Head Start grantees and the Region 1 ACF office to maximize 

enrollment across both programs in cases when Pre-K was full, but more children needed care and learning 

arrangements. 

 

Rhode Island's recruitment and enrollment strategies have proven broadly effective in past years, but this 

year's lottery also highlighted areas for improvement. The fact that wait lists had been exhausted, and yet 

demographics indicated that not all children were being served within a community presented an opportunity 

to think through additional opportunities to strengthen recruitment. We used this information to work on 

strengthening existing statewide collaborations, as well as to gather information on why particular families who 

may have been eligible, did not proceed with enrollment. Early in the year, state specialists worked with Kids 

Count, the states leading policy and advocacy organization, and internal RIDE staff to better understand 

potential barriers to applying and enrolling. The team surveyed grantees on topics such as transportation, 

language barriers and to analyze data including birth rates, school enrollment rates etc. We identified that 

transportation was not as significantly a perceived barrier to applying as we had originally thought, as reported 

by grantees. We have however begun to work through barriers, which may have led parents to decline a slot 

once initially offered it. Some of these enhancements within the states lottery system are anticipated for the 

2018-2019 lottery. 

 

This was also the first year that the lottery system accounted for the selection of multiples. Families were able 

to apply for more than one child within a single application so that when one was selected through the random 

lottery, both children were selected for the same program. This was also the first year that programs could 

indicate their preference for a program in rank order, if there were multiple program choices in a given 

community. 

 

Additionally, changes we made during the selection and contracting with grantees assisted us with being better 

able to serve applications in selected communities where application numbers were high, and to shift seats 

where wait lists were consistently exhausted. For example, we shifted one classroom from West Warwick to 

Warwick to better accommodate demand, and all new classrooms were awarded in communities where there 

were consistently longer wait lists. 

 
ED 524B Page 12 of 36

 There were several exciting events which brought attention to early care and education in the state during 

2016. In the spring 2016 Governor Raimondo held an Early Learning Summit which brought together 

stakeholders from across the state to discuss the states accomplishments and investments in early learning. 

Additionally, Kids Count in collaboration with the Governor's Office held a press conference at one of the State 

Pre-K grantee sites where legislators could tour the program and learn more about the importance of high 

quality early learning. The Governor Office has consistently been speaking about and supporting State Pre-K as 

a strategy in the state's Third Grade Reading Plan. The Third Grade Reading Plan was launched in fall 2017 and 

addresses core action steps to support 75% of third-graders reading at grade level by 2025. Governor 

Raimondo's plan focusses on four specific and complementary strategies aimed at doubling the state's third 

grade reading proficiency level in eight years. The strategies include: 

• School Readiness- Ensuring all children are ready to learn in school 

• School Success- Providing all children with high-quality literacy instruction in and out of school 

• Safety Net Services- Effectively serving young children at high-risk with state-wide screening, referral 

and response systems 

• Community Engagement- Engage family and community members within a year-round campaign to 

prepare their children for school and success in school. 

 

State Pre-K is a stated goal under School Success with an ongoing hope to continue expansion through 

2025, based on future state budget allocations. 

1(b) GPRA Performance Measure: The number and percentage of children served overall in the 

State Preschool Program. Please describe any increases or decreases in this GPRA measure

based on fall enrollment in the State Preschool Program for the 2017-18 school year.

Using a combination of state and federal PDG funds, Rhode Island’s state Pre-K program expanded, from 56 

classrooms in the 2015-2016 year serving 1,008 to 60 classrooms in the 2016-2017 year serving 1,080 children. 

The total number of sub-grantees for the 2016-2017 reporting period is outlined below: 

 

Community 

# of classrooms SY 16-17 Number of Children % of Total Children 

 

Central Falls 4, 54, 5.3% 

 

Cranston 3, 36, 3.5% 

 

East Providence 8, 144, 14.2% 

 

Johnston 1, 18, 1.7% 

 

Newport 3, 36, 3.5% 

 

North Providence 1, 18, 1.7% 

 

Pawtucket 5, 90, 8.9% 

 

Providence 18, 324, 32.14% 

 

Warwick 2, 36, 2.3% 

 

West Warwick 4, 54, 5.3% 

 

Woonsocket 7, 126, 12.5% 

 
ED 524B Page 13 of 36

Rhode Island 56, 1008 

 

 

Community 

# of classrooms SY 17-18 Number of Children % of Total Children 

 

Central Falls 5, 90, 8.3% 

 

Cranston 3, 54, 5% 

 

East Providence 8, 144, 13.3% 

 

Johnston 1, 18, 1.6% 

 

Newport 3, 54, 5% 

 

North Providence 1, 18, 1.6% 

 

Pawtucket 6, 108, 10% 

 

Providence 20, 360, 33.33% 

 

Warwick 3, 54, 5% 

 

West Warwick 3, 54, 5% 

 

Woonsocket 7, 126, 11.6% 

 

Rhode Island 60, 1080 

 

During the start of the 2017 school year, the state served an additional 72 children, for a total of 1,080 children. 

This brought the state up to its fully anticipated number of children being served for the Program through the 

remainder of PDG. 

 

We have found that word of mouth has helped spread the word about the program among families. New 

families relocating to the state of RI seem to be familiar with State Pre-K from their previous states and call the 

department to learn more. The state has also worked closely with practitioners working with families to share 

information about the program. Pediatricians, Early Intervention providers, social workers, foster care workers, 

the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children (QRIS grantee), and the states 211, just to 

name a few, share information about the program and eligibility criteria with families. Rhode Island has a 

strong, and small, early childhood network which helps with continuity across the state, and the consistent 

sharing of information with families. Additionally, we maintain a list of families interested in applying for the 

following school year using a brief SurveyMonkey families can access on the RIDE website. When the lottery 

opens, RIDE uses this this to notify families that they may apply. During the 2016 and 2017 school year, 

grantees were further encouraged during communities of practice to coordinate recruitment efforts and 

leverage contacts when in the same community. RIDE partnered by offering feedback on community plans, 

ensuring district Robo calls were made, leveraging its social media and state agency contacts as well. 

 
ED 524B Page 14 of 36

1(c) GPRA Performance Measure: The number and percentage of children in the High-Need 

Communities served by the grant that are ready for kindergarten as determined by the State's 

Kindergarten Entry Assessment or, if the State does not yet have a Kindergarten Entry Assessment, 

other valid and reliable means of determining school readiness.

 

In the Year 3 APR, grantees will provide disaggregated data on the school readiness of the children enrolled 

and served by the grant. This may include information collected about the children enrolled and received 

services by the grant during the 2016-17 preschool year. States may provide data from a sample of children 

(e.g., a sample being used for any evaluation).

In the Year 3 APR, grantees must describe their progress towards identifying the measures, methods, 

and data on the school readiness of children served by the Preschool Development Grant. In the 

narrative below provide the following information: 

 • The name of the assessment tool(s) and the Essential Domains of School Readiness 

measured; 

 • When the assessment tool(s) is/are given (e.g., in preschool and/or kindergarten); 

 • Whether the assessment is mandated by the State, and for which children; 

 • How long the State has been using the assessment tool(s); 

 • Whether the assessment tool(s) is/are implemented throughout the High-Need Community 

and/or Statewide; 

 • Whether the State provides or will provide training for local staff administering the assessment. 

If so, describe the requirements including processes to ensure continued reliability in the 

administration of the measure; 

 • If school readiness data is reported to the State, describe when and how data are reported. 

Also, please describe, if applicable: 

 • The State's definition of "school readiness;" 

 • Disaggregated information about children's school readiness on individual domains or 

subsets of the measure; 

 • School readiness data for children disaggregated by subgroup (e.g., students who are 

American Indian or Alaskan Native; Asian, not Pacific Islander; Native Hawaiian/other 

Pacific Islander; Black or African American; Hispanic/Latino; White, not Hispanic; two or 

more races; with disabilities; English learners; and from any other subgroups the state 

determines appropriate; and 

 • How the State will continue to make progress in meeting this GPRA measure. 

Rhode Island defines school readiness according to the Rhode Island Early Learning and Development 

Standards (RIELDS) which outline expectations for what children should know, understand and be able to do at 

60 months, when they transition into Kindergarten. The RIELDS outline the nine key knowledge and skill areas 

(Domains), as well as the specific Learning Goals for children at the end of Pre-K. These 9 domains of school 

readiness which are: Physical Health and Motor, Social and Emotional, Language, Literacy, Cognitive, 

Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Creative Arts. The RIELDS, are aligned with the Rhode Island adopted 

Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts/Literacy & Mathematics, Next Generation Science 

Standards and recently developed SEL Standards. Additionally, RIDE believes that kindergarten readiness is not 

just about the readiness of children, it is also about the readiness of schools to receive all children. In Rhode 

Island, the only requirement to participating in kindergarten is that they must be 5 on or before September 1st. 

