Minnesota

Overview

During the 2023-2024 school year, Minnesota preschool enrolled 7,868 children, an increase of 69 children from the prior year. State spending totaled $54,036,950 up $7,992,761 (17%), adjusted for inflation, since last year. State spending per child equaled $6,868 in 2023- 2024, up $964 from 2022-2023, adjusted for inflation. Minnesota met an average of 5.4 of 10 quality standards benchmarks.

What's New

The Minnesota legislature appropriated an additional $10 million for a total of $35.1 million for Head Start and Early Head Start beginning in 2023-2024. The legislature made the current Voluntary Preschool (VPK)/School Readiness Plus (SRP) funding for 7,160 seats permanent and added an additional 5,200 seats by FY 2026 bringing the total to 12,360 seats. Administration of early childhood programs transitioned to a new state agency, The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families as of July 1, 2024. Additional legislative changes for VPK/SRP include new teacher licensure requirements by 2028 and a focus on Grow Your Own programs to create on the job professional development and institute of higher education opportunities. The SRP program will sunset at the end of FY25 with these seats being renewed under a single public Voluntary Prekindergarten Program (VPK). This will include new eligibility requirements for students enrolled in VPK, similar to other state funding provided for early learning including Head Start.

In September 2024, Minnesota was one of 10 states and D.C. awarded a 3-year federal renewal Preschool Development Grant B-5 (PDG B-5) totaling $8 million annually. The PDG B-5 renewal grant is intended to carry out the strategic plans developed with the 2023 planning grants including: developing a mixed delivery coaching network framework, evaluating competencies for the wage scale, increasing EC mental health consultation workforce, as well as expanding and modernizing data collection systems.

Background

Minnesota financially supplements federally designated Head Start and Early Head Start programs to increase access to early childhood education for children birth to age five. All state-supported Head Start programs are required to follow the Early Childhood Indicators of Progress (ECIPs), Minnesota’s early learning standards birth to kindergarten entrance as well as the federal Head Start Performance Standards. Total state funding for Head Start was $35.1 million and programs decide at the local level if funds are used for Head Start or Early Head Start. Recently there has been a shift towards more funding being used for Early Head Start.

A second state-funded preschool program, Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK), was established in 2016-2017 and funded through general education funds as a new grade level with children funded at 0.6 ADM. In 2017-2018, the state legislature created the School Readiness Plus (SRP) program, a variation of VPK. Districts could apply to be a VPK or SRP district; most chose to offer VPK.

Across VPK and SRP, more than 7,000 seats were allocated to 136 school districts (including charter schools) through an application and ranking process based on free and reduced-price lunch percentages of each elementary school in the state. The program operates a minimum of 350 hours per year and serves children who are 4 years old by September 1.

Voluntary Prekindergarten standards build on existing School Readiness standards by requiring the use of a defined list of curriculum and assessment tools aligned with the early learning standards and Kindergarten Entrance Assessment, paying knowledgeable teaching staff wages comparable to local K–12 teachers, observing teacher-child interactions to guide professional development using an approved instrument, involving parents in transition planning, and measuring the impact of the program through either a self- or state-designed tool.

Minnesota invests state-funding in several early childhood initiatives for children ages 3- and 4-years-old as of September 1 that are not included in this report: Early Learning Scholarship funding provides $65.6 million in scholarships to eligible families to offset the cost of enrollment in early childhood programs earning a Three- or Four-Star Parent Aware Rating. Additionally, the state invests $33 million in district-controlled School Readiness programs with widespread access and instructional standards similar to VPK/SRP for preschool aged children. The state also spends $37 million on district-based Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) programs providing family education and home visits with a focus on health and developmental screening, parent engagement, and community services. Additionally, Minnesota has invested in ECFE by hiring and supporting two full time positions that provide program guidance and technical assistance for ECFE programs across the state.