GAO Update on the Number of Prekindergarten Care and Education
Programs (02-JUN-05, GAO-05-678R).
This letter responds to a Congressional request concerning our
April 2000 report, Early Education and Care: Overlap Indicates
Need to Assess Crosscutting Programs (GAO/HEHS-00-78). Given the
historical concern regarding the potential for program overlap
among federal early childhood education and care programs,
Congress asked that we update the list of programs providing or
supporting education or care for children under the age of 5. The
2000 list included 69 programs, which were administered by 9
different agencies. To respond to the request, we replicated the
keyword search from our 2000 report using the Catalog of Federal
Domestic Assistance (CFDA). After assessing the reliability of
the CFDA, we determined it was suitable for our purposes. We
obtained explanations regarding programs that were deleted from
the CFDA. Our search yielded 254 programs, and we reviewed their
descriptions to determine if they met three criteria: (1)
directly funded or supported education and/or child care, (2)
provided these services to children under age 5, and (3)
delivered services in an educational or child care setting. Based
on this review, we selected over 70 programs as potentially
meeting these criteria and provided agencies with the opportunity
to comment on this assessment.
-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-05-678R
ACCNO: A25639
TITLE: GAO Update on the Number of Prekindergarten Care and
Education Programs
DATE: 06/02/2005
SUBJECT: Aid for education
Child care programs
Children
Education program evaluation
Educational grants
Evaluation methods
Preschool education
GSA Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance
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GAO-05-678R
United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548
June 2, 2005
The Honorable Michael B. Enzi
Chairman
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
United States Senate
The Honorable Lamar Alexander
Chairman
Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
United States Senate
The Honorable George V. Voinovich
Chairman
Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management,
the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
United States Senate
Subject: GAO Update on the Number of Prekindergarten Care and Education
Programs
This letter responds to your request concerning our April 2000 report,
Early Education and Care: Overlap Indicates Need to Assess Crosscutting
Programs
(GAO/HEHS-00-78). Given the historical concern regarding the potential for
program overlap among federal early childhood education and care programs,
you asked that we update the list of programs providing or supporting
education or care for children under the age of 5. The 2000 list included
69 programs, which were administered by 9 different agencies.1
To respond to your request, we replicated the keyword search from our 2000
report using the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA). After
assessing the reliability of the CFDA, we determined it was suitable for
our purposes. We obtained explanations regarding programs that were
deleted from the CFDA. Our search yielded 254 programs, and we reviewed
their descriptions to determine if they met three criteria: (1) directly
funded or supported education and/or child care, (2) provided these
services to children under age 5, and (3) delivered services in an
1 This report was a follow-up to a 1994 report in which we found that
there were 90 early childhood programs at the federal level: Early
Childhood Programs: Multiple Programs and Overlapping Target Groups
(GAO/HEHS-95-4FS, Oct. 31, 1994).
educational or child care setting. Based on this review, we selected over
70 programs as potentially meeting these criteria and provided agencies
with the opportunity to comment on this assessment.
Generally, we found that the landscape of federal programs offered
remained largely the same as in 2000. We identified 69 programs as meeting
our criteria and found that 10 agencies administer these programs.2 While
the total number of programs remained the same, there were, however, some
changes in the makeup of the list. Specifically, 16 programs were removed3
from the list and 16 were added.4 The Department of Education, the agency
responsible for the most programs on the list, had the biggest change,
dropping 11 programs from the original list and adding 5 programs.
For 13 programs in our 2000 report, agencies questioned in their comments
whether the program should be included based on our criteria. For purposes
of our report, we have interpreted our criteria broadly. Based on our
review of the relevant legal and program documents and discussions with
agency officials, we found that our criteria warrants including all but 2
of these 13 programs as providing or supporting care and education
programs for children under 5 in an educational or child care setting.
There are several caveats associated with this current work. This analysis
does not provide information on the types of services provided by these
programs, their budget outlays, or the number of children they serve. In
addition, it is important to note that providing child care or education
is the sole focus for some programs while for others it is only an
allowable service. For these programs, some agencies noted that the
utilization of these services was minimal or nonexistent. Finally, we did
not examine the role that tax expenditures such as the Child and Dependent
Care Tax Credit or Employer Provided Child Care Tax Credit play in
supporting child care or early education.
The results of our analysis are provided in two enclosures. The first
enclosure is a table updating the list of programs that we included in our
2000 report. The second enclosure shows additional programs that meet our
criteria and merit inclusion in the list of education and child care
programs.
As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce its content
earlier, we plan no further distribution of this letter until 30 days
after its date. At that time, we will send copies of this letter to the
Departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Interior,
Justice, Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, and Homeland
Security, along with the Appalachian Regional Commission and General
2 The one additional agency that is now part of our list is the Department
of Homeland Security, which absorbed a program that had previously been
included under the Department of Justice in our 2000 report.
3 Of the programs removed, 13 were no longer in the CFDA because they had
been ended, consolidated, or transferred since 2000, 1 was consolidated
into another, and we determined that 2 should not be in the 2005 list
based on agency comments and our review of relevant legal and program
documents.
4 Of the programs added, 12 were additional programs that warranted
inclusion and 4 stem from the CFDA making further distinctions among WIA
programs than it did in 2000.
Page 2 GAO-05-678R Update on Prekindergarten Care and Education Programs
Services Administration and other interested parties. The letter will also
be available on GAO's home page at http://www.gao.gov.
If you have any questions about this letter, please contact me at (202)
512-7215. You may also reach me by e-mail at [email protected]. Patrick
diBattista served as assistant director on this engagement. Scott Heacock
was the analyst-in-charge. Sara Schibanoff and Linda Stokes were also key
contributors to this letter.
