Florida Special Session Yields Preschool Plan

Private Providers Are to Offer a Majority of New Pre-K Classes

Next fall, Floridians will have the prekindergarten program they asked for in a 2002 statewide ballot measure, though it may take a while for the program to include what experts consider necessary for a high-quality preschool system.

In a special one-week legislative session last month, Florida lawmakers approved a plan in which three-hour prekindergarten classes would be offered largely by private preschool and child-care providers. Instructors in the program would need to have some early-childhood-education training, but they would not, in the first year, be required to have even...