 

Rhode Island completed its participation in the K-3 Assessment Consortium led by North Carolina shortly after 

the ends of its RTT-ELC grant. During the 2016-2017 school year the state conducted feedback sessions (during 

March and April 2017) on the supports needed to gather and analyze data in the five areas of learning and 

development: approaches to learning, cognition, language and communication, physical/motor, and socialemotional development for each grade level. In 2016, forty-one Rhode Island K-3 teachers volunteered to 
ED 524B Page 15 of 36

participate in the K-3 Formative Assessment Field Test Project. The K-3 Formative Assessment System drew on 

many different kinds of evidence (observations, conversations, work samples, and tasks) from many different 

sources to shed light on students' learning progress. During this field test year teachers were required to assess 

students in the fall and winter of the school year. All the teachers as well as administrators received training 

from the Center for Learning and Development of SRI Education, a partner of the North Carolina Consortium. 

 

In addition, the state used information from the Kindergarten Entry Profile Implementation Plan conducted by 

The Policy Equity Group. One of the biggest take-aways from the report was the need to acknowledge that the 

KEP was part of a larger context, which must focus on implementing developmentally appropriate curriculum, 

instruction, and assessment. As a result, the state used funding from the Race to the Top- Early Learning 

Challenge to work with EDC to develop an approach that began with the state's first ever kindergarten 

conference this past September and continued with piloting an interdisciplinary, Common Core-aligned 

kindergarten curriculum developed by Boston Public Schools (BPS) in twenty-one classrooms across the state. 

This pilot project provided opportunities for Kindergarten teachers in participating schools to take part in 

professional development led by experienced coaches from BPS's Early Childhood Department. These teachers 

also received school-based coaching through the Center for Early Learning Professionals through December 

2016. RIDE was also able to secure some additional funding outside PDG to support the continuation of this 

work through the end of the 2016-2017 school year. 

 

 

Given that results from the K-3 Assessment Consortium feedback sessions indicated a degree of modification 

would need to me made to the tool for ongoing use in Rhode Island, and that the Governor’s budget has not 

funded this work, the state is currently using Teaching Strategies Gold data to evaluate progress made on 

school readiness indicators. During 2017 RIDE established a Master Price Agreement with Teaching Strategies, 

who was the only vendor who responded to the states Request for Information for a K-3 formative assessment 

tool. The state has used Teaching Strategies Gold for State Pre-K since 2009. Under the Race to the Top Early 

Learning Challenge grant, the state began working with Teaching Strategies to align its 2013 Early Learning and 

Development Standards with the tool. An alignment document has been finalized for use by the field in 2016, 

and was shared and used in PD/TA activities. During 2016, RIDE removed the requirement for teachers to 

obtain reliability on the tool, primarily because results demonstrated that this requirement didn’t yield 

meaningful impacts on formative assessment skills. Instead, during 2016 and 2017 RIDE continued to provide 

intensive monitoring, and PD/TA services on formative assessment. RIDE worked with Teaching Strategies to 

make the transition to the new online platform fall of 2017, and has contracted with a new consultant to 

support programs use of the tool. RIDE is cautious in using this data to concretely analyze children’s school 

readiness, because the ongoing development of formative assessment skills remains a key goal in the State PreK program although significant progress has been made. Careful interpretation is required when using TSG data 

to measure children’s progress in being ready for kindergarten within the state because TSG is highly 

dependent on the user’s familiarity and expertise with the tool. It is for this reason that the state will continue 

to provide its model of intensive monitoring, PD and TA, particularly for new grantees and first time users. RIDE 

continues to support fidelity of the tool through monitoring both on and off site, ongoing community of 

practice meetings and though the use of two online professional development offerings developed in 2016, 

offered through the states PDTA provider, the Center for Early Learning Professionals. Session I is titled 

“Assessment in Early Childhood Settings” and Session 2 is titled “Formative Assessment in Early Childhood 

Settings”. These courses were developed closely with RIDE and are available to all professionals within the 

state. 

 

In looking at the spring 2017 data, data from TSG on children’s readiness is as follows: 

State Pre-K Spring 2017 

K Readiness Data 

 

Domain Range % Average % 

 

Social and Emotional 

Below Widely Held Expectations 

2.8-100 

3.9 
ED 524B Page 16 of 36

Social and Emotional 

Meeting Widely Held Expectations 

37.5-100 

96.1 

 

Physical 

Below Widely Held Expectations 

7.9-100 

1.6 

 

Physical 

Meeting Widely Held Expectations 

33.3-100 

98.4 

 

Language 

Below Widely Held Expectations 

2.8-100 

5.6 

 

Language 

Meeting Widely Held Expectations 

33.3-100 

94.4 

 

Cognitive 

Below Widely Held Expectations 

5-100 

2.3 

 

Cognitive 

Meeting Widely Held Expectations 

37.5-100 

97.7 

 

Literacy 

Below Widely Held Expectations 

11-100 

2.4 

 

Literacy 

Meeting Widely Held Expectations 

37.5-100 

97.6 

 

Math 

Below Widely Held Expectations 

11.1-100 

9.8 

 

Math 

Meeting Widely Held Expectations 

10.4-100 

90.2 

 

State Pre-K Spring 2017 

K Readiness Data 
ED 524B Page 17 of 36

 

Domain White Black Asian Hispanic 2 or more races English Learners Children with Disabilities 

S/E Below WHE 5 5 4 5 3 19 8 

 

S/E Meeting WHE 95 95 96 95 97 81 92 

 

Physical Below WHE 2 1 1 2 0 0 5 

 

Physical Meeting WHE 98 99 99 98 100 100 95 

 

Language Below WHE 6 8 8 8 2 16 10 

 

Language Meeting WHE 94 92 92 92 98 84 90 

 

Cognitive Below WHE 6 4 3 5 5 17 5 

 

Cognitive Meeting WHE 94 96 97 95 95 83 95 

 

Literacy Below WHE 

4 

3 

8 

7 

0 

13 

12 

 

Literacy Meeting WHE 

96 

97 

92 

93 

100 

87 

88 

 

Math Below WHE 

5 

7 

9 

10 

0 

10 

7 

 

Math Meeting WHE 

95 

93 

91 

90 

100 

90 

93 

 

 

**No data available for Native Hawaiian, American Indian or Alaskan Native 

 
ED 524B Page 18 of 36

In the GPRA data table we have reported that 970 children were ready for kindergarten. This total represents 

the total number of children who across dimensions met widely held expectations at 60 months. 

 

Longitudinal Data System 

In addition to the above, using RTT-ELC funds, the state has developed a longitudinal integrated data system, 

which tracks children at birth who are born in a Rhode Island Hospital, or through their pediatricians office 

when the begin receiving well child visits in the state. This allows the state to track children across services and 

throughout their school education. Upon entry into either State Pre-K or Kindergarten, all children are assigned 

a state unique identifier, or SASID, which allows the state to connect children to its State Pre-K intervention and 

through to graduation. This data is being used by the Children's Cabinet, the Governors Third Grade Reading 

team, as well as researchers at Brown University to track long-term outcomes. 

 

 
ED 524B Page 19 of 36

For Preschool Development Grants - Development Grants States ONLY: 

1(d) GPRA Performance Measure: The number of States that collect and analyze data on State 

Preschool Program quality, including the structural elements of quality specified in the 

definition of High-Quality Preschool Programs.
ED 524B Page 20 of 36

Section A: Part B - Selection Criteria 

In this section of the APR, States will report on their progress addressing the Preschool Development Grant's 

selection criteria. The State should read the questions carefully and report in the narrative fields directly below the 

questions. Please include any data, data notes or formulas to help the readers understand the State's narrative 

responses.

1. Ensuring Quality in Preschool Programs (Selection Criteria “C” of the application) 

Describe the State's use of funds received over the grant period for State Preschool Program 

infrastructure and quality improvements, including the State's efforts to implement a system of 

monitoring and support at the State level toward activities such as those described in Section (C)(1)(ak) of the NIA. 

 

Note: States will report amounts and percentage of funds for State Preschool Program infrastructure 

and High-Quality Preschool Programs in the Competitive Preference Priority 3 Chart.

 Rhode Island's 2016 efforts to ensure quality focused on 1) implementing and continuing to improve the 

coordinated state monitoring process, 2) supporting programs on use of the states integrated data system, 

called the Early Care and Education Data System (ECEDS) for the purposes of applying for CECE approval, and 3) 

redesigning, based on previous feedback and evaluation results, a revised PD/TA plan. 

