State(s) of Head Start and Early Head Start: Looking at Equity

The States(s) of Head Start and Early Head Start: Looking at Equity is NIEER’s second state-by-state report on Head Start and Early Head Start. The report focuses on the 2020-2021 program year and also includes data beginning with the 2011-2012 program year, overlapping with NIEER’s first State(s) of Head Start report that went up to 2014-2015. This new report finds many areas of inequitable access to Head Start but also areas where Head Start is excelling for all children and families. Head Start access, funding, quality, and program components vary across states as well as within states by child race and ethnicity.

Prior to the pandemic, Head Start enrolled just 40% of children in poverty, showing no progress over the last decade despite declines in child poverty, in part due to more children receiving full day services, higher funding per child, and shift of funding to Early Head Start. Early Head Start enrolled 9% of income-eligible infants in toddlers prior to the pandemic, an increase from 4% a decade ago.

Similar to other early childhood education programs, the pandemic hit Head Start and Early Head Start hard with 279,000 fewer children enrolling in 2020-2021. Enrollment has started to rebound but has not reached pre-pandemic levels.

In the report, NIEER highlights additional inequities across states as well as between children of different races and ethnicities within states. We also lay out our recommendations to increase federal funding for Head Start by $10 billion over four years to equalize access to quality Head Start for all children in all states.

Table of Contents

• Full Report
• Executive Summary
• Key Themes
  • Covid-19 Pandemic
  • Poverty
  • Race & Ethnicity
  • State Variation
• Guide to the State Profiles
• Glossary
• Endnotes
• National Profile
• State Profiles
• American Indian & Alaska Native Head Start
• Migrant & Seasonal Head Start
• Methodology
• Appendix Tables 
• National Press Release / En Español
• Press Briefing (YouTube)

State Profiles

Click a state to view its profile.

State Profiles

American Samoa

Commonwealth of The Northern Mariana Islands

Guam

Palau

Puerto Rico

Virgin Islands

Suggested Citation: Friedman-Krauss, A. H., Barnett, W. S., & Duer, J. K. (2022). The State(s) of Head Start and Early Head Start: Looking at Equity. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research.