I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3604 
To establish a grant program to assist States to establish or expand universal 
prekindergarten in public schools and public charter schools. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 
Ms. NORTON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To establish a grant program to assist States to establish 
or expand universal prekindergarten in public schools 
and public charter schools. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Universal Prekinder-
garten and Early Childhood Education Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 
2. 
UNIVERSAL 
PREKINDERGARTEN 
AND 
EARLY 
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION GRANT PROGRAM. 
(a) PROGRAM AUTHORIZATION.—From amounts ap-
propriated under section 3, the Secretary of Education is 
authorized to award grants, on a competitive basis, to 
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States to pay the Federal share of establishing or expand-
ing full-day prekindergarten programs. 
(b) STATE APPLICATION.—To receive a grant under 
this Act, a State shall submit to the Secretary an applica-
tion at such time, in such manner, and containing such 
information as the Secretary may require. 
(c) USE OF FUNDS.—A State that receives a grant 
under this Act shall use such grant funds to establish or 
expand a prekindergarten program that, at a minimum— 
(1) is located at a public school in the State; 
(2) permits each 3- or 4-year-old child in the 
State to be voluntarily enrolled by the child’s parent, 
regardless of income, in the program at a school in 
which the child may be enrolled for kindergarten; 
(3) is a full-day program that runs the length 
of the regular school year; 
(4) is taught by teachers who possess equivalent 
or similar qualifications to the qualifications of 
teachers of other grades in the school involved; and 
(5) meets any other criteria that the Secretary 
may require. 
(d) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of a grant 
under this Act shall be not more than 80 percent of the 
costs of carrying out the activities described in subsection 
(c). 
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(e) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—Grant funds re-
ceived under this Act shall be used to supplement and not 
supplant other Federal early childhood education funds in 
the State. 
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 
this Act such sums as are necessary for fiscal years 2016 
through 2021. 
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) FULL-DAY.—The term ‘‘full-day’’ used with 
respect to a program, means a program with a min-
imum of a 6-hour schedule per day. 
(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Education. 
(3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean-
ing given the term in section 9101 of the Elemen-
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 7801). 
(4) PARENT.—The term ‘‘parent’’ has the 
meaning given the term in section 9101 of the Ele-
mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 7801). 
(5) 
PUBLIC
SCHOOL.—The 
term 
‘‘public 
school’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘elementary 
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school’’ or ‘‘secondary school’’ in section 9101 of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 
(20 U.S.C. 7801), except that the term does not in-
clude private schools. 
Æ 
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