The CECE regulations are the program expectations which State Pre-K programs are required to meet within 

their first year of Pre-K operation. These regulations meet or exceed national accreditation standards and 

benchmarks for high-quality Pre-K. The Annual CECE Approval process is a progressive approval process and 

contains the following components: written application, facilities visit, objective classroom observations using 

ECERS and CLASS, and an on-site verification visit. The process includes comprehensive review of current 

policies and procedures that address: Physical Facilities; Health, Safety, and Nutrition; Enrollment and Staffing; 

Staff Qualifications and Ongoing Professional Development; Administration; Curriculum; Child Assessment; and 

Family Engagement. In addition, CECE Approved classrooms must achieve a minimum of an average score of 5 

on the ECERS-R in order to receive approval, a State Pre-K contractual deliverable. CLASS assessments are also 

conducted, although the state does not currently require a benchmark score for CECE approval or as part of the 

State Pre-K contract. The CECE Approval process results in comprehensive monitoring of Pre-K program 

operations at both a program/school and classroom level. As a result, the Standards contribute to not only 

classroom quality improvements but to overall program improvements, even for non-state Pre-K classrooms. 

Once selected as a state Pre-K sub-grantee, all Pre-K Programs engage in a program-level continuous quality 

improvement process. As outlined in CECE regulations, every state Pre-K Program must engage in a 

comprehensive self-assessment process “to determine its compliance with the structural and educational 

program standards contained within the RIDE CECE Standards for Preschool Program approval, as well as any 

other standards and regulations governing the program and the program's effectiveness in meeting the needs 

of children and families. This assessment shall include a review and analysis of program-wide child assessment 

information that reveals patterns and trends. The process shall involve families and staff” (RIDE CECE Standard 

5.14). 

In 2016 and 2017, new sub-grantees worked over the spring to complete their applications for approval. New 

grantees for the 2016-2017 school year began their applications during the summer months and through early 

fall 2016, those awarded summer 2017 began that summer with applications due late fall 2017. All used the 

integrated data system, ECEDS, to manage and maintain their applications for approval. As part of the CECE 

application process, facilities and objective observational assessments (ECERS and CLASS) were conducted in 

each new classroom, as well as for any grantees where there was turnover of the lead teaching staff. Subgrantees used this data to develop and submit action plans delineating their plans to address ECERS and CLASS 

priority area findings. Throughout the CECE Approval process, program information was shared with the Pre-K 
ED 524B Page 21 of 36

staff specialist to ensure all Pre-K quality benchmarks were being met, as well as to provide additional support 

when needed. The CECE Approval process continues for these programs with onsite verification visits, and if 

needed, repeated quality observational measures. RIDE's Early Childhood Coordinator, oversees and manage 

this application and approval process. Additionally, as part of the CECE approval process RIDE will conduct 

onsite monitoring of sub grantees. 

In addition to CECE program regulations, state Pre-K sub-grantees are required to comply with additional 

expectations specific to the implementation of a state Pre-K classroom. State Pre-K policies delineate those 

additional expectations and cover the following areas: child enrollment, attendance, comprehensive services 

and interventions, developmental screening, grants and contracting, budget development and fiscal 

monitoring, technical assistance and professional development participation, kindergarten transition and 

participation in program evaluation. The ECEDS data system was also used to monitor and track the 

additionally layered on State Pre-K requirements. During the fall of 2016 revised monitoring policies and 

protocols were implemented. Implementation of the new monitoring plan highlighted opportunities where 

additional grantee guidance would be beneficial. As a result, state Pre-K staff developed a series of guidance 

materials, which began to be distributed to programs fall 2017. Additionally, State Pre-K policy specific topics 

were discussed during the kick-off and wrap up, for example suspension and expulsion and implicit bias, 

comprehensive services, staff support, recruitment etc. 

RIDE has historically provided intensive technical assistance to all programs during their first year in the state 

Pre-K Program. The primary purpose of the technical assistance was to focus on supporting programs in 

successfully implementing the State Pre-K policies and CECE Program Regulations, and supporting 

improvement in areas identified through program evaluation. The state continued its relationship during 

2016-2017 with Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) Center for Early Learning Professionals to provide 

professional development and technical assistance (PDTA) services to all State Pre-K sub-grantees. The state 

used available state Pre-K program data including child developmental screening data, formative assessment 

data, classroom quality observational measures data and program monitoring data, to inform its continuous 

quality improvement (QI) process. This analysis led to the development of the 2016-2017 school year state PreK program Quality Improvement (QI) goals and associated measures. Program- and teacher-level QI goals 

target the following areas: child assessment systems and formative assessment practices, coordination of 

comprehensive services for State Pre-K children and families in need, provision of data-informed RI Early 

Learning and Development Standards-based curriculum which emphasizes early teaching of social emotional 

competencies, measurable child outcomes, supporting access to and differentiation of children for children 

with special needs, achieving CECE approval. 

Once the goals and measures were identified, EDC implemented these goals as part of their work plan, as well 

as aligned their evaluation to these goals accordingly. With the Program QI Plan information, EDC's TA 

consultants began site visits to conduct individual needs assessments with Pre-K Program sub-grantees. During 

these initial visits, program- and classroom-level improvement plans were aligned with the State Pre-K Program 

QI plan and action steps were identified to address all goals. With all improvement plans in place, TA 

consultation continued with monthly technical assistance visits, revising and updating goals based on the 

availability of new data. The monthly visits included review and planning related to the required State Pre-K/

CECE application, approval and monitoring process. EDC provided an evaluation of their services, aligned to 

these QI goals for the 2016-2017 year. State Pre-K staff meet monthly with EDC to monitor each State Pre-K 

Program sub-grantee's ongoing activities, as well as to formulate responsive PDTA activities. Thus far, 

responsive PDTA activities have included: the development of both small and large group communities of 

practice meetings for teachers and teacher assistants, as well as for education coordinators and administrators, 

a peer mentor model which continues to be used this year, in addition to on-site technical assistance. 

Additionally, programs are assigned mentors, which allow new state Pre-K grantees to seek peer support and 

learning opportunities from more experienced program leaders and previous grantees. We have also built into 

the schedule a regular RIDE Update, which allows state staff to share pertinent updates directly with grantees. 

Additional program support is being provided through consultants with specific expertise. In response to needs 

articulated in the community, several new early learning and development standards courses were developed 

for those working in State Pre-K classrooms, as well as those with state teaching certification. These courses 

included: “RIELDS for Certified Educators”, “RIELDS for Certified Administrators”, and “Pre-K to K Transition 
ED 524B Page 22 of 36

Standards” course. These courses have also been developed to further promote collaboration between Pre-K 

and K teachers in order to foster stronger transitions and deeper understanding of each other's roles. 

Resources from the states Race to the Top- Early Learning Challenge grant allowed these courses to be 

designed by December 2016, and implemented summer and fall 2017. At the time of this report, each of these 

courses has been offered once to grantees and external stakeholders. 

Rhode Island remains committed to evaluating its state Pre-K Program to determine the impact on child 

outcomes and program quality. In 2014, the state worked with the National Institute for Early Education 

Research (NIEER) to develop a plan for external evaluation using a randomized control trial (RCT) design. This 

design uses the “gold standard” in research to garner the true effects of the state Pre-K. This evaluation will 

provide Rhode Island with robust program quality and child outcome data to inform revisions to Pre-K Program 

policies or practices and quality improvement areas and supports needed. During the 2016 year, the state 

released an RFP for evaluation vendor and selected Child Trends. Working with Child Trends, RIDE finalized its 

evaluation plan the fall of 2016, and subsequently Child Trends began work to obtain IRB approval and begin 

implementation design. The evaluation plan's components are: (1) Classroom Quality Study, (2) Longitudinal 

Child Outcomes Study, and (3) Cost Study. Year 1 activities include evaluation staff reviewing State Pre-K 

written program standards, monitoring systems, and quality systems to assess their clarity, objectivity and ease 

of measurement. Additionally, evaluators conducted an analysis of the 2016 ECERS data in order to report on 

initial quality make final selections on child level data collection tools, and work towards IRB approval, and 

ensuring data collection procedures and forms were finalized for use in 2017. Classroom quality and child level 

data collection began fall 2017, with the Child Trends team traveling to Rhode Island to provide training and 

support to the in-state data collection team. Most of the data assessors are being trained through a 

partnership with the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children, and supervised jointly by 

Child Trends. 

In order to further support leadership development within the state, and alignment between Pre-K and the 

upper grades, RIDE utilized Race to the Top- Early Learning Challenge funds to develop a Graduate Certificate in 

Early Childhood Education Leadership for Child Care Administrators, Education Coordinators, and Principles. 

The program intends to provide content in order to support an understanding of the developmental and 

learning needs of young children, the pivotal roles of family and community in early learning, and effective 

strategies for strengthening teaching and learning. This Certificate model design was completed in December 

2016. It includes a total of 18 credits, and requirements to complete the following courses: ECL 501 Early 

Childhood Development: Theory and Research, ECL 502 Leadership Strategies: Early Childhood Education, ECL 

503 Early Childhood Curriculum: Leading Improvement 1, ECL 504 Family/Community Partnerships: Early 

Childhood Leadership, ECL 505 Early Childhood Curriculum: Leading Improvement 2, and ECL 506 Supervision 

of Early Childhood Teachers. Due to some administration changed at Rhode Island College the anticipated 

cohort start date for the program will be fall 2018. 

