New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 6A - EDUCATION › Chapter 13A - ELEMENTS OF HIGH QUALITY PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS › Subchapter 1 - GENEAL PROVISIONS › Section 6A:13A-1.2 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms shall have the following
				  meanings when used in this chapter, unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise:
"Above-scale meal" means a meal served to a child whose
				  household exceeds the eligibility criteria for either free or reduced-price
				  meals, pursuant to the definition in this section.
"Age-eligible" means a child who turns three or four years
				  old by the enrollment date determined by the district board of education
				  pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:38-5 and 6 and 18A:44-1.
"At-risk children" means children who meet the
				  income-eligibility criteria at N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-45.
"Child and Adult Care Food Program" or "CACFP" means the
				  Federally assisted meal program operated in regulated childcare
				  settings.
"Classroom-quality assessment instrument" means a
				  Department-approved, reliable, and valid tool with a set of criteria and a
				  rubric for scoring used to evaluate components of classroom quality ranging
				  from the nature of teacher-child interactions to the availability of materials
				  and activities that support early learning and development.
"Community and parent involvement specialist" or "CPIS" means
				  a position to coordinate family/school partnerships for the preschool
				  program.
"Comprehensive curriculum" means a preschool curriculum that
				  addresses all domains of learning and is aligned to the New Jersey Preschool
				  Teaching and Learning Standards of Quality. The comprehensive curriculum is
				  articulated in the Department-approved three-year preschool program plan and is
				  implemented within the school day.
"Comprehensive preschool educational program" means the
				  delivery of the school district's comprehensive curriculum articulated in the
				  Department-approved three-year preschool program plan that occurs within the
				  school day and that provides the comparable teacher/child contact time in
				  contracted private provider and local Head Start agencies as is provided
				  in-district.
"Consultation model" means an approach for specialists from
				  various disciplines to guide classroom teachers in the use of enhanced methods
				  and strategies for working with children.
"Department" means the New Jersey Department of
				  Education.
"Districtwide" means the school district's entire preschool
				  program as implemented across all in-district, contracted private provider, and
				  local Head Start agency settings.
"Early childhood advisory council" or "ECAC" means an
				  advisory group of community stakeholders interested in the education and
				  welfare of children in preschool through grade three that is convened by the
				  school district.
"Early Childhood Program Aid" or "ECPA" means State aid that
				  was authorized pursuant to repealed N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-16, and was distributed to
				  all school districts with high concentrations of low-income students for the
				  purpose of providing preschool, full-day kindergarten, and other early
				  childhood programs and services.
"Early Launch to Learning Initiative" or "ELLI" means
				  competitive awards offered by the Department from 2005-2006 through the
				  2008-2009 school year to certain school districts.
"Family worker" means a person who promotes preschool student
				  learning and development and supports the needs and well-being of preschool
				  students' families to ensure the families' well-being and to promote the
				  students' learning and development.
"Fiscal specialist" means a district board of education
				  position for managing the financial aspects of the school district's
				  contractual obligations with contracted private providers and local Head Start
				  agencies.
"Free and/or reduced-price meal" means a meal served under
				  the National School Breakfast or Lunch Program to a child from a household
				  eligible for such benefits under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and
				  Nutrition Service guidelines, pursuant to the eligibility criteria found at 42
				  U.S.C. §§ 1771 et seq., and §§ 1751 et seq., and the
				  pricing guidelines found at 7 CFR Part 245.
"Full-day preschool" means a preschool program consisting of
				  a six-hour comprehensive educational program and day in accordance with the
				  school district's grade-one-through-12 daily school calendar and not exceeding
				  the 10-month academic period.
"Grow NJ Kids" means the State's rating and improvement
				  system designed to assess site-based childcare and early learning programs,
				  provide training and incentives to improve the programs, and communicate the
				  programs' level of quality to the public.
"Head Start" means a Federally funded national program that
				  promotes school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of
				  children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social, and
				  other services to enrolled children and families.
"Improvement plans" means the school district's plans for
				  improvement in areas of relative weakness within its preschool programs as
				  identified through the self-assessment and validation system.
"In-district" means the portion of a school district's
				  preschool program staffed by district board of education employees as opposed
				  to a contracted private provider or local Head Start agency.
"Kindergarten entry assessment" or "KEA" means a
				  comprehensive measurement of children's knowledge, skills, and behaviors at the
				  beginning of kindergarten.
"Limited review examination" means an examination limited in
				  scope to a review of specific financial statement items or particular risk
				  areas.
"Multilingual learner" or "ML" means a child whose home
				  language is not English or who primarily speaks a language other than English
				  in the home.
"National School Breakfast Program" means the Federally
				  assisted meal program operated in public and private nonprofit schools
				  administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service
				  pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1771 et seq.
