Washington lawmakers cut spots for free preschool program

SEATTLE — Washington’s free preschool program for low-income kids is shrinking.

Amid a budget shortfall, state legislators cut about $60 million from the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, which provides early learning and family support services to kids ages 3 to 5. All but 16 of the state’s 62 ECEAP contractors saw reductions in their funded slots for eligible children this year.

ECEAP is modeled on Head Start, the 60-year-old federal early learning program. It is free and primarily serves low-income children, though kids with disabilities are also eligible.

Some providers say the rate the state pays per slot for eligible students isn’t enough to fund the wraparound services included in the program.

ECEAP is an intensive program that not only educates children but also connects them with health care and other services that are required by state standards.

“Basically, by the time you fund all of the initiatives for a comprehensive preschool program, it costs more than the slot allocation,” said Tamara Shoup, director of strategy, development and innovation at Northwest Educational Service District 189 in Whatcom County.

Last school year was the first time NWESD 189 offered ECEAP, through a partnership with Bellingham Public Schools and the Ferndale School District.

For this school year, the district’s slots were reduced by nearly one-third, from 70 to 49. After not reaching full enrollment last year, the district was able to fully enroll 49 ECEAP students this year.

When NWESD 189 became an ECEAP contractor in 2024, state law said any child who met income limits would be entitled to an ECEAP spot starting in the 2026-27 school year, so the district expected ECEAP to expand. But this year, lawmakers pushed that date back to 2030.

“We really were anticipating growth in ECEAP,” Shoup said. “Instead, it went the other direction.”

NWESD won’t offer ECEAP after this year.

Ismael Vivanco, the superintendent of NWESD 189, said the ECEAP cuts were “disheartening” given the importance and research supporting early investments like early childhood education.

In 2022, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that ECEAP alums were more likely to be ready for kindergarten, and were less likely to participate in special education services in early grades, than children who were eligible for ECEAP but didn’t attend the program. Long-term, however, there wasn’t any clear evidence of better or worse outcomes between the groups in third or fifth grade assessments or in high school graduation rates.

Despite the difficulties many Washington families face in finding affordable child care options, ECEAP has struggled to fully enroll. As of early May, about 1,700 slots across the state were unfilled, according to data from the Department of Children, Youth, and Families.

Katy Warren, deputy director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP, has worked there for 18 years. This is the first year in that time the state Legislature has cut funding for the preschool program, she said. The legislature cut slots for the program by about 12%, and eliminated funding for a version of ECEAP for children under 3 years old.

“There's a lot of sadness out there in the community, a lot of longtime partnerships with local school districts going by the wayside, a lot of families who aren't getting services, a lot of staff laid off,” she said.

Underenrollment was another factor that made ECEAP vulnerable to cuts, Warren said, though she cautioned that the May figure of 1,700 unfilled slots is a snapshot in time.

Inspire Development Centers, which has roughly two dozen centers across Northwest, Central and Eastern Washington, used to offer 722 slots in the program and will now have 411 for the 2025-26 school year.

Inspire closed a center in Kennewick, reduced services at several other locations and will no longer offer transportation to students in the ECEAP program in the rural areas it serves, said CEO Jorge Castillo. The program’s Head Start students can still access transportation through Inspire.

Some providers have struggled to hire enough workers in the wake of the pandemic. And the rise of a free Transition to Kindergarten program for 4-year-olds in Washington K-12 schools appears to be affecting ECEAP enrollment.

Lower Columbia College’s Head Start and ECEAP program didn’t see any of its 68 ECEAP slots cut this year.

But it had voluntarily cut more than 100 slots in the wake of the pandemic, which made it harder to hire, and as more families enrolled their 4-year-olds in Transition to Kindergarten programs in K-12 schools, said Program Director Mindy Leasure.

“The workforce was entirely depleted,” Leasure said. “So even when we had children … on our waitlist, we didn't have the teachers to actually open classrooms.”

The statewide changes occur against a backdrop of cuts to federal education programs and supports.

The program that inspired ECEAP, Head Start, faces headwinds of its own. The Trump administration has proposed flat funding for Head Start amid rising costs, has sought to bar undocumented immigrants from participating and has laid off federal workers overseeing and supporting Head Start.