During the 2016-2017 school year, RIDE continued its work aligning early learning with K-12, and enhancing the 

availability of high quality instructional materials. For example, during 2017 RIDE staff worked on the 

development of a set of social and emotional learning standards for use in K-12, aligned to the RIELDS. RIDE 

had staff from the early learning team participate on the development team, so as to ensure vertical and 

horizontal alignment. A set of Standards were developed which reflected the continuation of RIELDS goals. 

During 2017 RIDE engaged in another Request for Information (RFI) for the purpose of reviewing and adding 

additional curricula options to its alignment report. The state received a total of 7 submissions, which included 

updated publications of previous reviewed curricula, as well as new submissions. RIDE engaged a team of staff 

as well as educators in the review and scoring of the submissions. The findings were subsequently published in 

an updated 2017 report on the RIDE website. Additionally, during 2017 RIDE also contracted with a consultant 

to do a review and alignment to the Boston Public Schools K-1 curricula. The curricula has received significant 

national and international attention, and was the basis for work in supporting the states kindergarten teachers 

with instructional practices which were developmentally appropriate. In order to measure the curricula against 

the same previously established standards used in the previous curricula reviews, the consultant used the same 

templates and documents included in the RFI. This work is currently underway and scoring of the curricula will 

occur in 2018. 
ED 524B Page 23 of 36

RIDE also convened a group of stakeholders during 2017 to develop a series if Every Students Succeeds Act 

(ESSA) early learning guidance. While the state's plan only spoke to the required provisions within the law, this 

guidance speaks to the opportunities as well as provides guidance on the early learning provisions of the law. 

As part of this work, a development team from across child care, Head Start, public schools and state agencies 

game together to develop a four part series of guidance. This guidance includes an overview of the law and the 

early learning provisions, a series of evidenced based interventions (including State Pre-K) for which Title 

funding can be used (the federal degree of evidence document was used in the creation), an alignment to the 

states program standards and Head Start standards section 1302, and Pre-K to K transition guidance. These 

tools were added to a new page on the RIDE website during 2017, and were shared at the fall 2017 Early 

Learning Council meeting. 

The Governors Third Grade R

2. Expanding High-Quality Preschool Programs in Each High-Need Community (Selection 

Criteria D of application) 

 

Describe the progress the State has made during the reporting year to implement and sustain 

voluntary high quality preschool programs for eligible children in two or more High-Need Communities 

(Selection Criteria D(4) of the application) that include ALL structural elements listed below that are 

included in the definition of High-Quality Preschool Programs. States should include detailed 

information on ALL structural elements.

High staff qualifications, including a teacher with a bachelor's degree in early childhood 

education or a bachelor's degree in any field with a State-approved alternative pathway, 

which may include coursework, clinical practice, and evidence of knowledge of content and 

pedagogy relating to early childhood, and teaching assistants with appropriate credentials;

✔

✔ High-quality professional development for all staff; 

✔ A child-to-instructional staff ratio of no more than 10 to 1;

✔ A class size of no more than 20 with, at a minimum, one teacher with high staff qualifications;

✔ A Full-Day program;

Inclusion of children with disabilities to ensure access to and full participation in all 

opportunities; ✔

Developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive instruction and evidencebased curricula, and learning environments that are aligned with the State Early Learning and 

Development Standards, for at least the year prior to kindergarten entry;

✔

Individualized accommodations and supports so that all children can access and participate 

fully in learning activities; ✔

✔ Instructional staff salaries that are comparable to the salaries of local K-12 instructional staff;
ED 524B Page 24 of 36

✔ Program evaluation to ensure continuous improvement;

On-site or accessible Comprehensive Services for children and community partnerships that 

promote families access to services that support their children's learning and development; 

and

✔

✔ Evidence-based health and safety standards.
ED 524B Page 25 of 36

Please describe the progress the State has made in establishing High-Quality Preschool Programs 

that include ALL structural elements listed above that are evidence-based and nationally recognized 

as important for ensuring program quality.

As one of the newer states to develop a state Pre-K Program, Rhode Island was able to learn from the 

experiences of states which had implemented Pre-K before Rhode Island launched its Pre-K Program in 2009. 

The resounding message of these Pre-K pioneers was that it was easier to increase access than to increase 

quality. This wisdom and the significant research evidence that only high-quality programs produce child 

outcomes were key factors in the state's decision to implement a Pre-K design that prioritized and supported 

quality structural requirements. Thus, Rhode Island's Pre-K Program model meets all of the criteria outlined in 

the Federal Definition of a High Quality Preschool Program. Rhode Island selects all of its Pre-K Program subgrantees through a competitive Request for Proposals process targeted to the highest need communities in the 

State. This ensures that Pre-K sub-grantees are programs/schools best positioned to meet and maintain the 

high-quality requirements of RI's Pre-K model. 

Additionally, Rhode Island was able to leverage its structural quality elements developed under the RTT-ELC 

grant. This includes its 2013 Early Learning and Development Standards, revised Program Standards, State 

Longitudinal Data System, family engagement resources, quality improvement grant dollars, facilities supports, 

and professional development and technical assistance services, college scholarships, and comprehensive 

assessment Systems. RTT-ELC funds were used to enhance and augment key areas within the system such as 

prepared aspiring as well as participating State Pre-K programs to send teachers to school, repair hazardous 

playgrounds, purchase technology to participate in the states online systems. The grant allowed the State Pre-K 

program to participate in a pilot of the early childhood mental health system, called Success. The Success 

project was implemented by Bradley Hospital and was developed and refined under the RTT-ELC grant. The 

SUCCESS project now serves as a key grantee, supporting State Pre-K children, teachers and families with a 

variety of social and emotional needs. 

A comprehensive system of programmatic monitoring is used to ensure compliance with the contracted 

deliverables, state Pre-K policies and CECE Approval regulations. This system of monitoring begins with the 

sub-grantee contract, which includes required assurances and specified deliverables. Sub-grantees are awarded 

contracts for a period of three years; however, the state reserves the right to defund a sub-grantee for nonperformance with regard to either programmatic or fiscal requirements. Any defunded programs will be recompeted in the annual RFP process used to select additional classrooms. Additionally, at the end of each 

three-year grant cycle, sub-grantees are required to re-compete, regardless of past performance, so as to 

ensure the state's ongoing ability to select the highest quality classrooms for participation in the state Pre-K 

program. Once selected as specified in sub-grantees contracts, the sub-grantee is required to “Implement RIDE 

Comprehensive Early Childhood Education (CECE) standards provisionally or fully approved program for a 

minimum of 180 days for at least 6 hours per day. This includes: submitting an application by the start of the 

school year, completing the approval process and maintaining all program-level and classroom-level standards 

as specified in the 2013 RIDE Comprehensive Early Childhood Education (CECE) Programs Standards for 

Approval, including the specific staffing qualifications as identified in this RFP.” RIDE CECE program standards 

detail comprehensive expectations for high-quality educational programming and align with PDG requirements. 

The approval process includes analysis of program level documents; onsite visits to assess facilities, classroom 

environment, teacher-child interactions, and classroom level compliance with CECE standards. In the initial 

approval year, it is possible for a program to receive three to four onsite visits. Approvals are granted for a 

maximum of three years, but annual renewal requires the submission of updated documents and assurances 

that classroom quality and compliance with CECE standards are maintained. In approval years two and three, 

an on-site monitoring visit will be conducted to verify that compliance with CECE standards continues. 

Additionally, document review and on-site monitoring will be conducted to ensure compliance with state Pre-K 

policies, which extend beyond CECE standards. Examples of this include policies regarding the use of Teaching 

Strategies GOLD for formative child assessment, child enrollment and attendance, participation in state Pre-K 

program evaluation and on-going technical assistance. During the 2015 grant year, these two systems of 

programmatic monitoring, CECE and state Pre-K, were first aligned and coordinated to reduce any burden for 

sub-grantees while ensuring that compliance with programmatic expectations is maintained. This alignment 

was re-visited and further enhanced for fall 2016 and 2017. At this time, of the 56 state Pre-K classrooms, 
ED 524B Page 26 of 36

programs have obtained the following: 

Full CECE approval - 46 

Provisional Approval - 8 

Probationary Approval - 2 

Programs may be in a provisional or probationary status if they have had lead teacher turnover, or are working 

on updating program documentation. When lead teachers turn over, programs are placed in probationary 

status until new classroom quality assessments are conducted that meet the minimum score thresholds. There 

are also deliverables, which are due throughout the year. When programs need to make any modification, they 

are changed to provisional until the updated documents have been submitted. Additionally we have 5 new 

classrooms that are first year applicants and will complete the approval process in the spring of 2017. 

