Appropriation Act - Item 117 H.e. (Regular Session, 2025) directs the VDOE and the University of Virginia’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning to administer the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP) assessments. VKRP measures mathematics, self-regulation, and social skills, which complement the Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System or VALLSS, Virginia’s statewide assessment of literacy skills. The VKRP is required for kindergarten and most pre-kindergarten students in public schools.

Virginia Connects for Kids (VAConnects), was developed and launched in 2025 to support the administration of VKRP and improve coordination between VKRP, the VALLSS, and Virginia Quality Birth-to-5 (VQB5), Virginia’s early childhood integrated data system. VAConnects was developed in partnership between UVA and the VDOE, and serves as a robust, coordinated data system with enhanced infrastructure and security features.

The new system enables shared data warehousing, improved and integrated reporting for teachers and parents, and a more streamlined user interface. As an integrated data system VAConnects provides critical insights into the impact of investments in early childhood on school readiness, literacy, mathematics, social-emotional learning, and other academic outcomes. Now fully operational, VAConnects supports access for ~93,000 unique user records with ~130,000+ roles across those users. There are ~5,000 sites and ~850,000 students/children in VAConnects. In FY27, ~400,000 of those students/children will in a grade level that has access to the VKRP.

The VDOE proposes funding be provided to support the ongoing operational costs of VAConnects to support the administration of the required VKRP assessments.

Lack of funding will jeopardize operations and security of the existing integrated data system, meaning that VKRP would have to be removed from VAConnects. Virginia cannot use federal child care funding to cover the costs related to kindergarten assessment, or store VKRP data, reports, and screeners for students enrolled in public schools. VKRP would have to use outdated technology or revert to paper-based system.

Administer VKRP in classrooms using manual methods, like paper and pencil, and forgo systematic statewide data collection and reporting for educators, leaders, and families.

The cost of operating VKRP as part of the VAConnects system will require new state funding of $733,406 in FY27 and $735,251 in FY28. This would be a recurring cost.

This cost represents 28% of the total annual operational costs for VA Connects. This percentage is based on the knowledge that 28% of users in the VAConnects system participate in the VKRP assessment (395,947 in FY27 and 397,340 in FY28). The VDOE applied the annual growth rate of 4% to the preschool students included in this estimate to reflect current trends.