MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama’s First Class Pre-K program will expand in 30 counties this fall, seeing the addition of 69 classrooms and more than 1,200 seats, according to an announcement from Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday.
Administered by the Office of School Readiness, the state-funded Pre-K program has grown significantly from serving just over 5,000 children in 2013 to more than 26,500 during the 2022-2023 school year. Ivey has continually praised the program and called for its expansion, with the governor announcing the creation of an additional 96 classrooms across 35 counties in 2022.
This latest expansion will bring the total student count to around 27,800 across 1,550 classrooms. These figures bring the program closer to reaching Ivey’s goal of serving up to 70% of eligible four-year-old students. It currently serves about 44% of eligible students.
“Ensuring our youngest learners have a strong start to their educational journeys is one of my top priorities for my second term,” Ivey said.
“Alabama continues to set the nationwide standard for success with the Alabama First Class Pre-K program. I am excited to see additional classrooms being awarded to areas of the state with low access and high rates of poverty, providing all children, no matter their zip code, with a solid foundation in education is critical to the future success of our state.”
According to Ivey’s office, this latest batch of new classrooms target “high-needs” areas with schools identified as failing. A full list of new Pre-K classroom locations can be viewed here.
The Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, which the Office of School Readiness operates under, anticipates funding additional classrooms in high-need areas in the near future.
“Since the program’s creation in 2000, we continue to prioritize age appropriate, impactful early learning and development experiences for children and their families,” said Jan Hume, acting secretary of the ADECE.
In May, the National Institute for Early Education Research, a nonprofit organization that conducts academic research on early education, ranked Alabama’s pre-k program as “the nation’s highest quality state pre-kindergarten program” for the 17th consecutive year, with Alabama, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi and Rhode Island being the only five states to meet all ten of the nonprofit’s benchmarks for minimum state preschool quality standards.
The record-high $8.8 billion 2024 Education Trust Fund budget, signed by Ivey this month, included a $12 million increase to the Office of School Readiness.