The summary below outlines how the state monitors each required element: 

High staff qualifications, including a teacher with a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or a 

bachelor's degree in any field with a State-approved alternate pathway, which may include coursework, clinical 

practice, and evidence of knowledge of content and pedagogy relating to early childhood, and teaching 

assistants with appropriate credentials: Required in contracting and as criteria for CECE Approval, regulations 

specify: Teacher: BA with RI Certification in Early Childhood Education Teacher Assistant: minimum of 12 

credits in Early Childhood Education. All programs are all also required to have an Education Coordinator who is 

also a certified Early Childhood Educator (CECE 4.1, 4.2, 4.3) 

High-quality professional development for all staff: Required as criteria for CECE Approval, regulations specify: 

The program shall assure that each teacher/teacher assistant/Education Coordinator shall have an individual 

professional development plan to complete at least 20 hours of professional development related to the 

Workforce Knowledge and Competencies appropriate to his/her position. This plan shall be developed and 

updated annually as part of each staff person's annual performance evaluation. (CECE 4.1, 4.2, 4.3) 

Additionally, the state has contracted with a professional development partner to tailor specific support to PreK sub-grantees. 

A child-to-instructional staff ratio of no more than 10 to 1: Required in contracting and as criteria for CECE 

Approval: regulations specify: Staff: child ratio of 1:9 (CECE 3.4) A class size of no more than 20 with, at a 

minimum, one teacher with high staff qualifications as outlined in paragraph (a) of this definition: Required in 

contracting and as criteria for CECE Approval, regulations specify: Class size of no more than 18 with at least 

one qualified teacher in each classroom (CECE 3.4 and 3.5) 

A full-day program: Required in contracting: Contracts specify Pre-K programs must be 6 hour each day, 180 

days each year - with coordinated wraparound child care 

Inclusion of children with disabilities to ensure access to and full participation in all opportunities: Required as 

criteria for CECE Approval, regulations specify: The program shall welcome children and families of all abilities, 

modify the program, make reasonable accommodations, and collaborate with key partners to support all 

children. The program shall have a written plan which describes the process for supporting all children 

including, but not limited to, those with developmental delays and disabilities, mental health diagnosis and 

behavioral challenges. (CECE 5.12, 5.13) For children requiring special education services, early childhood 

educators and special education providers shall work collaboratively, and in partnership with families, in 

supporting successful participation in inclusive environments and in ensuring that each partner has access to 

the necessary information and supports. (CECE 7.13) 

Developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive instruction and evidence-based curricula, 

and learning environments that are aligned with the State Early Learning and Development Standards, for at 

least the year prior to kindergarten entry: Required as criteria for CECE Approval: Program-level and classroomlevel standards for Curriculum (6.1 - 6.23) encompass all components of the federal definition (CECE 6.1-6.22) 

Individualized accommodations and supports so that all children can access and participate fully in learning 

activities: Required as criteria for CECE Approval, regulations specify: The program shall welcome children and 

families of all abilities, modify the program, make reasonable accommodations, and collaborate with key 

partners to support all children. The program shall have a written plan which describes the process for 

supporting all children including, but not limited to, those with developmental delays and disabilities, mental 
ED 524B Page 27 of 36

health diagnosis and behavioral challenges. (CECE 5.12, 5.13). Teachers shall use child assessment information 

to: Identify children's strengths, learning styles and developmental levels; Inform classroom instruction, make 

sound decisions about individual and group curriculum content, inform teaching approaches, guide personal 

interactions, and inform the design of the children's learning environment; Identify children who might benefit 

from additional or increased supports and/or special services; Document and implement a plan for each child 

that supports his or her inclusion and success; and, Share information on each child's progress with families and 

other authorized parties. (CECE 7.12) 

Instructional staff salaries that are comparable to the salaries of local K-12 instructional staff: Scored as a 

competitive component in State Pre--K selection, also monitored during state budget approval during 

contracting, as outlined in state Pre-K policies. 

Program evaluation to ensure continuous improvement and evaluate child outcomes of those participating in 

state Pre-K. 

On-site or accessible Comprehensive Services for children and community partnerships that promote families' 

access to services that support their children's learning and development: Required in State Pre-K policies, 

which specify, at a minimum: Must participate in food program, provide wrap around child care, ensure 

screening, and work with LEAs. 

Evidence-based health and safety standards: Required as criteria for CECE Approval: regulations specify: All 

CECE approved programs are required to comply with either DCYF child care licensing regulations or, if located 

in a public or private PK-12 school, with RIDE Basic Education Program (BEP) Regulations, G--14-4 “Ensuring a 

Safe and Healthy Physical Environment,” in addition to CECE Program standards which build upon the core 

approvals - DCYF or BEP to ensure consistency across settings. 

As the above demonstrates, progress was made in both expanding the capacity of programs to implement high 

quality classrooms and programs, refining the states system of monitoring and program standards 

implementation, as well as the opportunities for leveraging these new programs and resources for broader use 

across the state. 

 

 

Selection Criteria (D)(4) from NIA 

Describe the number and percent of Eligible Children served and the cost per slot.

Rhode Island's Preschool Development Grant (PDG) goal for the 2016-2017 school year was to add 396 

additional preschool classrooms using federal funding from the Preschool Development Grant (PDG) resulting 

in a total of 56 RI Pre-Kindergarten classrooms funded with state and federal funds. As a result of per 

classroom amounts being lower than budgeted, RI was able to fund additional preschool classrooms for a total 

of 1,008 children, up from the proposed amount of slots as 954. This total exceeds the target set in Year 2 in 

the state's application. For the 2017-2018, Year 3, school year, the goal was to add 4 new classrooms, for a 

total of 72 slots and 60 classrooms. The estimated cost per slot in the state's application was $13,889. Actual 

cost per child is estimated at $10,167. The per-classroom budgeted amount in the state's application reflected 

a maximum classroom budget of $190,000, plus $10,000 for professional development supports, which allowed 

for salaries for teachers with experience. Actual classroom budgets for sub-grantees were, on average, 

$180,000, and ranged from $173,000 to $190,000. Some classrooms at the lower end of the budget scale have 

newer teachers or in-kind space. Over the course of the grant, the state expects classroom costs to increase as 

teacher salaries increase. 

 
ED 524B Page 28 of 36

3. Collaborating with Each Subgrantee and Ensuring Strong Partnerships (Selection Criteria E 

of the application) 

Describe the extent to which the State has collaborated with each Subgrantee to ensure that each 

Subgrantee is effectively implementing High-Quality Preschool Programs (Selection Criteria E 

(1-9) of the application) and how the State ensures strong partnerships between each Subgrantee 

and LEAs or other Early Learning Providers, as appropriate.

The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) has established processes for selecting, contracting, 

monitoring, and working collaboratively with its Pre-K sub-grantees in order to ensure that each sub-grantee is 

effectively implementing the state Pre-K program. The State's role is well-defined and extends beyond the 

provision of funds. Specifically, the State's plan for partnering with sub-grantees includes 1) ensuring the 

effective start-up and implementation of state Pre-K classrooms, and 2) working collaboratively with subgrantees to coordinate with other state and local systems, and to ensure strong partnerships in order to 

provide comprehensive professional-, family- and program-level services. 

Effective start-up and implementation of state Pre-K classrooms 

In January 2017, RIDE released a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) that communicated State Pre-K 

Program funding policies within its program selection criteria and competitive process. In February, RIDE 

selected programs in high-need communities based on their ability to demonstrate that proposed Pre-K 

classrooms meet high-quality program standards. Once selection was made, RIDE managed sub-grantee 

contracting and budgeting, child recruitment and enrollment, and supported sub-grantees in opening the 

FY17/18 Pre-K school year. All activities are briefly described next. 

From April - July, with budgeting completed, and contracting in process, RIDE, in coordination with State Pre-K 

sub-grantees, managed and implemented the state child lottery. State- and program-level outreach activities 

included: initial implementation of an online child lottery application system which was available in English and 

Spanish, and coordinated recruitment efforts with eligible community school districts, the RI Section 619 State 

Coordinator, the RI Special Education Advisory Committee, as well as community organizations that support 

families of children with disabilities, homeless families, families whose primary language is not English. Subgrantee outreach also focused on community businesses including laundry mats, convenience stores, and 

churches. 

Early in July, to support sub-grantees' successful and efficient enrollment activities, RIDE staff established and 

provided an updated series of implementation guidance for child enrollment and as well as income verification 

policies and procedures. In July and August, State Pre-K sub-grantees commenced with the required enrollment 

and income verification procedures. This process proceeded with ongoing communication via email and phone 

calls between the State Pre-K specialist and the State Pre-K sub-grantees throughout the summer months. 

Regular communication encouraged accurate program level verification, timely selection and fulfilling of slots 

as well as ensuring that program makeup demographics were maintained. 

