Did State Pre-Kindergarten Programs Affect the Head Start Enrollment of Children with Disabilities? A Quasi-Experimental Analysis.

This article examines how the expansion of state pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs has influenced the enrollment of low-income children with disabilities in Head Start (HS), the federal preschool program for children in poverty. Using nearly 30 years of national administrative data and a differences-in-differences design, the study found that the introduction of state pre-k was associated with a modest 1 percentage point (7%) decrease in the overall HS enrollment of children with disabilities, primarily driven by declines in children with speech impairments. However, HS programs located within school systems experienced an increase in enrollment of children whose disabilities were identified prior to HS entry. The findings suggest that state pre-k may be drawing relatively more advantaged children with mild disabilities away from HS ("cream-skimming"), while HS continues to serve children with more complex needs, highlighting important implications for early childhood education policy, resource allocation, and future research on service coordination and child outcomes.