The Adoption of Public Pre-Kindergarten among the American States - An Event History Analysis

Oct 15, 2026

Publicly funded pre-K has expanded rapidly in the United States, with policy adoption occurring in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Drawing on twelve datasets, the study applies event history analysis to assess which predictors shape state decisions to adopt public pre-K programs. Results link adoption to party dominance in the legislature, legislative professionalism, and unemployment rates, while also showing that geographic proximity to early-adopting states matters. The authors consider implications for future legislative action and expanding eligibility requirements.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages33

Reading Time1 h 23 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Research motivation and scope

Importance and remaining gaps

Background

Prior evidence and theoretical framing

Study design and methods

Event history analysis (EHA)

Research questions and hypotheses

Findings and conclusion

The Adoption of Public Pre-Kindergarten among the American States: An Event History Analysis Educational Policy 2022, Vol. 36(6) 1407–1439 © The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/0895904820961002](DOI: 10.1177/0895904820961002) [journals.sagepub.com/home/epx](journals.sagepub.com/home/epx) Lora Cohen-Vogel 1, James Sadler 1, Michael H. Little2, Becca Merrill3, and F. Chris Curran4 Abstract Over the past few decades, we have witnessed a surge in publicly funded pre-K programs in the United States. Today, policy makers in 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted them. Combining information from twelve datasets, we use event history analysis (EHA) to examine the influence of a set of predictors on states’ decisions to adopt public pre-K. Findings indicate that party dominance in the legislature, legislative professionalism, and unemployment rates are associated with pre-K adoption; regional proximity to previously adopting states is also significant. The authors discuss implications for policy makers and advocates considering future legislative action in the early childhood education sector, including the expansion of pre-K eligibility requirements. Keywords early childhood, educational policy, state policies, legislative behavior, policy diffusion, policy innovation 1 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA 2North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA 3Education Northwest, Portland, OR, USA 4University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Corresponding Author: Lora Cohen-Vogel, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3500, Peabody Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. Email: [Lora.cohen-vogel@unc.edu](Lora.cohen-vogel@unc.edu) Amid research that demonstrates the positive effects that quality pre-kindergarten programs (pre-K) produce, state policymakers have invested in early learning (Parker et al., 2018; Vitiello et al., 2017) . The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) tracks pre-K programs across the country and reports that there are currently publicly-funded programs in 45 states and the District of Columbia, with the most recent having been established by two legislatures in 2017 (Friedman-Krauss et al., 2019) . What factors condition states to adopt public pre-K programs when they do? This article aims to shed light on this question. Using twelve data sources, we constructed a longitudinal dataset for the 40-year timeframe over which American states adopted these programs to help provide some answers. An early study of state involvement in pre-K suggests that the political and economic circumstances inside of states play a role. Dawson (2008) analyzed states’ legislative activity between 1979 and 2000 and found that states with more liberal government ideologies, higher levels of poverty, and, somewhat surprisingly, lower proportions of workforce participation among women were somewhat more likely than others to fund a pre-K program. Since 2000, ten more states have adopted a public pre-K program. With their inclusion and twenty years of additional data, we can both better estimate the influences of a set of predictors on a states’ decisions to adopt pre-K and examine whether later-adopting states are influenced by different predictors than early adopters. Why is this important? There are still five “hold out” states that have not yet adopted a public pre-K program. For every year that passes, nearly a quarter million 4 year olds in these states do not have access to a statefunded pre-K program and the large, positive impacts that research evidence shows they produce (Kids Count Data Center, n.d.). Our study builds understanding not only among policy researchers but also among policy activists about the factors that appear to make conditions in states ripe for passage. With this knowledge, the

FAQs

How many states and which region adopted publicly funded pre-K?

Public pre-K has been adopted by policy makers in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Which factors are associated with states’ decisions to adopt public pre-K?

The study finds associations with party dominance in the legislature, legislative professionalism, and unemployment rates, and it also finds regional proximity to previously adopting states is significant.

What is the purpose of using event history analysis in this research?

Event history analysis models the probability that a government adopts a specified policy each year across a continuum, treating policy adoption as the event and excluding states after the event occurs.

Oct 15, 2026

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