In July and August 2017, with the support of the RIDE CECE Specialist, all newly selected and existing FY16 State 

Pre-K program sub-grantees actively began the process of applying for Comprehensive Early Childhood 

Education (CECE) Program Approval. Using the self-assessment information, sub-grantees reviewed and revised 

their program quality improvement plans, program policy narratives, began purchasing classroom materials 

and equipment, and, as necessary, hiring qualified staff. Throughout the summer months, RIDE CECE and State 

Pre-K Specialists monitored all sub-grantees' progress in completing CECE approval requirements and in 

completing contractual deliverables related to child lottery recruitment, child enrollment, family income 

verification and program preparation for the opening of the school year in September 2017. Work also focused 

specifically on child assessments, data sharing, and targeted professional development. In preparation for the 

FY17 school year, RIDE contracted with, and funded all state Pre-K Program child assessment portfolios through 

Teaching Strategies GOLD (TSG), additionally providing all contracts and policies describing the state and subgrantee responsibilities for and access to state Pre-K Program- and child-level assessment data. The states PD/

TA vendor EDC, provided an overview and orientation to the tool. Additionally, RIDE contracted with a 

consultant to provide deeper support with monitoring and technical assistance than the states PDTA vendor 

was able to provide. Following this professional development, ongoing technical assistance to sub-grantees was 
ED 524B Page 29 of 36

implemented to support effective implementation of program assessment plans. This support helped to 

facilitate data collection and end entry use of TSG by the November 2017 checkpoint date. The technical 

assistance focused on Quality, Quality and Accuracy of the data in informing development and instruction 

decisions during the course of the year and across all checkpoint dates. In preparation for the required 

benchmark dates, EDC supported programs through what we called “Data Days”, which is where TA staff would 

support program staff in reviewing their data, ensuring accuracy and completion. Data was also used to 

support program quality improvement work, and inform analysis of progress on goals within the State-level 

Program quality improvement plan. 

Throughout the school-year, the State Pre-K Specialist supported new and existing State Pre-K sub-grantees in 

establishing strong partnerships and ensuring effective communication related to child referrals for special 

education with their local school districts and in relation to developmental screening with local Child Outreach 

providers. The State 619 Coordinator supported State Pre-K sub-grantees in maintaining and strengthening 

these coordinated systems of supports and services for families and children in need. The State 619 

Coordinator also provided support and technical assistance to the State Pre-K sub-grantees when 

circumstances arose that required specific consultation. The 619 Coordinator routinely met with public school 

staff, and provided professional development through the states PD/TA provider. During this same time period 

RIDE facilitated and offered a series of Foundations for EI/ECSE courses. Two varied tracks were developed for 

educators, one was a short series which provided an overview of the itinerant model and expectations for 

embedded, in classroom special education services and was designed for general educators, including those 

teaching in State Pre-K. The other session was developed for special education staff and provided a deeper look 

at the itinerant model as well as supported implementation strategies. The offering of this course further 

supported the State Pre-K programs goals to have coordinated support between EI/Child Outreach agencies 

and early learning programs. 

RIDE continues to work on supporting State Pre-K grantee awareness of and access to a comprehensive set of 

supports and interventions, and to ensure the programs are best equipped to support the diversity of learners 

attending programs. In response, RIDE continues to maintain strong relationships with Bradley Hospital, the 

states early childhood mental health provider, the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, 

the Department of Child Welfare, as well as numerous family shelters. RIDE continues the development of its 

Comprehensive Services referral system in collaboration with the Department of Health and anticipates 

launching an online referral and tracking system during 2018. The timelines had been pushed back because the 

work is being coordinated and funded through RIDE, in collaboration with DOH, and DOH contracted had been 

delayed. RIDE funds are paying for the facilitation of the work, and DOH funds are paying for the IT 

development. As of fall 2017, an IT developer had been contracted and the facilitator began weekly 

development meetings with the design team. During this period, RIDE has conducted extensive work with 

grantees on the development of their capacities and competencies related to supporting a Comprehensive 

Services System. Staff have attended several professional development sessions, worked with their TA 

providers on the development of their plans, and began the implement new internal protocols and policies to 

screen and refer families. Grantees were also encouraged to collaborate within their immediate communities 

so as to ensure alignment across regions. 

RIDE has utilized a multitude of nationally published resources in the development of tools for the field. One 

example of this, is the state's development of Every Student Succeeds Act Guidance documents. The Guidance 

includes a set of four documents which cover the following areas: 1. Opportunities related to early learning 

within ESSA, 2. Evidenced based interventions, including the degrees of evidence, for which title finding could 

be used (State Pre-K is included in this), 3. Pre-K to K transition guidance, and 4. An alignment between the 

states program standards and the Head Start Performance Standards. 

 
ED 524B Page 30 of 36

4. Alignment Within a Birth Through Third Grade Continuum (Section F of the application) 

Describe progress the State has made for alignment within a birth through third grade continuum in 

activities for birth through age five programs ((F)(1)(a-b) in the NIA) and kindergarten through third 

grade ((F)(2)(a-d) in the NIA).

Overview: With help from the RTT-ELC grant, Rhode Island made significant progress on implementing an 

aligned birth through third grade system. These initiatives ensure that there is a common framework and 

shared understanding of the learning and development of children B-3rd grade, and how the knowledge and 

skills of the workforce and the quality of early learning programs work collectively to support improved child 

outcomes. This work has ensured that state Pre-K programs, regardless of their type (e.g. child care, Head Start, 

public preschool), participate within this system. The state's efforts will be explained in greater detail below. 

Transitions for Programs Serving Children B-5: Under RTT-ELC, a significant amount of progress was made to 

create alignment within the B-5 system. Learning expectations for children ages B-5 (RIELDS) were finalized, 

related professional development support was revised, new opportunities with greater differentiation were 

rolled out, and access was expanded. Expectations for workforce knowledge and competencies were 

developed for multiple roles in the early learning system. The WKCs now provide a framework for alignment of 

professional development and technical assistance activities available throughout the state. Regulations and 

quality standards guiding early learning programs were aligned to create a cohesive pathway toward increased 

program quality. 

Rhode Island developed an Early Care and Education Data System (ECEDS) which integrates data from multiple 

state agencies, community early learning programs, and the early learning workforce to assist the state in 

answering critical policy questions about early learning programs, the early learning workforce, and children's 

access to supports, services, and programs. The Workforce Registry and Program Portal were rolled out winter 

2016, which allowed both individual users to create accounts, as well as form programs to enter and maintain 

the data for the family search as well as for their licensing, Bright Stars and CECE applications. The DCYF child 

care licensing application was released and programs were able to, for the first time, submit their licensing 

renewal electronically. Additionally, during the fall of 2016 the CECE application function was released which 

allowed State Pre-K programs to apply for CECE approval electronically. Additionally, the Center for Early 

Learning Professionals had a technology grant to support both the provision of computers and associated 

technology (scanners etc.) in order to support programs accessing the online systems, as well as technical 

assistance in completing Program Portals and staff Workforce Registries. Full use of the integrated data system 

is now fully operational among the states Pre-K programs, and all use the system for applying for program 

approval. 

The states three public institutes of higher education, including the Community College of Rhode Island, The 

University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College, completed integration of the state's Early Learning and 

Development Standards into their programs of study. This allowed opportunities for program enhancements in 

order to ensure the Early Learning and Development Standards were fully incorporated. Additionally, 

graduating classes moving forward will obtain a RI Department of Education professional certificate on the 

Standards. This certificate, was previously only obtainable by attending PD, and now is embedded within the 

programs of study. The certificate is a requirement in the states QRIS. For those who have already graduated 

and obtained teacher certification in the state, two expedited pathways were developed. These were titled 

“RIELDS for Certified Educators” and “RIELDS for Certified Administrators”. Additionally, a Pre-K to K transition 

course was developed for Pre-K and K teachers to better understand the alignment between the Early Learning 

and Development Standards, Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. During the 2016 and 2017 

school year, these courses were implemented for the field, including State Pre-K educators. Additionally, RIDE 

worked with Rhode Island College on the completion and approval of a graduate leadership certificate 

designed for those interested in early childhood leadership, or serving in public school k-12 settings interested 

in learning more about early learning. 

The Department of Education also partnered with the lead agency for IDEA Part C, to develop and implement a 

training series on the RIELDS for Early Intervention providers. A specified curriculum and hybrid platform was 

developed to allow Early Intervention agency communities of practice the opportunity to learn more about 

typical child development and developmentally appropriate differentiation. Additionally, a partnership with the 
ED 524B Page 31 of 36

Department of Health was also formed in order to integrate use of the RIELDS into two home visiting programs, 

Healthy Families America Growing Great Kids and Parents as Teachers. These nationally recognized curricula 

were aligned to the states Early Learning and Development Standards and these resources are now being used 

and available online. Through the use of aligned curricula we communicate shared expectations for children's 

learning and development across the state, and across programs. 

