The commonwealth spent around $6,500 per child during the last academic year, an increase of more than $800 from the prior year.
Steve Barnett, founder and senior director of the institute and the study's co-author, said it is unrealistic to think states could replace cuts to Head Start funding amid the Trump administration's proposed freezes of federal grant funding.
"And particularly replace it overnight if the program is suddenly defunded," Barnett emphasized. "States are going to have to step up and figure out what to do if that happens."
He added if Head Start funding is eliminated, access to public preschool will decline in several states by more than 10 percentage points, and in some, by 20.
Kentucky lawmakers have taken recent steps to expand preschool access, including passing House Bill 695, which established the Adaptive Kindergarten Readiness Pilot Project. The measure aims to provide no-cost, online education for 3- and 4-year-olds who may not be attending state-funded preschool programs.
Allison Friedman-Krauss, associate research professor at the institute, said states spent more than $13 billion on preschool last year, including $257 million in federal pandemic relief funding, in part to attract more qualified teachers.
"We also see in our data that many states are reporting teacher shortages in early childhood, that they've had to increase their waivers in order to get teachers in classrooms," Friedman-Krauss reported.
Research shows toddlers who attend preschool are more prepared for elementary school and less likely to be identified as having special needs, or be held back, than children who do not.
