Senate committee advances substitute to expand preschool and mandate full‑day kindergarten, providers urge mixed‑delivery protections

Senate Majority Leader Ruiz introduced the committee substitute to S‑3910, telling the Senate Education Committee that the proposal would create a framework to expand universal preschool seats incrementally as budget permits and to codify state preschool programs. "This is not gonna happen overnight," Ruiz said, and she thanked the Department of Education, private providers and Head Start partners who helped draft the substitute.

Representatives from large private providers and provider associations testified in support of the bill’s goals but urged changes to protect community‑based providers. Nasby Choudhary, state government relations representative for KinderCare, said the substitute’s steering committee and a proposed mixed‑delivery handbook could help partnerships but warned that removing language that would require districts to…