For families, two initiatives were designed to impact all children regardless of access to formal early learning 

environments. These included a set of resources and parent trainings for families on children's development 

and learning. Work was done to ensure these resources are available where parents live, work and play. RIDE 

supported the states children's museum in developing a series of resources aligned to the Standards, in the 

alignment of exhibit spaces, and the development of PD offerings for educators. Funds were used to support 

the development of a series of family bags aligned to the Standards which families could use to support 

learning at home. The bags included copies of the Fun Family Activity Cards, books and manipulatives. These 

Fun Family Activities and Family Bags are currently being used across a variety of settings, including within early 

learning programs, at the Providence Children's Museum, within several locally development family visiting 

programs and within libraries across the state. These resources are also available as a tool for families in order 

to prevent summer learning loss and are used at several summer specific events statewide. 

During RTT-ELC, a developmental screening campaign targeted to families of children B-5 was implemented 

and strategies to increase rates of developmental screening were enhanced and expanded. These resources 

continue to exist and are available to programs online. Within State Pre-K, all children enrolled must receive a 

developmental screening within 45 days of enrollment. State Pre-K grantees, are required to connect with their 

district child outreach team in order to ensure timely screening, as well as to per the parent's consent, 

participate on the IEP team. A report within the states KidsNet system has been created specifically for State 

Pre-K to yield results of the screenings. Grantees are required to work with the district and families to ensure 

that re-screens and follow up appointments happen within a timely manner. Results of screenings and referrals 

are reported and monitored as a State Pre-K deliverable. 

In accordance with the state's high quality program and professional standards, state Pre- K programs are 

required to operate within the states early learning system, to meet these standards, and utilize these supports 

in order to ensure their curriculum, assessment and family engagement practices align with best practices and 

state Standards, that their staff use competencies in developing professional development goals, and that staff 

attend the states approved professional development offerings. Program level documents are read by state 

staff, and evaluated according to an established set of rubrics to ensure effective use of these system elements 

and developed resources. In events where the alignment and/or use of these tools is not demonstrated, 

programs receive feedback and are subsequently asked to go back and work with their TA provider to revise 

their documents. 

Rhode Island has ongoing goals to support and increase the number of programs that are high quality. One of 

these goals has centered around increasing the number of programs participating in BrightStars, the state 

TQRIS and in receiving CECE Approval. In 2011, only 93 programs were participating in the state's QRIS. As of 

December 2016, 707 programs were participating, and in 2017 this number increased to 715. 

Transitions for programs Serving Children from K-3: The second component of creating an aligned Birth 

through Third Grade continuum involves sustaining the impacts of the B-5 system, and encouraging a seamless 

transition into the K-3 system. Rhode Island's plan for making progress includes aligning expectations, policies, 

and practices in key areas, including effective early childhood formative assessment practices within the B-5 

system that align with expectations for K-3 formative assessment initiatives; the development of a 

Kindergarten Entry Assessment that aligns with early learning and development standards and CCSS; and the 

connection of the Early Care and Education Data System to the Statewide Longitudinal Data system to link 

information about children, teachers, and programs B-5 with K-12 data. 

In 2016, Rhode Island developed and released a set of on-line training modules, in collaboration with the states 

PDTA vendor, the Center for Early Learning Professionals. The modules were aligned with the state's Workforce 

Knowledge and Competencies for Educators and with training modules developed for use across the field. 

There are two series to the set, Series I is titled “Assessment in Early Childhood Settings” and is comprised of 

three modules - Early Childhood Assessment Overview, Linking Assessment to Curriculum and Instruction, and 

Types of Assessments and Their Purposes. The series presents Rhode Island's vision for quality child assessment 

practices in all early childhood education (ECE) settings. Series II is titled “Formative Assessment in Early 

Childhood Settings”, and is comprised of six modules designed to help early childhood educators understand 
ED 524B Page 32 of 36

and implement the formative assessment process. A total of 6 hours pf professional development credit is 

available for completion of these courses. 

During 2017, RIDE sponsored a community wide formative assessment dialogue in an effort to debrief the 

recent KEA pilot implementation, discuss the field's use of purchasable tools such as Teaching Strategies Gold, 

and review the goals and objectives related to ensuring that all formative assessment efforts Birth through 

Grade 3 have a cohesive message. 

Rhode Island continued to participate in the K-3 Assessment Consortium led by North Carolina. In 2016, fortyone Rhode Island K-3 teachers volunteered to participate in the K-3 Formative Assessment Field Test Project. 

The K-3 Formative Assessment System drew on many different kinds of evidence (observations, conversations, 

work samples, and tasks) from many different sources to shed light on students' learning progress. During the 

field test year teachers were required to assess students in the fall and winter blocks of the school year. All the 

teachers as well as administrators received training from the Center for Learning and Development and SRI 

Education, a partner of the North Carolina Consortium. With teachers participating across grade K-3, there 

feedback sessions during March-April 2017 where participants discussed supports needed to gather and 

analyze data in the five areas of learning and development: approaches to learning, cognition, language and 

communication, physical/motor, and social-emotional development for each grade level. In addition, the state 

used information from the Kindergarten Entry Profile Implementation Plan conducted by The Policy Equity 

Group. 

One of the biggest learnings from this work was the need to acknowledge that the KEP was part of a larger 

context, which must focus on implementing developmentally appropriate curriculum, instruction, and 

assessment. As a result, the state used funding from the Race to the Top- Early Learning Challenge to work with 

EDC to develop an approach that began with the state's first ever kindergarten conference this September 

2016 and 2017and continued with piloting an interdisciplinary, Common-Core aligned kindergarten curriculum 

developed by Boston Public School (BPS). In the 2015-2016 school year, 88% of Rhode Island kindergartners 

statewide and 100% of kindergartners in the four core cities were in full-day kindergarten. As of the 2015-2016 

school year, 31 of the 35 elementary school districts and all of the public charter elementary schools in Rhode 

Island offer universal access to full-day kindergarten programs, and upon the start of the 2016-2017 school 

year 33 school districts participate. This pilot project provided opportunities for Kindergarten teachers in 

participating schools to take part in professional development led by experienced coaches from BPS's Early 

Childhood Department. These teachers also received school-based coaching through the Education 

Development Center (EDC) Center for Early Learning Professionals through the project's completion. These 

districts worked closely on the implementation of aligned and developmentally appropriate curriculum, 

instruction, and assessment. 

Work during the year focused on supporting enhanced leadership as well as increased opportunities for 

educators working in K-8. The development of both the RI Early Learning and Development Standards Pre-K to 

K course as well as the Graduate Certificate for Administrators, Education Coordinators and Principles are 

intended to bring together professionals working in the birth through 5, and K through 8 settings. A total of 31 

educators participated in the Pre-K to K Standards Alignment course and participants came from a varying array 

of backgrounds and included community based child care teachers, public school teachers, State Pre-K and 

public school leaders. Additionally, the Graduate Certificate for Administrators, Education Coordinators and 

Principles was completed in 2016 and Rhode Island College began to work on recruitment for the program in 

2017. 

During 2016 the Math Science Partnership (MSP) grant focused on Pre-K through 3 use of Standards in the 

development and implementation of curriculum. This initiative attempted to increase the capacity of the 

state's largest public school to deliver math content in a developmentally appropriate way. This work led to an 

increased interest in ongoing curriculum work at the K-12 level. As a result, during 2017, the state worked on 

enhancing its work around curriculum across the field. A 
ED 524B Page 33 of 36

Section A: Part C - Competitive Preference Priorities

Competitive Preference Priority 1: Contributing Matching Funds (if included in the State's 

approved application). 

Describe the progress the State has made on its credible plan for obtaining and using non-Federal 

matching funds to support the implementation of its ambitious and achievable plan during the grant 

period. For progress not made in this area, please describe the State's strategies to ensure that 

measurable progress will be made by the end of the grant period. Please describe any changes made 

to the data reported in Table 7(a); explain if your Year 3 Target differs from the Year 3 Actual.

RI has fully committed to its state match for all years of the PDG funding. In state fiscal year 2016, $1,000,000, 

in fiscal year 2017, $1,210,000, and in fiscal year 2018 $1,080,000 in State funds were allocated through the 

education funding formula for the specific purpose of the expansion of the state Pre-K program. These funds 

continued the state’s planned expansion of State Pre-K, as proposed in the PDG grant. These funds were 

combined with the federal grant funds to add additional classrooms and to pay for enrollment of children 

selected via the lottery whose family income is over 200% of poverty. RI will continue to advocate for 

additional state funding for the Pre-K program so that all classrooms can be sustained when the federal funding 

ends. 

Competitive Preference Priority 2: Supporting the Continuum of Early Learning and 

Development (if included in the State's approved application). 

Describe progress made in creating a more seamless progression of supports and interventions from 

birth through third grade, such as high-quality infant and toddler care, home visitation, full-day 

kindergarten, and before and after care services for, at a minimum, a defined cohort of eligible children 

and their families within each high need community served by each Subgrantee. For progress not 

made in these areas, please describe the State's strategies to ensure that measurable progress will be 

made by the end of the grant period.

