Public School Prekindergarten Funding Sources

Public schools were asked to indicate whether or not they received funding from various sources for their prekindergarten classes³⁷ during the 2000- 2001 school year. Sources listed in the questionnaire included state or local education funds; Head Start; Title I, Part A;³⁸ Title I, Part B (Even Start);³⁹ federal or local programs for children with disabilities; child care funds through a state or local agency; and other sources. The survey data describe the percentage of public elementary schools that received funds from each source to support their prekindergarten classes. As shown in Table 17, public schools received funding for their prekindergarten classes from a variety of sources. State or local education funds were the most frequently identified source of prekindergarten funding (80 percent of schools), followed by funding from federal or local programs for children with disabilities (51 percent) and Title I, Part A (25 percent). Thirteen percent of the schools received Head Start funds, and 11 percent received child care funds through a state or local agency for their prekindergarten classes. Title I, Part B funds were received by 4 percent of schools with prekindergarten classes.

There were some differences by public school characteristics in the likelihood that schools received funding from these sources. For example:

• Fifty-six percent of rural/small town schools received funds from federal or local programs for children with disabilities, compared with 42 percent of city schools.
• More city schools and rural/small town schools received Title I, Part A funds than did urban fringe/large town schools (33 and 27 percent versus 16 percent, respectively). In addition, schools in the West were more likely to have received funding from this source than were schools in the Central region or in the Northeast (33 percent versus 20 and 18 percent, respectively).
• Poverty concentration was positively related to the likelihood that schools received Title I, Part A funds and the likelihood that they received child care funds through a state or local agency for prekindergarten. As poverty concentration increased, the likelihood that schools received Title I, Part A funds increased from 8 percent to 40 percent; the likelihood that they received child care funds increased from 7 percent to 15 percent.
• Eight percent of schools with the highest percent minority enrollment received Title I, Part B funds for prekindergarten classes, compared with less than 0.5 percent of schools with the lowest percent minority enrollment and 2 percent of schools with 6 to 20 percent minority enrollment. This relationship may be associated with the relationship between school poverty and Title I status (U.S. Department of Education 2002).

Some public schools were uncertain if they had received funding from particular sources.⁴⁰ The level of uncertainty ranged from 7 percent for receipt of state or local education funds and for Head Start funds to 15 percent for receipt of child care funds through a state or local agency and for receipt of Title I, Part B funds. Figure 6 shows the distribution of responses for each funding source.

³⁷ The questionnaire asked about funding for prekindergarten services (i.e., prekindergarten classes) as opposed to funding for support services such as transportation, meals, and extended day care.

³⁸ Title I is designed to support state and local school reform efforts tied to challenging state academic standards in order to reinforce and amplify efforts to improve teaching and learning for students farthest from meeting state standards. Individual schools with 50 percent or more of the students eligible to receive free or reducedprice lunch may use Title I funds, along with other federal, state, and local funds, to operate a "school-wide program" to upgrade the instructional program for the whole school. Schools with poverty rates below 50 percent, or those choosing not to operate a schoolwide program, offer a "targeted assistance program" in which the school identifies students who are failing, or most at risk of failing, to meet the state's challenging performance standards, then designs, in consultation with parents, staff, and district staff, an instructional program to meet the needs of those students.

³⁹ Currently Title I, Part B (Even Start) provides formula grants to states, discretionary statewide family literacy initiative grants, and discretionary grants to migratory workers, Indian tribes and tribal organizations, and a prison that houses women and children. Even Start's core services have four components, as specified in the legislation: adult education and adult literacy; parenting education; early childhood education (e.g., developmentally appropriate educational services for children designed to prepare them for success in regular school programs); and interactive parent and child literacy activities.

⁴⁰ Preliminary versions of the study questionnaire asked schools to report the amount of funding received from each source. Because respondents had difficulty providing information at that level of detail, the final version asked only if funding had been received and included a "don't know" response option.

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