This story has been updated.
Texas ranks 11th in the country for access to early childhood education for 4-year-olds and ranks 15th for 3-year-olds.
This is despite ranking 32nd for spending per pre-K student and 35th for overall pre-K resources, according to a 2024 report by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) released Tuesday.
The report, which evaluates early childhood education in each state, said a total of 248,371 children were enrolled in preschool in Texas for the 2023-24 school year, but U.S. Census data estimates there are slightly fewer than two million children under the age of 5 in the state.
Across Texas, 11% of 3-year-olds and 52% of 4-year-olds enrolled in some form of early childhood education, putting the state in the top 20 by both measures. States like West Virginia, New York, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma and Colorado beat Texas in accessibility.
Texas only requires public school districts and charter school networks to provide pre-K programs for kids who are 4, but the same programs are not required for children 3 and under.
Allison Friedman-Krauss, a researcher and associate professor at NIEER, said states often prioritize preschool programs for 4-year-olds instead of 3-year-olds because it costs less, and there’s only a handful of states that offer universal preschool for both ages.
“Attending a quality program for two years rather than one is associated with larger impacts and a larger longterm impact on children,” Friedman-Krauss said. “But it does cost a lot more for states to serve children for two years in preschool rather than only one year.”
NIEER’s analysis also notes that Texas spends $4,682 per child enrolled in a preschool program, including federal funds. However, the cost of “high-quality” preschool in Texas is estimated to cost $13,780 a year, the report said.
Last year’s spending per pupil was a slight increase from the previous school year, but a significant decrease from 2002, when the state was paying $5,696 per child.
Even though Texas ranks low for per-child spending on preschool programs, Friedman-Krauss said 4-year-olds especially have plenty of access to early childhood education in the state — 91% of school districts in the state offer preschool.
Additionally, large cities in Texas usually have pre-K programs with more funding and higher standards.
San Antonio for example, has Pre-K 4 SA, a city funded program offering low-cost preschool for children ages 3 and 4.
But having these quality city-funded programs raises questions about equity, Friedman-Krauss said.
Early education is the formal and informal learning processes undergone by children from birth to second grade, including preschool and general child care.
Families often rely on affordable preschool programs for child care, and pre-K schools often provide child care services.
Despite the city’s investment in early childhood education, child care providers in San Antonio were licensed for 30% more slots than were actually available last year, according to a study commissioned by the city and conducted by Texas A&M University-San Antonio.
That means there are 20,000 fewer child care slots in San Antonio than would be suggested by the total licensing number, and only 66% of families with children under the age of 5 have access to child care in Bexar County.
On any given day, there are only 1,000 available spots for infants and toddlers to receive child care in San Antonio, Pre-K 4 SA CEO Sarah Baray told the Report during an April tour of a new early childhood education center set to open on the South Side this year.
“It’s an issue for the children, but also for the workforce,” Baray said, explaining that employers look at an area’s availability of child care when deciding whether to set up shop.
To be eligible for publicly funded pre-K in Texas, students must qualify for free or reduced lunch, be homeless or in foster care, have a parent in active military duty or a parent injured on active duty or be an English learner.
The state has doled out money for preschool since 1985, when lawmakers approved funding half-day pre-K for eligible 4-year-olds. In 2019, the state approved House Bill 3, which allotted funds for public school districts to fund full-day pre-K, and in 2023 lawmakers made it easier for nonpublic preschool programs to hire teachers.
House Bill 2729 lessened the qualifications needed to teach 4-year-olds in nonpublic pre-K, no longer requiring teachers to have a bachelor’s degree or a teaching certification from the state.
Because of this rollback of qualifications, Texas only met two of 10 benchmarks the NIEER said are necessary for high-quality preschool programs: having learning standards and assessments and requiring students to have certain health screenings.
“We look at our benchmarks as minimum standards for quality,” Friedman-Krauss said. “When states are only meeting two standards and policy, we’re pretty sure they’re not meeting a quality program.”
In order to teach children age 4 in a public school, teachers must have a four-year degree in early education, go through an educator training program, pass a P-6 certification exam, pass a background check and meet other specific early education requirements.
Teachers in nonpublic programs only need to have one of those qualifications.
In total, Texas spent slightly more than $1 billion on early childhood education for the 2023-24 cycle, supported by $2.4 million in federal funding.
Head Start, a federally funded preschool and daycare program that qualifying families can use at no cost, accounts for roughly 50,000, or 6% of the total number of students enrolled in early education in Texas.
San Antonio is home to a Head Start program with approximately 40 locations across the city, which served 3,265 children during the 2023-24 school year. Head Start officials say it currently serves more than 6,700 children in San Antonio.
Friedmann-Klauss said those spots may be in jeopardy if President Donald Trump’s administration continues to cut the Department of Education and stops funding the program, along with Title I and other early education grants.
Trump announced plans to cut the program entirely as part of a large reduction in federal programs and services earlier this week.
Texas does not contribute any dollars to Head Start, and it also has the second largest number of children enrolled in preschool programs, following California, which Friedmann-Klauss said is significant.
“Texas increasing spending, improving quality — that really can move the needle at a national level.”
Clarification: An earlier version of this story included an outdated figure for Head Start enrollment. Head Start reports currently serving more than 6,700 children in San Antonio.