The state is working to continue ensuring a more seamless progression of supports for those in state 

Pre-K by requiring and supporting grantees to fully participate in the system. The State Pre-K model 

aims to be a demonstration of an exemplar model, which is highly integrated and connected across all 

state agencies, and systems. Expectations for Rhode Island Pre-K programs responsibilities in this area 

are specified in state Pre-K policies and within Pre-K contract language. State Pre-K policy states: Since 

the state Pre-K program exists within the state and local social support systems for RI families, Pre-K 

program staff are responsible for supporting and implementing effective transitions for children in and 

out of the Pre-K, provide access to/coordination of before and after care if needed, and engaging in 

community collaboration with social service agencies or other relevant organizations (school districts, 

community mental health providers, health centers). State Pre-K administrators are responsible for 

building community linkages and for actively coordinating Pre-K family supports with other 

professionals when needed. Pre-K contract language requires that programs develop and maintain 

collaborative relationships with community partners and seek resources as needed to ensure full 

support of children and families experiencing crisis and/or special health care needs and to fully 

include children with disabilities and/or special health care needs. Pre-K monitoring is used to ensure 

that sub-grantees are meeting these expectations. Funds for state Pre-K are allocated for the 

educational program children attend and are not sufficient to maintain a high-quality educational 

program and directly provide access to supports and interventions outside the scope of general 

educational interventions. Instead, it is the expectation that programs will develop collaborative 

partnerships with options available in the community. During grant year 2016, existing and new 

grantees were supported to coordinate, and ensure access to minimally the following components: 

before and after school care, full day kindergarten, developmental screening and early childhood 

special education, and mental health consultation. State Pre-K policies require that all sub-grantees 

make before and after school care available to children enrolled in Pre-K or develop collaborative 
ED 524B Page 34 of 36

partnerships with agencies to provide such care as needed by enrolled families. During 2017, state 

Pre-K grantees were further supported in the development of Competencies, Systems of Staff Support 

and in the creation of internal policies and protocols related to Comprehensive Services. During 2-16 

and 2016 several professional development offerings were held supporting grantees in understanding 

the latest research on the topics and in developing Comprehensive Services Plans. These plans are 

reviewed as part of the state monitoring system. 

Despite these policies, the state is aware that Pre-K grantees awareness of and access to a 

comprehensive set of supports and interventions is variable and that it can be difficult to reliably 

connect families to a wider variety of services, even when they exist within the same organization. 

Often times, grantees who also manage Head Start, will use their existing internal systems of supports 

by offering these supports “in-kind” to state Pre-K. For community based and public school programs, 

these connections are often more variable. As the states PDG application spoke to, the state has 

begun work with the Department of Health on building an electronic resource and referral system to 

be piloted with State Pre-K, and potentially be available statewide for all programs. The previously 

developed conceptual design, allowed RIDE the opportunity to conduct a series of community focus 

groups in order to elicit feedback on the conceptualized system. The group defined the existing Health 

Directory resources which would provide a focused list of resources to make referrals to. The 

Department of Health and RIDE are partnering in establishing a pilot with a selected vendor to build 

the online referral and tracking mechanism using these resources. These agencies have engaged in a 

series of planning calls to outline the desired functionality. This portion of the project was slightly 

delayed due to the decision to change vendors. In order for RIDE to continue, it needed to wait until 

Health finalized its contract with the vendor which will occurred in 2017. In the meantime, RIDE has 

been working to strengthen its Pre-K policy guidance for programs in regards to comprehensive 

services, as well as to formalize the questionnaire programs will administer to families to evaluate 

needs for services. 

Another well-established collaboration within the state Pre-K program is the connection to Child 

Outreach developmental screening programs administered by the local school districts. This year, 

state Pre-K programs were required to ensure that all enrolled children were screened by October 

31st, or within 45 days of school entry for children who join the program after standard enrollment. 

The screening covers five areas: vision, hearing, speech/language, general development, and social 

and emotional development. Child Outreach screening programs use standardized screening tools 

and follow state protocols regarding re-screening, screening of English Language learners, and referral 

to early childhood special education. As of December 2015, all children enrolled in state Pre-K had 

completed screening with 221 (N=594) requiring rescreening and 66 resulting in referral to early 

childhood special education. Additionally, state staff support collaborations between Pre-K 

classrooms and district special education services to ensure that to the maximum extent possible that 

identified special education services are integrated into the child's Pre-K experience within the Pre-K 

classroom. 

Rhode Island's early childhood mental health consultation program is now being managed and funded 

by the state's Department of Human Services. This model is called SUCCESS, Supporting Children's 

Competencies in Emotional and Social Skills, and consists of intervention level services provided 

directly to children and families in early care and education settings in coordination with promotion 

and prevention level services supporting high-quality educational practices provided by the Center for 

Early Learning Professionals. Essentially, the foundational supports such as related to schedules, 

environment, and differentiation are provided by the Center, and the needs of children and families at 

the top of the pyramid are provided by SUCCESS. Services offered, include program and classroom 

level assessment, including conversations with program staff and children's caregivers. The data 

results in feedback and recommendations to program staff and families regarding consultation 

findings and leads to the development of collaborative action plans. Follow-up supports to integrate 

consultation recommendations, include: supporting staff to assess, plan for, and intervene with 
ED 524B Page 35 of 36

challenging classroom behavior, helping families get connected to community supports and services, 

and classroom and program level consultation to enhance the child care center's capacities to 

respond to children's social, emotional, and behavioral health needs. 

The state is also supporting strong transitions to kindergarten. In the 2015-2016 school year, 88% of 

Rhode Island kindergartners statewide and 100% of kindergartners in the four core cities were in fullday kindergarten. As of the 2015-2016 school year, 31 of the 35 elementary school districts and all of 

the public charter elementary schools in Rhode Island offer universal access to full-day kindergarten 

programs, and upon the start of the 2016-2017 school year 33 school districts participate. The 

Governor has established the required that by 2017 all public schools must offer full day kindergarten. 

Work under RTT-ELC supported these districts in focusing on instructional quality through work in 

partnership with Boston Public Schools to implement their evidenced based, developmentally 

appropriate curricula. Educators received professional development and coaching through December 

2016, as well as were supported to purchase materials required to implement the curricula moving 

forward. This work, will help ensure instructional alignment and consistent experiences for children 

between Pre-K and K. 

RIDE has and will continued its efforts to ensure a continuous and consistent high quality early 

learning opportunities, across the diversity of settings in which State Pre-K is offered. The State Pre-K 

program brought to light opportunities for coordinated recruitment with Head Start, home visiting, 

child care, and social services. The result of this was a letter signed by both RIDE, and the states Head 

Start Association, and supported by the Head Start Collaboration Director, Kids Count as well as the 

states grantees. This effort solidified our efforts related to data sharing and coordinated recruitment. 

During 2017 RIDE staff served on the development team working towards the creation of an infant 

and toddler credential. The state is receiving Technical Assistance from its Region 1 Head Start 

Education Specialist in the facilitation of this work. RIDE, is working with the Department of Human 

Services as well as numerous community stakeholders in this effort. 

 

 

Competitive Preference Priority 3: Creating New High Quality State Preschool Slots (if included 

in the State's approved application). 

Describe progress made in using at least 50% of the State's federal grant award to create new State 

Preschool Program slots that will increase the overall number of new slots in State Preschool 

Programs that meet the definition of High-Quality Preschool Programs. For progress not made in this 

area, please describe the State's strategies to ensure that measurable progress will be made by the 

end of the grant period.

RRhode Island's existing state Pre-K program meets the definition of High-Quality Preschool Program. Thus, 

100% of the federal grant award has been used to increase the overall number of new Pre-K slots in the state. 

The state investment in state fiscal year 2017 was $7,983,871, an increase of $4,033,871 from fiscal year 2016. 

Without federal Expansion grant funds, Rhode Island would have had the capacity to enroll up to 486 children. 

Instead, in school year 2016-2017, there are 56 classrooms serving 1,008 children. In the 2017-2018 school 

year, there are 60 classrooms funding total of 1,080 classrooms. 

 
ED 524B Page 36 of 36

Section B: Budget Information

Budget and Sustainability (Section G in the application) 

1. Please provide a brief explanation of any discrepancies between the State's approved budget and 

its total expenditures for the reporting year. Explain carry-over funds that have not been expended or 

obligated from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017.

2. Please describe any substantive changes that you anticipate to the State's Preschool Development 

Grant budget in the upcoming fiscal year (January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018).

3. Describe the State's progress on its plan for sustainability at the end of the grant period to ensure 

that the number and percentage of Eligible Children with access to High-Quality Preschool Programs 

in the State will be maintained or expanded, including to additional High-Need Communities.

4. Please provide a brief explanation of any discrepancies, if any, between the Subrecipients' 

approved budgets and their total expenditures for the reporting year. Explain carry-over funds that 

have not been expended or obligated from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017.