With the increased focus in recent years on Pre-Kindergarten
learning, you may be asking where you can find funding for early
childhood education. Your school may be looking to establish or expand a
pre-school program, or you may need funds for an independent pre-school
program. Public funding for Pre-Kindergarten education mainly comes
from three sources: state funding, federal Special Education (IDEA)
funds for Pre-K, and federal Head Start funding.
Federal Funding
One way in which the federal DOE has shown its commitment to early
learning is by increasing the funding to both IDEA for Pre-K and federal
Head Start over the last two years. In addition, there are other
federal funding sources for Pre-K: social services programs, like the
federal Child Care and Development fund, and federal Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families. And there are provisions in Title I that
allow schools to use some Title I funds for Pre-Kindergarten programs,
such as the stipulation allowing school wide Title I programs to
“establish or enhance prekindergarten programs for children below the
age of 6.” According to the federal non-regulatory guidance,
Serving Preschool Children Through Title I, “The use of Title I funds for a preschool program is a local decision.”
Some new federal sources of Pre-K funding have also been created:
Promise Neighborhoods (which has an early learning component) and the
Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grants are likely to continue
in some form as signature programs of the Obama administration. During
the next four years, the federal DOE will focus more intently on the
full Pre-K – Grade 3 continuum, especially working with Congress to
embed Pre-K-3 strategies in a new ESEA.
But some Pre-K programs have also been cut from the federal budget,
such as Even Start and Early Reading First. The purpose of the latter –
“to enhance the early language, literacy, and pre-reading development of
preschool age children” – has been absorbed into the newer Striving
Readings Comprehensive Literacy grant, which provides a continuum of
reading from birth through twelfth grade, though the future of SRCL is
somewhat in question.
State Funding
In 2011, 39 states provided Pre-K funding (the other 11 states were:
Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire,
North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming). In fact, more children
are enrolled in state funded Pre-Kindergarten programs than in any other
publicly funding Pre-K program, though the per-student amount varies
dramatically in states from $2,000 to $11,000. State Pre-K funding goes
to both community based organizations and school districts.
Want to Research Further?
- State Pre-K Funding: http://nieer.org/yearbook.
- Federal, State, and Private Pre-K Funding: http://febp.newamerica.net/background-analysis/pre-k-funding.
- Special Education/Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
- Title I
- Title I Home Page: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html.
- Title I State and District Award Amounts: http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/titlei/fy11/index.html.
- Non-Regulatory Guidance, “Serving Preschool Children Through Title I”: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/preschoolguidance2012.pdf.
- Title I Law: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg2.html#sec1112,
in particular, Sections 1112(b)(1)(E)(i), 1112(b)(1)(K),
1114(b)(1)(B)(iii)(I)(bb), 1114(b)(1)(G), 1114 (c), 1115(b)(1)(B),
1115(b)(2)(B), and 1115(c)(1)(D).
- Head Start
Though Pre-Kindergarten education has in the past sometimes
languished as the stepchild of K-12 education, its importance is now
being realized, resulting in resources increasing for early learning and
programs growing.
February 5, 2013 by
Joseph Noble, Ph.D
