Vermont

Overview

During the 2023-2024 school year, Vermont preschool enrolled 8,321 children, a decrease of 13 from the prior year. State spending totaled $71,825,895, up $3,464,516 (5%), adjusted for inflation, since last year. State spending per child equaled $8,632 in 2023-2024, up $429 from 2022-2023, adjusted for inflation. Vermont met 7 of 10 quality standards benchmarks.

What's New

Act 76 was passed in June 2023 which convened a committee to study policy changes that may have impacts for both early childhood and school-age settings. One of the goals of Act 76 includes increasing equitable access and enhancing the quality of Universal Prekindergarten for 4-year-olds. The Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) submitted a report to the legislature in December 2024.

In 2024, the Vermont Legislature approved a five-year waiver (expires 2029) of all fees for the AOE Peer Review alternate route to educator license. Act 76 provided private child care staff funding in the form of scholarships and loan forgiveness for professional advancement including educator licensure.

Background

In 1987, Vermont created the Vermont Early Education Initiative (EEI), an annual competitive grant program to finance early education opportunities for at-risk 3- to 5-year-olds. In 2007, legislation expanded publicly funded prekindergarten education for 4-year-old children in public schools and private programs and provided funding through the state’s Education Fund, similar to K–12, pro-rated based on a model of 10 hours per week. 

Starting in 2014, Act 166, required all public school districts to offer Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) for every 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old child not enrolled in kindergarten, for a minimum of 10 hours per week for 35 weeks annually. UPK was fully implemented beginning in the 2016-2017 school year, with pre-K provided through school district operated programs and in contractual partnerships with state approved public and private programs.

Act 166 also requires an annual legislative evaluation of the state’s pre-K efforts that includes the number of children and programs participating in UPK, child progress monitoring data, and quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) level information. All Vermont state pre-K programs are required to attain at least four of five stars in Vermont’s QRIS, Step Ahead Recognition Systems (STARS), or hold NAEYC accreditation. STARS requires structured observations of classroom quality using the CLASS or TPOT. Public schools are required to have a Vermont licensed educator in each classroom and nonpublic schools are required to have licensed educator onsite during Universal Prekindergarten hours.

The AOE and Agency of Human Services (AHS) completed the process of designing a joint agency Pre-K Monitoring System that builds upon existing monitoring systems and procedures to assess the quality of the state’s approved private and public UPK programs.

Vermont Universal Prekindergarten Education (Act 166)

Access

Total state pre-K enrollment	8,321
School districts that offer state program	100%
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	1,264
Federally funded Head Start enrollment, ages 3 and 4	639
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. †Head Start per-child spending includes funding only for 3- and 4-year-olds. ‡K–12 expenditures include capital spending as well as current operating expenditures.