Early Childhood Programs

This report responds to a congressional request for information on early childhood programs--that is, preschool and child care programs for children from birth through age five. In summary, GAO found that in fiscal years 1992 and 1993, the federal government funded more than 90 early childhood programs in 11 federal agencies and 20 offices. Of these programs, 34 were key programs--early childhood programs for which early childhood education or child care is the key to the program's mission. These key programs delivered services to at least two million children below age five and spent at least $3.66 billion in fiscal year 1992. However, data are limited on the exact number of children served and the dollars spent on children below age five. Although these programs have some similarities, they may target different populations, use different eligibility criteria, and provide a different mix of services to children and their families.

GAO found that: (1) in fiscal years 1992 and 1993, the government funded 93 early childhood programs; (2) 22 key programs provided services to at least 2 million children under age 5 and spent at least $3.66 billion in fiscal year (FY) 1992; (3) the 12 programs that could not provide specific data on children under age 5 had total budget authority of $3.71 billion for children of all ages; (4) many programs targeted the same population of children, with 13 programs targeting economically disadvantaged children; (5) the programs' varying eligibility criteria led to disruptions in services due to slight changes in a child's family status; (6) in FY 1992, 31 programs provided education and child development services for young children and 27 provided child care, health referral, and social services; and (7) the key early childhood programs varied in the comprehensiveness of the services they provided.