ISSUE BRIEF: MOST 3 AND 4 YEAR OLDS ARE NOT ENROLLED IN EARLY LEARNING, WIDENING OPPORTUNITY GAPS
Understanding the “Young Children Not in School” Indicator: To drive meaningful change for kids and families, we rely on data indicators—specific, measurable pieces of information that show how children are doing across key areas like health, education, and economic stability. One key indicator in our KIDS COUNT® data project is the percentage of young children not in school—the median monthly cost child care providers charge families for child care. This brief explores how many children ages 3 to 4 were not enrolled in school—including nursery school, preschool school or kindergarten—during the three months before the data was collected. In this context, "nursery school" and "preschool" include any group or class of institution providing educational experiences for children before kindergarten. Programs where instruction is a core part of the program are included, but private homes that primarily provide custodial care are not included. Children enrolled in federally, state, or locally sponsored preschool programs—including Head Start—are considered enrolled in nursery school or preschool. Click here to explore the data.
Overview
Early learning programs offer space for children to learn and play in a safe environment. They also are important hubs that allow families to access resources and for early childhood professionals to help identify when a child may need early intervention services to support their healthy development.
In Washington state, nearly 6 in 10 young children are not in school. There are many reasons why a young child may not be enrolled in school, ranging from a lack of affordability (see our Child Care Provider Rate brief) to family preference. However, access to early learning programs is not evenly distributed.
There is strong evidence to suggest that affordability plays a key role in determining access to early learning programs. An estimated 36% of children who live in families below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) are in school, compared to 47% of children with families in households above 200% FPL. In Washington state, families with incomes at or below 60% of the State Median Income qualify for Working Connections Child Care (Working Connections). Although, in theory, all families with household incomes at or below 200% FPL could be eligible for Working Connections, program requirements often create barriers to meaningful access. For example, if a parent stays home to care for a younger sibling, a 4-year-old would not qualify for Working Connections even if their family’s income is below the threshold.
Access to early learning programs is also stratified based on race and ethnicity, as seen in Table 1. This is important because it creates opportunity gaps for children even before they enter kindergarten. Children of color are disproportionately situated furthest from opportunity when it comes to early learning programs.
Table 1: Early learning access is inequitable across race and ethnicity based on American Community Survey data from 2019-2023.
Data were suppressed for Indigenous populations (1)
Past Work:
Children’s Alliance serves as the backbone organization for the Early Learning Action Alliance, a statewide coalition that collaboratively advocates for policies that can make high-quality early learning accessible to every child in Washington. In the 2025 legislative session, Washington faced a historic budget shortfall. The final state budget discontinued funding for many early learning priorities that are subject to appropriations. Some programs that lost funding, such as Early ECEAP (the Birth-to-Three Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program), had previously received consistent funding from the state.
The total cuts encompassed programs ranging from Early ECEAP to Reach Out and Read’s early literacy programs. Funding for the Tribal Early Learning Fund, which worked to ensure that Indigenous children have access to culturally appropriate early learning resources, was also not funded. Funding cuts in other areas may also mean that it is more challenging to provide resources that are linguistically accessible and include cultural representation due to cost.
Our team is working to identify community resources, uplift advocacy opportunities, and emphasize the need for policy decisions that ensure access for children who are otherwise situated furthest from opportunity.
Ongoing Work:
Every child deserves a high-quality, safe early learning environment. There are a lot of ongoing policy discussions to help make that happen. During the 2025 legislative session, advocates encouraged policymakers to protect existing services for families and improve accessibility, while also ensuring that inflationary increases in the cost of providing high-quality child care are met through rates that are competitive with the tuition costs for families paying for child care out of pocket.
County-Level Data:
County-level data are not available for this indicator, but you can find county-level dashboards from the Department of Children, Youth, and Families here.
Data are often suppressed—or not reported—when very few individuals are represented, both to protect privacy and to avoid sharing estimates that aren’t reliable. Specifically, estimates are hidden when the possible range of the data (called the confidence interval) is 10 percentage points or wider, indicating low confidence in the accuracy.
KIDS COUNT® is a registered trademark of The Annie E. Casey Foundation., Inc., and is used with permission of the Foundation.