School Readiness and Transitions

9/24/2018

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Early Care and Education Staff

Research has demonstrated that low-income students are nearly 20 months behind their high-income peers when entering kindergarten at age five. Gaps are also present for African-American and Latino children that range from six-11 months behind in reading and 11-13 months behind in math, respectively.

These gaps can be considered gaps in opportunity and often persist throughout their educational careers, creating the achievement gap. Increasing access to high-quality preschool has been shown to dramatically reverse these trends, and in some cases, completely close this gap at kindergarten entry. While preschool access is voluntary, it is linked to several enhanced educational outcomes.

This page is dedicated to understanding the importance of school readiness as it affects long-term achievement by highlighting preschool access, funding, length-of-day, transitions to kindergarten and issues related to social-emotional development leading to suspension and expulsion from prekindergarten programs in an effort to help policymakers understand the breadth and depth of this issue and its implications. For additional information, visit the Improving K-3 Quality webpage.

Prekindergarten Access:
Access to high-quality prekindergarten can reduce opportunity gaps and provide an equitable foundation for all students to begin their educational careers, setting them up on positive trajectories for success. This map demonstrates the percent of 4-year-olds served by either state-funded prekindergarten, Head Start, or Special Education prekindergarten, providing a snapshot of prekindergarten services provided.

	10-25% (20 states)
	26-50% (17 states)
	51-75% (10 states)
	76-100% (4 states)

Prekindergarten Funding Per Child: While increased funding is not causally related with improved achievement in prekindergarten, it generally allows programs to serve more children and helps to improve quality. This map demonstrates the variability in funding for state prekindergarten programs, ranging from $1,500 per child to over $8,000, with the national average at $4,521.

	No program (7)
	$1,500-4,999 (25 states)
	$5,000-7,999 (13 states)
	$8,000 (+5)

Length of prekindergarten Day: Research has demonstrated that the length of the prekindergarten day is positively correlated to improved student outcomes. This map demonstrates the variability in states' requirements in duration, generally ranging from 1 hour to over 6 hours per day. This is also a concern of alignment when identifying the length of day in kindergarten to provide consistency.

	0-3 hours
	3-5.9 hours
	6+ hours
Determined Locally *Multiple Programs

Transitions: Aligning a state prekindergarten educational standards with the K-12 system provides a seamless transition from an academic standpoint that ensures curricula, assessments and expectations are appropriate and effective.

YES

NO *State has multiple programs aligned **LA's NSECD program is aligned, 8(g) and LA04 are not aligned

Discipline: Research indicates that suspension and expulsion of young children from early childhood programs are associated with poor educational and life outcomes yet studies show that young children are expelled or suspended at rates three times that of their K-12 counterparts. States and jurisdictions are addressing the issue through policies that limit or prohibit suspensions and expulsions as well as provide necessary supports to promote positive social-emotional development of young children.

	Enacted
	Introduced/Failed
	Other state and local jurisdiction activity

2018 Legislative Examples
STATE	STATUTE	STATUS	SUMMARY
Minnesota	S 1404	Failed	Adds school readiness development to the requirements for programs receiving state child care funds.
Ohio	S 246	Pending	Restricts the use of suspension and expulsion for pre-kindergarten through third grade students and promotes the use of SEL curricula.
South Carolina	H 3591	Enacted	Provides benchmarks for the first steps school readiness assessment and imposes certain requirements for reporting and use of the results of the assessment.
Virginia	S 170	Enacted	Prohibits students in preschool through third grade from being suspended or expelled except for federal offenses.
Washington	S 5155	Failed	Concerns suspension and expulsion of kindergarten and early elementary school students.

Additional Resources

NCSL Resources

Other Resources

2017 State of Preschool Yearbook, National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)
State Pre-K Funding for 2016-17 Fiscal Year: Trends and Opportunities, Education Commission of the States (ECS)
Facts about Fadeout: The Research Base on Long-Term Impacts of High Quality Pre-K, Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO)

School Readiness and Transitions

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