This data snapshot from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reveals a number of important insights about early childhood education. Highlights include:
- Public preschool access not yet a reality for much of the nation: About 40 percent of school districts do not offer preschool programs.
- Part-day preschool is offered more often than full-day: 57% of school districts that operate public preschool programs offer only part-day preschool.
- Limited universal access to preschool: Just over half of the school districts that operate public preschool programs explicitly make such programs available to all students within the district.
- Kindergarten retention disparities: Native-Hawaiian, other Pacific Islander, American Indian, and Native-Alaskan kindergarten students are held back a year at nearly twice the rate of white kindergarten students. Boys represent 61% of kindergarteners retained.
- Suspension of preschool children (new for 2011–12 collection): Black children make up 18% of preschool enrollment, but 48% of preschool children suspended more than once. Boys receive more than three out of four out-of-school preschool suspensions.