State Profiles

Alabama	Arkansas	California	Connecticut
Florida	Georgia	Illinois	Iowa
Kansas	Kentucky	Louisiana	Maine
Maryland	Massachusetts	New Jersey	New Mexico
New York	North Carolina	Ohio	Oklahoma
Oregon	Pennsylvania	South Carolina	Tennessee
Texas	Vermont	Virginia	Washington
Washington DC	West Virginia	Wisconsin

1972		The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) Pre-K Program is created to serve all four-year-old children in the District. The program is available only in public schools and funding is provided through the school-funding formula on a per-pupil basis.
1979		The Mayor's Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development is established to: hold public hearings; increase public awareness of the programs; review and comment on legislation, regulations, policies, and programs; recommend methods of upgrading services; and improve communications between providers, the public, and the government.
2002		The W.K. Kellogg Foundation provides a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant, through the Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK) initiative, to the National Black Child Development Institute. The grant is intended to assist the District in uniting resources to better prepare children for school. Over a five-year period, SPARK DC will seek both "ready children" and "ready schools" to smooth the transition to school and align pre-k and elementary school settings. The program becomes a new organizing point for a renewed movement toward school readiness for all children.
2003		A group of over 200 early education and K-12 organizations come together to form the Universal School Readiness Stakeholder Group. Working with SPARK DC, the Stakeholders Group works to increase public knowledge, support, and action to ensure all children enter kindergarten ready to learn through high-quality early education programs.
2004		Early education advocates under the banner of the Stakeholders Group and SPARK DC submit the "Roadmap to Universal School Readiness in the District of Columbia." The document serves as a blueprint for funding and implementation of pre-k for all children and becomes the early education platform for the 2005 legislative sessions.
2005		DCPS grants $4.6 million to the Department of Human Services to provide high-quality pre-k programs in community-based settings. These funds, under the title Pre-K Incentive Program, now serve nearly 400 children in over 25 classrooms across the city. Eighty percent of teachers in the Pre-K Incentive Program have a bachelor's degree, and all classrooms meet NAEYC quality standards.
2006		The Pre-K for All DC campaign, a non-partisan public education and advocacy campaign seeking to ensure all three and four year olds have access to high-quality pre-k in the District of Columbia, is launched. SPARK DC, the Universal School Readiness Stakeholder Group, and the Early Care and Education Administration in the Department of Human Resources are the principle partners. A new report, Investing in the Economic Vitality of the District of Columbia through Pre-Kindergarten for All, finds that providing quality pre-k for all would yield significant savings for the school system, criminal justice system, and heath care systems and would simultaneously increase tax revenues.

Pre-K for All DC is a non-partisan public-education and advocacy campaign devoted to ensuring that all three and four year olds in the District of Columbia have access to high-quality pre-k. The Pre-K for All DC campaign is co-chaired by businessman Terry Golden and civic activist Carrie Thornhill.

The Universal School Readiness Stakeholder Group, a group of over 200 early education and K-12 organizations, is united under the banner of school readiness. The group meets monthly to develop a citywide consensus on standards of school readiness and learning for all four year olds.

The National Black Child Development Institute's SPARK DC coalition promotes public knowledge, support, and action for pre-k for all. SPARK DC is funded by the Kellogg Foundation and is focused on improving quality and increasing access.

Maurice Sykes is an educator with the Early Childhood Leadership Institute at the University of the District of Columbia and a longtime advocate for early childhood education and urban school improvement. Sykes is a former director of early childhood programs for the District of Columbia Public Schools and has consulted on the design of early childhood education programs in Florida, Tennessee, and Washington, DC. He was recently elected to the board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Barbara Kamara is the administrator of the District of Columbia Department of Human Services' Early Care and Education Administration (ECEA). Ms. Kamara served under President Carter as associate commissioner in the Department of Health and Human Services where she was responsible for the National Head Start Program and several childhood care and education initiatives. Ms. Kamara has received several awards for her advocacy on behalf of children, including the Children's Champion Award from the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development.

Pre-K for All DC is focused on engaging policymakers and the public in the pre-k movement through strategic outreach, education, and collaboration. Businesses and grassroots groups are key targets in the push to create public support that will outlast political appointments.

Advocates hope to make pre-k available, through a mixed delivery system, based on the Pre-K Incentive Program, to each of the 2,000 District children currently without access to services. The proposed increases in quality include full-day, year-round, voluntary pre-k that would be made available to every family in the District.