The growth in state prekindergarten programs has occurred for various reasons, but three frequently cited reasons are (1) evidence of the importance of early childhood to later development, (2) the high rate of labor force participation by mothers of young children, and (3) increased concern over school readiness and subsequent achievement. Much has been discovered about children’s ability to learn more at an earlier age than previously believed. The early childhood years are commonly portrayed as formative. Between the first day of life and the first day of kindergarten, development proceeds at a pace exceeding that of any subsequent stage of life. Children from birth to age five engage in making sense of the world on many levels: language, human interactions, counting and quantification, spatial reasoning, physical causality, problem solving, and categorization. Since the 1960s, the percentage of women in the labor force has increased dramatically. In 1960, about 36 percent of women participated in the labor force, and by 2000 this figure had increased to 58 percent. Moreover, in 2003, about 69 percent of women with children aged three to five (but none younger) were in the labor force. This high rate of participation of women in the labor force has resulted in more children enrolled in preschool programs of varying quality and pressure being placed on schools to provide before- and after-school programs. To improve educational achievement for all children and reduce failure in lower grades, many states and school districts are placing a greater emphasis on the school readiness of younger children. For nearly a quarter century, many states have developed or expanded their investment in prekindergarten programs to increase the likelihood of children’s success in school. Prior to 1970 only 7 states funded preschool programs, and by 1988, 28 states had programs and total spending was $190 million; such programs generally targeted economically and educationally disadvantaged children. While most state-sponsored prekindergarten programs continue to serve such children, a few states are in the process of expanding their programs to include all four-year-olds, regardless of family income. According to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), 40 states (and Washington, D.C.) had some form of state-sponsored prekindergarten program in the 2001-02 school year and enrolled over 700,000 children, mostly four-year-olds. While states spent more than $2.4 billion for prekindergarten during the 2001-02 school year, 10 states accounted for over 80 percent of this amount. Generally, prekindergarten programs aimed to serve four-year-olds, but according to NIEER estimates, most states served less than one-fifth of all their four-year-olds (see fig. 1). NIEER estimated that about 80 percent of children served by state prekindergarten programs were four-year-olds. During the 2001-02 school year, only two states (Georgia and Oklahoma) enrolled more than 50 percent of their four-year-olds in a state-sponsored prekindergarten program. Ten states (Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming) had not initiated prekindergarten programs. The NIEER study also reported on characteristics describing the quality of states’ prekindergarten programs. Table 1 provides information on NIEER’s findings related to certain program characteristics, benchmarks, and the number of state programs meeting the benchmarks that NIEER associated with quality prekindergarten programs. Among the 10 largest state prekindergarten programs, most met the benchmarks for class size, family support services, staff-child ratio, and teacher qualifications, and they were equally divided with respect to comprehensive curriculum standards. State-sponsored prekindergarten programs are expanding alongside existing programs for young children, including Head Start, Title I, and private child care programs. Head Start is a targeted program that mostly serves children from low-income families. Head Start, administered at the federal level by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is implemented in local communities through grantees. These grantees include community action agencies, school systems, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, other government agencies, and tribal governments or associations. The Department of Health and Human Services reported that Head Start served just over 900,000 children nationwide during the 2003 fiscal year, and most were aged three and four; Head Start was funded at about $6.7 billion, or about $7,366 per child. In addition to administering Head Start, the federal government also provides some limited support for early education programs through Title I. Administered by the Department of Education (Education), Title I is the single largest federal investment for elementary and secondary education. Its primary purpose is to help local education agencies and schools improve the teaching and learning of children who are failing, or are most at risk of failing, to meet challenging academic standards. In support of that goal, Education reported that Title I was funded at about $11.7 billion during the 2003 fiscal year. Nearly 15 million students were supported by Title I funds, and of these, about 2 percent (an estimated 313,000) were enrolled in prekindergarten programs during the 1999-2000 school year. The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is the principal federal program that supports child care for low-income families. CCDF is administered by HHS, and each state receives an annual allocation that is used to subsidize the child care expenses of low-income families with children generally under age 13. CCDF subsidies can be used to obtain child care from various types of providers, including child care centers and family homes. In fiscal year 2002, CCDF was appropriated nearly $5 billion, and HHS reported that about 1.8 million children received subsidies in an average month. As a condition of receiving CCDF funds, states must conduct biennial surveys of child care providers, which are considered by states when establishing reimbursement rates for providers serving subsidized children. In addition to information regarding the fees charged by providers for child care services, such surveys may provide states with information about the type of child care they provide, qualifications of the staff, the age groups of the children they serve, and where they are located. The four states we visited varied in the design features and funding of their prekindergarten programs. Programs shared similar features such as voluntary enrollment of children at no direct cost to their parents, but differed in others. In addition, all five state programs permitted collaboration with community-based providers. States varied in features such as the teacher requirements for their prekindergarten programs. States and school districts also differed in the degree and type of collaborations they established with community-based agencies. Finally, while states relied primarily on state resources, they reported some differences in funding mechanisms and per child funding levels. In the four states visited—Georgia, New Jersey, New York, and Oklahoma—we found some similarities in prekindergarten programs. Over the last few years, all four states had expanded their state-sponsored prekindergarten programs and, as reported by NIEER in February 2004, were among only nine states and Washington, D.C., that provided prekindergarten services to more than 20 percent of their four-year-olds. All four states’ prekindergarten programs were provided at no direct cost to parents—regardless of family income—and were offered on a voluntary basis; children’s enrollment was not mandatory. In addition, each program emphasized preparation for school and incorporated the delivery of prekindergarten services by community-based organizations as well as schools. None of the states required that all providers offer transportation services, although some providers did, and one state offered reimbursement for some children when this occurred. Figure 2 shows the estimated number of age-eligible children in the state, and the number of age-eligible children participating in prekindergarten and Head Start programs in the four states we visited. The states we visited differed in the extent of geographic coverage and participation in prekindergarten programs. Three of the four states— Georgia, New York, and Oklahoma—aimed to provide prekindergarten programs to all four-year-olds in the state whose parents wanted them to attend. While none of these states provided prekindergarten to all four- year-olds, Oklahoma and Georgia had the most widespread programs. During the 2003-04 school year, Oklahoma provided prekindergarten in 509 of its 541 school districts to about 63 percent of its four-year-olds; Georgia provided prekindergarten in all of its 181 school districts and to about 55 percent of its four-year-olds. New York initially implemented much of its universal prekindergarten program in school districts located in the five largest cities in the state—Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers. During the 2003-04 school year, about 80 percent of the participating children attended prekindergarten in one of these five cities. Overall, New York’s prekindergarten program was offered in 190 of its 680 school districts. In New Jersey’s Abbott program, the state was court ordered to provide prekindergarten to all three- and four-year-olds who resided in the state’s 30 highest-poverty school districts. In addition, 102 non-Abbott early childhood program aid (ECPA) school districts in high-poverty areas received funds for prekindergarten programs. Combined, these two programs provided prekindergarten in 132 of 539 (24 percent) school districts in New Jersey. Table 2 provides information on the extent of geographic coverage and percentage of age-eligible children participating in prekindergarten programs in the four states we visited. The state-sponsored prekindergarten programs also differed in some of their key design features.