Maine

Overview

During the 2021-2022 school year, Maine preschool enrolled 5,591 children, an increase of 1,012 from the prior year, as the program began to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. State spending totaled $22,675,135 down $5,188,785 (19%), adjusted for inflation since last year. State spending per child equaled $4,056 in 2021-2022, down $2,030 from 2020-2021, adjusted for inflation. Maine met 9 of 10 quality standards benchmarks.

What's New

In 2021, Maine’s Department of Education received funding through a Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan approved by the Governor’s office to support expansion of public Pre-K. School administrative units (SAUs) applied for funding to support the addition of available seats in Pre-K and/or to support their programs moving from part day/part week to full day/full week programming. In the 2022- 2023 school year, 10 SAUs were awarded these grants and are currently implementing their plans. This funding also added two staff positions to the Department of Education’s Early Learning Team to support implementation of high-quality Pre-K expansion projects and grant contracts. 

Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, in partnership with Maine’s Department of Education, received an $8 million Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B–5) renewal grant in December 2022 to build needed infrastructure and capacity to create a more coordinated, efficient, and high-quality mixed delivery system to ensure children enter Kindergarten prepared to succeed in the early elementary years. Intended outcomes of the grant efforts related to expansion of public preschool include engaging a diverse group of stakeholders to advise the development of policy and programming for more fully utilizing Maine’s mixed-delivery system to reach the goal of universal public pre-K. Additionally, PDG B–5 funding will support the addition of a Pre-K Partnership Specialist position to help cultivate partnerships between school systems and community providers to provide public pre-K. Attention will also be paid to professional learning related to high-quality programming and transitions between pre-K and the early elementary years.

Background

Maine established its Two-Year Kindergarten initiative in 1983 by allocating resources to local districts through the school funding formula. Since 2007, state-funded programs for 4-year-olds have been separately defined as the Public Preschool Program (PPP), still funded through Maine’s school funding formula, with a distribution of funds to 152 of the 197 (77%) school administrative units (SAUs) that operate kindergarten. 

PPP classrooms function as either stand-alone programs located in public schools or SAUs partner with community-based child care programs or Head Start agencies. Schools are required to provide a local match to draw down a per-pupil state subsidy. The required local match is part of the school funding formula based on property wealth. 

Maine’s Public Preschool Program Standards, promulgated as a regulation in December 2014, outlined programmatic changes including reduced child-staff ratio and group size, the use of evidence-based curricula, and child screening and assessments.

Maine Public Preschool Program

Access

Some Head Start children may also be counted in state pre-K. Estimates children in special education not also enrolled in state pre-K or Head Start.
Total state pre-K enrollment	5,591
School districts that offer state program	77% (eligible school administrative units)
Income requirement	No income requirement
Minimum hours of operation	10 hours/week
Operating schedule	School or academic year
Special education enrollment, ages 3 and 4	2,083
Federally funded Head Start enrollment, ages 3 and 4	2,172
State-funded Head Start enrollment, ages 3 and 4	0

Resources

Pre-K programs may receive additional funds from federal or local sources that are not included in this figure. K–12 expenditures include capital spending as well as current operating expenditures. Head Start per-child spending includes funding only for 3- and 4-year-olds.