The Commissioner of Education shall establish a program, within available appropriations, to provide grants to municipalities, boards of education and child care providers to encourage the use of school facilities for the provision of child care services before and after school. In order to qualify for a grant, a municipality, board of education or child care provider shall guarantee the availability of a school site which meets the standards set on or before June 30, 2014, by the Department of Public Health and on and after July 1, 2014, by the Office of Early Childhood in regulations adopted under sections 19a-77, 19a-79, 19a-80 and 19a-82 to 19a-87a, inclusive, and shall agree to provide liability insurance coverage for the program. Grant funds shall be used by the municipality, board of education or child care provider for the maintenance and utility costs directly attributable to the use of the school facility for the provision of child care services, for related transportation costs and for the portion of the municipality, board of education or child care provider liability insurance cost and other operational costs directly attributable to the provision of such child care services. The municipality or board of education may contract with a child care provider for the program. The Commissioner of Education may adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54, for purposes of this section. The commissioner may utilize available child care subsidies to implement the provisions of this section and encourage association and cooperation with the Head Start program established pursuant to section 10-16n.

(P.A. 86-417, S. 11, 15; P.A. 87-435, S. 5, 6; P.A. 93-262, S. 1, 87; 93-381, S. 9, 39; P.A. 95-257, S. 12, 21, 58; 95-360, S. 18, 32; P.A. 96-262, S. 4, 11; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 00-2, S. 23, 53; P.A. 14-39, S. 29; P.A. 15-227, S. 25; P.A. 16-163, S. 1.)

History: P.A. 87-435 made the pilot program permanent and added “within available appropriations”, expanded eligibility to include boards of education and child care providers, allowed grants to be used for “related transportation costs” and removed language specifying that a contract be entered into after a competitive bidding process; Sec. 17-31aa transferred to Sec. 17-595 in 1991; P.A. 93-262 authorized substitution of commissioner and department of social services for commissioner and department of human resources, effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 93-381 replaced department of health services with department of public health and addiction services, effective July 1, 1993; Sec. 17-595 transferred to Sec. 17b-737 in 1995; P.A. 95-257 replaced Commissioner and Department of Public Health and Addiction Services with Commissioner and Department of Public Health, effective July 1, 1995; P.A. 95-360 substituted reference to Sec. 19a-82 for Sec. 19a-81, effective July 13, 1995; P.A. 96-262 added a provision allowing the commissioner to utilize available child care subsidies to implement the provisions of section and encourage association and cooperation with the Head Start program, effective July 1, 1996; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 00-2 allowed grant funds to be used for “other operational costs”, deleted provision requiring contract to limit amount provider may charge to provider's base cost per capita plus a percentage of the base cost, and made a technical change, effective July 1, 2000; P.A. 14-39 replaced references to Commissioner of Social Services with references to Commissioner of Education, added “on or before June 30, 2014,” re standards set by Department of Public Health and added “and on and after July 1, 2014, by the Office of Early Childhood” re standards, effective July 1, 2014; pursuant to P.A. 15-227, “child day care services” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “child care services”, effective July 1, 2015; P.A. 16-163 replaced “day care program” with “provision of child care services” and replaced “child day care provider” with “child care provider”, effective June 9, 2016.

Statutory language does not evidence clear express intent necessary to abrogate common law by substantially expanding exception to governmental immunity for discretionary acts. 284 C. 91.