Update

State Preschool in a Mixed Delivery System: Lessons From Five States

Report originally published March 15, 2023

After initial publication, the following changes were made to this report and brief. All online versions of the report and brief were changed. This update was published March 24, 2023.

We had previously indicated that in West Virginia at least 50% of children must be served in settings outside of local education agencies (LEAs). The report was revised to clarify that 50% of West Virginia’s Universal Pre-K program (WV Pre-K) providers must be in collaborative settings, meaning that an LEA has a contractual agreement in place with a community provider, such as Head Start or child care providers. Similarly, we indicated that 82% of children are served in non-LEAs; the report was amended to clarify that 82% of children are served in collaborative settings. Specific changes are as follows:

p. vi of the report (p. 3 in the brief): The bullet about West Virginia’s Pre-K program was updated to indicate that at least 50% of Pre-K classrooms must be provided by LEAs that offer services in collaboration with non-LEAs, and 82% of them do.
p. vi of the report (p. 4 of the brief): The bullet that begins “Should legislation require” was updated to indicate that at least 50% of state preschool classrooms be provided through contractual agreements with community partners, including but not limited to Head Start and child care providers.
Table 1 in the report (and Table 1 in the brief): Table data were updated to show that West Virginia preschools set in LEAs, private settings, and Head Start together total 100%. Note (a) was changed to read “82% of WV Pre-K classrooms are ‘collaborative,’ meaning that they are operated by LEAs in collaboration with community partners, including but not limited to Head Start and child care providers.”
p. 6 of the report: In the first and third paragraphs under “West Virginia Universal Pre-K,” wording was updated to include “collaboration” and “collaborative.”
p. 11 of the report: The first paragraph was updated to indicate that West Virginia requires that at least 50% of state preschool classrooms are provided through contractual agreements between LEAs and non-LEAs.
p. 56 of the report under “Program Overview” was updated to read “classrooms must be ‘collaborative,’ meaning that there is a contractual agreement in place between LEAs and community programs, including but not limited to Head Start and child care providers.”
Table 15 in the report: The column titled “Percent of Preschoolers Served in LEAs” was deleted, and the last column was retitled “Percent of Preschoolers Served in Collaborative Classrooms.”
p. 58 in the report under “Recruitment of mixed delivery providers” was updated to read “to ensure that at least 50% of classrooms operate as a collaboration between LEA and non-LEA providers.”
p. 61 of the report: The end of the second paragraph under “Professional development” was reworded to state that WV Pre-K classrooms are provided by LEAs in collaboration with Head Start.