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“When I took office our kindergarten readiness was 42% and we need to do better than that. Thousands of Florida families rely on our voluntary pre-K system to prepare their children to be ready for kindergarten. This legislation for accountability will turn the tide for these families and their students and they will make them more prepared than ever to enter kindergarten. By prioritizing VPK programs to leverage the coordinated screening and progress monitoring programs established in this bill, we will be able to identify emergent literacy and mathematics skills deficiencies,” DeSantis said.
He said identifying those potential deficiencies will allow teachers to intervene before the student falls behind. As part of the bill, a timeline will be established to implement a new VPK accountability system that focuses on “outcomes, learning gains and observations of child-teacher interactions,” according to the governor.
Updated: 10:42 AM EST Jan 26, 2021 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday responded to a White House claim that Florida has only distributed about half of the vaccines it has received.“That’s disingenuous,” DeSantis said at a Publix in Vero Beach Tuesday morning.The governor said the state is holding on to doses that are needed for seniors who received their first shot and are awaiting their second shot.“If the White House is suggesting that we shouldn’t be doing that, I don’t think that’s a good suggestion.”DeSantis says the flow of COVID-19 vaccines has been stagnant and the state needs more to meet the increasing demand from residents. DeSantis said officials in Washington told Florida it would start to see the supply increase around this time, but that hasn t happened.Last week, the governor said the state doesn’t need FEMA sites to distribute vaccines, saying it already has the infrastructure set up, with hospitals, pharmacies and some of the major dri