2023 Data Capacity of State-funded Pre-K Programs Across the United States

Research BriefEarly ChildhoodOct 26 2023

From December 2022 to March 2023, the Early Childhood Data Collaborative (ECDC) conducted the nationwide State-funded Pre-K Data Survey to better understand states’ capacity to access, use, and link data. The survey includes data on 43 states, including data from direct survey respondents in 35 states and secondary data collected from eight states. A more in-depth look at the results of the survey can be found in the full report: The Data Capacity of State-funded Pre-K Programs Across the United States. Survey results were used to contribute information about the pre-K data landscape and inform the creation of the System Transformation for Equitable Preschools (STEP Forward with Data) Framework.

Key Findings

  • Almost all states had access to child- and program-level data.
  • About three quarters of states had access to workforce-level data.
  • Most states could report on characteristics of their pre-K systems.
  • Less than half of states reported capacity to disaggregate data by income, Tribal affiliation, and country of birth.
  • Access to data about community demographics and family engagement is limited.
  • Most survey respondents reported that pre-K data were siloed across database systems.
  • More than two thirds of states could link pre-K and K-12 data.

The following maps and profiles provide an overview of states’ capacities to access data on children, programs, and workforce members and to coordinate and link data about preschool programs.

For details on states’ pre-K data, please click on individual states for their full profiles. States without a profile did not complete the survey. Administrative data were used to generate data for the following states: Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas.

Map 1: Accessibility Status of State
Pre-K Child, Program, and Workforce Data


Map 2: Data Linkage Status of State
Pre-K Data


About the Project

If you have questions about the survey or would like to learn more about how the STEP Forward with Data Framework can help support your preschool data efforts, please email the project team at prekdata@childtrends.org. For project updates and resources, please sign up to receive the ECDC Newsletter.

This research was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Suggested citation: Amadon, S., Tang, J., Richards, K., Ulmen, K., Guerra, G., Ball, J., Maxfield, E., King, C., & Richards, D. (2023). 2023 data capacity of state-funded pre-K programs across the United States. Child Trends. https://doi.org/10.56417/4813w330c

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