You asked if special needs children can take part in school readiness programs, or if funding problems exclude them from participation. Specifically, you wanted to know if the State Department of Education (SDE) or the city of Stamford have adopted a policy prohibiting programs from receiving both school readiness and special education funding.

STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION POLICY

SDE is in the process of updating its policy regarding special needs children in school readiness programs. It does not prohibit programs from receiving school readiness and special education funding, but the current policy allows school readiness programs to be reimbursed for special education students only at the part-day, part-year rate. Special needs students are not spending as much time in special education programs as SDE expected, and need more time in school readiness programs to fill the entire time their parents are at work. The proposed policy change would allow the state to reimburse programs at the higher full-day, full-year rate, even though the special education students are pulled out of the program for part of the day. We will forward a copy of this policy to you when it becomes available.

STAMFORD SCHOOL READINESS PROGRAM POLICY

Stamford's special needs children may take part in the full-day, full-year school readiness program as well as the special education program, on a space-available basis. The special education and school readiness programs occupy space in the same building. Eligible special needs students attend two and a half hours of special education in the morning, and then either go to the school readiness program or leave the facility for home or outside care. According to Linda Levy of Stamford's school readiness program, SDE prohibits the program from offering special education students a part-day slot because they are already getting a pre-school education. The part-day slots are reserved for children who do not have any other pre-school experience.

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