The State of Preschool Yearbook 2022

The State of Preschool 2022 annual report covers the 2021-2022 school year and is NIEER’s 20^th report tracking preschool enrollment, funding, and policies state-by-state. This report focuses on the recovery since the 2020-2021 school year, where we are compared to before the pandemic, where we’ve come over the last two decades, and what needs to come next.

Across the 44 states, DC, and Guam that funded a preschool program in 2021-2022, 32% of 4-year-olds and 6% of 3-year-olds were enrolled, an increase if 13% from the prior year, but still 8% below the pre-pandemic high. This pattern was seen in nearly every state. States spent $9.51 billion on preschool and also used $393 million in COVID-19 relief funding, without which inflation-adjusted spending would have declined.

A big concern is the preschool workforce where we found unprecedented teacher shortages as well as waivers to education and specialized training requirements resulting in fewer qualified teachers in preschool classrooms. Yet few states provided incentives for teacher retention or recruitment.

Over the last 20 years, preschool enrollment has more than doubled and so has inflation-adjusted spending. Spending per child in 2021-2022 was $6,571, essentially the same as it was 20 years ago after adjusting for inflation. Most children continue to lack access to high quality preschool. Though seven states currently working towards universal preschool offer a glimmer of hope – California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, and New Mexico. Success in these states could dramatically alter the early childhood education (ECE) landscape nationally.

In the report, NIEER calls on states to take stock of their state’s ECE system and calls on the federal government to provide more support to states.

Yearbook Contents

• Full Report
• Executive Summary
• What Qualifies as a State Preschool Program?
• Roadmap to State Profile Pages
• Methodology
• 2022 Survey Data
• Non-Survey Data
• National Press Release / en español
• Pre-release Reporters Briefing (YouTube)

State Profiles

Click a state to view its profile.

State Profiles

Territory Profiles

American Samoa

Commonwealth of The Northern Mariana Islands

Guam

Palau

Puerto Rico

Virgin Islands

Survey & Non-Survey Data

• Appendix A: State Survey Data 2021-2022
• Appendix B: Head Start Data
• Appendix C: U.S. Census Population Data
• Appendix D: Pre-K Special Education Enrollment Data

Suggested Citation: Friedman-Krauss, A. H., Barnett, W. S., Hodges, K. S., Garver, K. A., Weisenfeld, G., Gardiner, B. A., Jost, T. M. (2023). The State of Preschool 2022: State Preschool Yearbook. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research.