"National School Lunch Program" means the Federally assisted
				  meal program operated in public and private nonprofit schools administered by
				  the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service pursuant to 42
				  U.S.C. § 1751.
"New Jersey Preschool Program Implementation Guidelines"
				  means a Department document available at
http://www.nj.gov/education/earlychildhood/preschool/docs/PSImplementationGuidelines.pdf
that provides guidance to school districts, contracted private providers, and
				  local Head Start agencies in planning and implementing high-quality preschool
				  programs for age-eligible children.
"New Jersey Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards of
				  Quality" or "Preschool Standards" means the early learning standards and
				  corresponding teaching practices as adopted by the State Board of Education and
				  located at
http://www.nj.gov/education/earlychildhood/preschool/docs/PreschoolTeachingandLearningStandards.pdf
.
"New Jersey Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards of
				  Quality" or "Preschool Standards" means the early learning standards and
				  corresponding teaching practices as adopted by the State Board of Education and
				  located at
http://www.state.nj.us/education/ece/guide/standards.pdf
.
"Newly contracted classroom" means any private provider or
				  local Head Start agency classroom approved by the Department to serve preschool
				  students in the upcoming school year that was not under contract in the prior
				  school year.
"One-Year Preschool Operational Plan" means the one-year
				  operational plan that school districts that received ECPA in 2007-2008 may
				  annually submit to the Department by November 15 to request approval to expand
				  their preschool programs in the following school year.
"Performance-based assessment" means an ongoing assessment of
				  all learning outcomes in each domain identified in the Preschool Standards. The
				  performance-based assessment is tailored to the school district's preschool
				  curriculum and designed to measure individual preschool children's
				  progress.
"Preschool Education Aid" means State aid provided to
				  district boards of education to implement preschool programs for age-eligible
				  general education students.
"Preschool Expansion Aid" means the category of State funding
				  used during the 2001-2002 through 20072008 budget years to increase the
				  approved preschool costs for the projected expansion of preschool programs in
				  former Abbott school districts, as defined in the annual Appropriations Act.
				  For any school district that received initial Abbott status after 2001-2002,
				  the increase in approved budgeted cost was based on the year Abbott status was
				  obtained.
"Preschool instructional coach" means a position for
				  modeling, coaching, observing, and providing feedback to teaching staff in
				  preschool programs using the reflective cycle.
"Preschool intervention and referral specialist" or "PIRS"
				  means a coach working within a consultation model to help maximize the general
				  education preschool teacher's ability to support all students who exhibit
				  challenging behaviors, learning difficulties, or other social difficulties, and
				  to decrease the number of referrals to special education.
"Preschool Professional Development Fellow status" means the
				  preschool instructional coach's successful completion of the Department's
				  preschool instructional coach training course.
"Preschool program contract" means the State-approved model
				  agreement, with modifications requested by the school district and approved by
				  the Department, for use between the school district and contracted private
				  providers and/or local Head Start agency when contracting for preschool program
				  services.
"Preschool programmatic budget" means the annual budget for
				  eligible three- and four-year-old children prepared by the school district with
				  guidance from the Department including, where applicable, the budgets of
				  contracting private providers or local Head Start agencies.
"Private provider" means a childcare center licensed by the
				  Department of Children and Families pursuant to N.J.S.A. 30:5B-1 et seq.
"Reflective cycle" means a process in which teachers work
				  with coaches to improve teaching practices. Teachers and coaches collaborate in
				  a pre-conference meeting to plan instruction. Once an instructional plan is in
				  place, the coach observes the teacher implementing the plan in the classroom.
				  The coach and teacher hold a post-conference meeting to discuss and reflect on
				  the experience. The goal is to work collaboratively to improve classroom and
				  instructional practice.
"Reliable independent observer" means an individual with a
				  verification letter indicating reliable scores by the district-contracted
				  classroom assessment provider and adequately trained in the use of the
				  classroomquality assessment instrument that is the standard for independent
				  observation of preschool classrooms.
"Self-assessment and validation system" or "SAVS" means an
				  annual assessment process conducted districtwide by school districts to provide
				  the Department with an analysis of the school district's strengths and
				  weaknesses relative to preschool program implementation and the school
				  district's plans for continuous quality improvement.
"Targeted preschool" means a specialized preschool program
				  for all at-risk children in school districts.
"Three-year preschool program plan and annual updates" means
				  the school district's three-year programmatic plan that is updated annually, as
				  required and approved by the Department, to implement a preschool program that
				  meets this chapter's provisions.
"Transition" means an organized system of interactions and
				  transactions that takes into account the relationships among home, school, and
				  community as the child moves from preschool to kindergarten through grade
				  three.
"Universal preschool" means a specialized preschool program
				  for all age-eligible resident three- and four-year-old children.
"Universe of eligible preschool children" means all three-
				  and four-year-old general education children eligible for preschool in a public
				  school district that receives Preschool Education Aid.