Enrollment in state-funded preschool programs surged during the 2022-23 school year, but access to quality early learning is uneven across the states, according to The State of Preschool 2023 Yearbook released Thursday by the National Institute for Early Education Research and Rutgers Graduate School of Education.
The research shows a 7% increase in pre-K participation in 2022-23 compared with the previous year. Enrollment of 3- and 4-year-olds reached an all-time high at 11%, and 6% growth, respectively.
Overall, 35% of 4-year-olds in the U.S. attended an early learning program in 2022-23. New universal pre-K programs in several states contributed to the growth, NIEER said.
Percentage of 4-year-olds in pre-K increases after dip
However, the number of children enrolled in state-funded preschools — 1.6 million in 2022-23 —- is still lower than prior to the pandemic. Nearly 25,000 fewer children attended preschool in fall 2022 than in fall 2019.
The reason the pre-K enrollment percentage is higher but the actual child count is lower is because the percentage is calculated with the overall population of 3- and 4-year-olds, and that population group is declining in numbers.
Still, the percentage increase trend is encouraging for early education professionals and advocates who watched the pandemic wipe out a decade of progress in enrollment increases. In fact, previously reported NIEER data showed a 5% dropoff of 4-year-olds participating in state-funded pre-K between 2019-20 and 2020-21.
"With the pandemic in the rearview, it is time for state and federal leaders to choose whether and how they are going to support high-quality preschool,” said Allison Friedman-Krauss, the report's lead author and assistant research professor for NIEER, in a statement.
Spending up but uneven across states
NIEER said another notable finding is that state funding for pre-K programs in 2022-23 was at an all-time high. States spent $11.7 billion — including federal COVID-19 relief dollars — on state-funded preschool in 2022-2023, an increase of $1.17 billion, or 11%, from the previous year after adjusting for inflation.
Hawaii, California, Michigan and New Mexico are among states dedicating money toward large-scale expansion of preschool programs.
State spending per child averaged $7,277, which exceeded pre-pandemic amounts but wasn't vastly different from the $6,945 average in 2002. If federal and local reported investments are added into the calculation, the per-child average rises to more than $8,000. With unreported local resources, the per-child average would be $11,300.
But that figure still falls below estimates of the actual per-child amount needed in many states for high-quality, full-day pre-K for 4-year-olds. For example, those costs would be $12,474 in Arizona, $18,437 in Connecticut, and $13,476 in North Dakota.
NIEER's yearbook also focuses on the quality of state-funded pre-K programs. It found that nationally, young children are more than twice as likely to attend programs meeting fewer than half of NIEER’s 10 minimum policy benchmarks than programs meeting nine or 10 of the voluntary standards. The organization cites inadequate funding as one reason for this, as well as states' decisions to give local control for pre-K policies to local entities.
NIEER recommends states take the lead in improving early education policies through commitments to funding, universal access for both 3- and 4-year-olds, and full-day access, among other initiatives.
"“The research is crystal clear that children who attend high-quality preschool are better prepared when they enter the kindergarten door, laying a foundation for later success,” said Steven Barnett, NIEER’s senior co-director and founder, in a statement.
