Tapping Title I: What Every School Adminstrator Should Know About Title I, Pre-K and School Reform

Decades of research show that quality pre-kindergarten programs can make a critical difference in children’s school readiness and their future educational success. Investments in early learning are proven to yield important short- and long-term benefits for students and school districts. Driven by this strong evidence, the movement to expand publicly funded pre-k has grown, and school districts have become central to providing high-quality early learning opportunities for more and more children.

Nationwide, as of 2005, 23 percent of three-, four- and five-year-old children attending early education programs do so in public schools. Because school districts already serve students in kindergarten through third grade, they have both a responsibility and the systems necessary to ensure alignment between new pre-k investments and existing early education and K-3 efforts, whether in public schools or community-based programs.

Many school districts, however, struggle to find the resources to provide needed early childhood programs for families in their communities. One largely untapped funding source that districts can use to support pre-k is Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Enacted in 1965 to help ensure that children living in high-poverty areas obtain a quality education, Title I is the largest single source of federal funding for school districts and complements state and local allocations for at-risk children at all grade levels.

Under ESEA, school districts may use Title I funds to support a range of education services, including early education.

Download the full report, produced by the Pew Center on the States' Pre-K Now campaign.

View Full Report:

January 22, 2010 -
Tapping Title I (Adobe PDF)