State of Preschool
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Georgia Becomes First Universal Pre-K State to Meet 10-of-10 Preschool Quality Benchmarks
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The 23rd State of Preschool finds that states once again reached record highs in preschool spending and enrollment during the 2024-2025 school year but the pace of growth slowed substantially. Nearly 1.8 million children attended state-funded preschool and states invested nearly $14.4 billion, or an average of $8,124 per child enrolled. Georgia’s Pre-K Programs became the first universal preschool program to reach more than half of four-year-olds while meeting all 10 of NIEER’s quality standards benchmarks. Georgia shows that it is possible to emphasize both access and quality. Alabama met all 10 benchmarks for the 20th consecutive year.
Acknowledgments
The opinions expressed in this report are solely those of the authors. We wish to thank the Heising-Simons Foundation for supporting data collection and the development, production, and dissemination of this publication. Established in 2007 by husband and wife Mark Heising and Elizabeth (Liz) Simons, The Heising-Simons Foundation is dedicated to advancing sustainable solutions in the environment, supporting groundbreaking research in science, and enhancing the education of the nation’s youngest learners. In addition, we wish to thank the Gates Foundation for their support of the State of Preschool report. Finally, the authors would like to extend our thanks to Sandy Ogilvie for her assistance on this report.
This publication is a product of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), a unit of the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. NIEER supports early childhood education policy by providing objective, nonpartisan information based on research.
Suggested Citation
Friedman-Krauss, A. H., Barnett, W. S., Hodges, K. S., Garver, K. A., Weisenfeld, G., Duer, J., & Siegel, J. (2026). The State of Preschool 2025: State Preschool Yearbook. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research.
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