N.J. Admin. Code § 6A:13A-1.2
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.
N.J. Admin. Code § 6A:13A-1.2
See: 41 N.J.R. 2530(a), 41 N.J.R. 4077(a).
Added definitions "Above-scale meal", "Early Childhood Program Aid", "Early Launch to Learning Initiative", "Free and/or reduced price meal" and "New Jersey Preschool Program Implementation Guidelines"; in definition "Comprehensive curriculum", deleted "Expectations:" following "Learning"; in definition "Comprehensive preschool educational program", inserted "Department" and "contracted"; in definitions "District-wide", "Fiscal specialist" and "Preschool program contract", inserted "contracted"; in definition "Full-day preschool", inserted the last sentence; in definition "Performance-based assessment", substituted "Preschool Standards" for "Expectations"; in definition "Preschool programmatic budget", substituted "including," for ", including"; in definition "Targeted Preschool", inserted "a specialized", substituted "program" for "programs" and deleted "preschool" following "at-risk"; in definition "Transition", inserted "to kindergarten"; in definition "Universal Preschool", inserted "a specialized" and substituted "program" for "programs"; deleted definitions "Pull-out program" and "Push-in program"; substituted definition "New Jersey Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards of Quality" for definition "New Jersey Preschool Teaching and Learning Expectations: Standards of Quality"; and in definition "New Jersey Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards of Quality", substituted "(Preschool Standards)" for "(Expectations)".