In the fall of 2020, the Center for District Innovation And Leadership in Early Education (DIAL EE) began to study California’s early learning landscape from the perspective of school districts that implemented the California State Preschool Program (CSPP). Specifically, we wanted to understand the degree to which the school districts valued early learning and how their districts were organized to align and integrate ECE within their K-12 systems. Multiple methods for collecting data were used, including an electronic survey, website review, funding data review, and conversations with current ECE school district leads.

The findings from a survey with sixty ECE district leads, a review of 286 school districts’ websites in the fall of 2020, and CSPP analysis of budget and contract contact person between 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 are organized around four broad themes:

1. Funding for early education
2. Organization of the school district and role of ECE
3. Visibility of ECE within the school districts
4. Change in leadership

Learn more about the survey results by selecting one of the report resources below.