The 2012 State Preschool Yearbook is the newest edition of our annual report profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. This latest Yearbook presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2011-2012 school year as well as documenting a decade of progress since the first Yearbook collected data on the 2001-2002 school year. Tracking trends long term is key to understanding the progress of early childhood education across the country and improving educational opportunities for America’s children.
Twenty-eight percent of America’s 4-year-olds were enrolled in a state-funded preschool program in the 2011-2012 school year, the same percentage as the year before. This stagnation in enrollment growth was compounded by an unprecedented funding drop of $500 million nationwide. The findings in this Yearbook raise serious concerns on the quality and availability of pre-K education for most of American young learners.


The 2012 Yearbook is organized into three major sections. The first section offers a summary of the data and describes national trends for enrollment in, quality of, and spending on state-funded preschool. The second section presents detailed profiles outlining each state’s policies with respect to preschool access, quality standards, and resources for the 2011-2012 program year. In addition to providing basic program descriptions, these state profiles describe unique features of a state’s program and recent changes that can be expected to alter the future Yearbook information on a program. Profile pages are also included for states without state-funded grants programs. A description of our methodology follows the state profiles, and the last section of the report contains appendices. The appendices include tables that provide the complete 2011-2012 survey data obtained from every state, as well as Head Start, child care, U.S. Census, and special education data.
Programs that serve young children operate under a variety of names and auspices, including the federal Head Start program as well as privately and publicly funded child care. State prekindergarten programs play an increasingly important role as part of this larger array of programs. The 2012 Yearbook seeks to improve the public’s knowledge and understanding of state efforts to expand the availability of high-quality education to young children in the 21st century. The National Institute for Early Education Research has developed the State Preschool Yearbook series to provide information on the availability and quality of services offered through these programs to children at ages 3 and 4 and serve as a resource to policymakers and educators seeking to start all young learners on the right foot.
Yearbook Contents
The links below open PDF documents. For assistance with PDF, see the special instructions for viewing the Yearbook PDF.
- Full Report
- Executive Summary
- What Qualifies as a State Preschool Program?
- Roadmap to State Profile Pages
State Profiles
Click a state or region below to view its profile as a PDF document.
Alabama
Profile Press ReleaseAlaska
Profile Press ReleaseArizona
Press ReleaseArkansas
Profile Press ReleaseCalifornia
Profile Press ReleaseColorado
Profile Press ReleaseConnecticut
Profile Press ReleaseDelaware
Profile Press ReleaseDistrict of Columbia
Profile Press ReleaseFlorida
Profile Press ReleaseGeorgia
Profile Press ReleaseHawaii
Profile Press ReleaseIdaho
Profile Press ReleaseIllinois
Profile Press ReleaseIndiana
Profile Press ReleaseIowa
Profile Press ReleaseKansas
Profile Press ReleaseKentucky
Profile Press ReleaseLouisiana
Profile Press ReleaseMaine
Profile Press ReleaseMaryland
Profile Press ReleaseMassachusetts
Profile Press ReleaseMichigan
Profile Press ReleaseMinnesota
Profile Press ReleaseMississippi
Profile Press ReleaseMissouri
Profile Press ReleaseMontana
Profile Press ReleaseNebraska
Profile Press ReleaseNevada
Profile Press ReleaseNew Hampshire
Profile Press ReleaseNew Jersey
Profile Press ReleaseNew Mexico
Profile Press ReleaseNew York
Profile Press ReleaseNorth Carolina
Profile Press ReleaseNorth Dakota
Profile Press ReleaseOhio
Profile Press ReleaseOklahoma
Profile Press ReleaseOregon
Profile Press ReleasePennsylvania
Profile Press ReleaseRhode Island
Profile Press ReleaseSouth Carolina
Profile Press ReleaseSouth Dakota
Profile Press ReleaseTennessee
Profile Press ReleaseTexas
Profile Press ReleaseUtah
Profile Press ReleaseVermont
Profile Press ReleaseVirginia
Profile Press ReleaseWashington
Profile Press ReleaseWest Virginia
Profile Press ReleaseWisconsin
Profile Press ReleaseWyoming
Profile Press ReleaseAppendices
- Appendix A: State Survey Data 2011-2012
- Appendix B: Head Start Data
- Appendix C: Child Care Data
- Appendix D: U.S. Census Population Estimates
- Appendix E: Pre-K Special Education Enrollment
Suggested citation: Barnett, W.S., Carolan, M.E., Fitzgerald, J., & Squires, J.H. (2012). The state of preschool 2012: State preschool yearbook. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research.