Marnie Shaul Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues
Enclosures
Enclosure I Enclosure I
Table 1: Update of 2000 Report List
Removed Remains on
from CFDAa list Notes
Agriculture
10.550 Food Distribution Program name is currently
Program Xb Food Donation
10.553 School Breakfast Xb
Program
10.555 National School
Lunch Program Xb
10.556 Special Milk Xb
Program for Children
10.558 Child and Adult
Care Food Program X
10.559 Summer Food Service
Program for Children X
10.564 Nutrition, Agency reported that this
Education and Training program is no longer
Program X funded.
10.565 Commodity
Supplemental Food Program Xb
Housing and Urban
Development
14.218 Community
Development Block
Grants/Entitlement Grants X
14.219 Community
Development Block
Grants/Small Cities
Program X
14.231 Emergency Shelter
Grants Program X
14.235 Supportive Housing
Program (transitional
housing) X
14.870 Resident
Opportunity and Supportive
Services X
Interior
15.043 Indian Child and
Family Education (FACE) X
Justice
Program transferred to
97.009 (Cuban/Haitian
16.201 Cuban and Haitian Entrant Program) in 2003
Entrant Resettlement under the Department of
Program Xb Homeland Security.
16.730 Reduction and
Prevention of Children's
Exposure to Violence (Safe
Start) X
Labor
Despite being deleted
from the CFDA, this
program still exists and
warrants inclusion
17.211 Job Corps X according to agency.
Page 4 GAO-05-678R Update on Prekindergarten Care and Education Programs
Enclosure I Enclosure I
Labor
Program consolidated into 17.264
17.247 Migrant and Seasonal (Migrant and Seasonal
Farmworkers X b Farmworkers) in 2002.
Program consolidated into 17.265
17.251 Native American Employment (Native American Employment and
and Training Program X Training) in 2002.
Program consolidated into 17.258
(WIA Adult Program), 17.259 (WIA
Youth Activities) in 2001. WIA
also includes 17.260 (WIA
Dislocated Workers), 17.263
(Youth Opportunity Grants), and
17.266 (Work Incentives Grant).
17.255 Workforce Investment Act All five programs are counted on
(WIA) X this list.
Appalachian Regional Commission
23.002 Appalachia-Supplements to
Federal Grant-in-Aid (area Name changed to Appalachian Area
development) X Development in 1999.
General Services Administration
39.003 Donation of Federal Surplus
Personal Property X
Education
84.010 Title I Grants to Local
Educational Agencies (basic,
concentration, and targeted
grants) X
84.011 Migrant Education-Basic
State Grant Program X
84.027 Special Education-Grants to
States X
84.041 Impact Aid X
84.060 Indian Education-Grants to
Local Educational Agencies X
According to agency, this program
84.162 Immigrant Education X no longer exists.
84.173 Special Education-Preschool
Grants (IDEA) X
84.181 Special Education-Grants
for Infants and Families with
Disabilities X
84.186 Safe and Drug-Free Schools
and Communities-State Grants X
84.196 Education for Homeless
Children and Youth X
According to agency, the No Child
Left Behind Act consolidated the
84.209 Native Hawaiian Family program into one broader
Based Education Centers X authority.
84.213 Even Start-State
Educational Agencies X
84.214 Even Start-Migrant
Education X
84.258 Even Start-Indian Tribes
and Tribal Organizations X
Enclosure I Enclosure I
Education
84.276 Goals 2000-State and Local
Education Systemic Improvement According to agency, this
Grants X program was repealed in 2000.
84.282 Charter Schools X
84.287 Twenty-First Century
Community Learning Centers X
84.288 Bilingual Education-Program
Development and Implementation
Grants X According to agency, these
84.289 Bilingual Education-Program programs no longer are
Enhancement Grants X authorized. All four bilingual
84.290 Bilingual Education- programs were consolidated
Comprehensive School Grants X under the No Child Left Behind
84.291 Bilingual Act.
Education-Systemwide Improvement
Grants X
84.295 Ready-to-Learn Television X
According to agency, the No
84.296 Native Hawaiian Child Left Behind Act
Community-Based Education Learning consolidated the program into
Centers X one broader authority.
84.298 Innovative Education Program
Strategies X
Despite not being listed in the
CFDA, this program still exists
84.299 Demonstration Grants for and warrants inclusion
Indian Children X according to agency.
84.303 Technology Innovation According to agency, this
Challenge Grants X program no longer exists.
84.310 Goals 2000: Parental Name changed to Parental
Assistance Program X Assistance Centers in 2002.
Name changed to Education
84.318 Technology Literacy Challenge Technology State Grants in
Fund Grants X b 2003.
According to agency, this
84.321 Alaska Native Home-Based program was not reauthorized by
Education for Preschool Children X the No Child Left Behind Act.
84.323 Special Education-State
Program Improvement Grants for
Children With Disabilities X b
84.327 Special Education-Technology
and Media Services for Individuals
With Disabilities X b
84.332 Comprehensive School Reform
Demonstration X b
84.335 Child Care Access Means
Parents in School X
According to agency, this
program was replaced by Reading
First, a program focusing on
children in kindergarten to
84.338 Reading Excellence X third grade.
Page 6 GAO-05-678R Update on Prekindergarten Care and Education Programs
Enclosure I Enclosure I
HHS
93.101 Grants for Residential According to agency, these two
Treatment Programs for Pregnant programs were consolidated into
and Postpartum Women X 93.243 (Substance Abuse and Mental
93.102 Demonstration Grants for Health Services - Projects of
Residential Treatment for Women Regional and National Significance),
and Their Children X which meets our criteria.
93.125 Mental Health Planning According to agency, this program no
and Demonstration Projects X longer exists.
93.558 Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) X
93.566 Refugee and Entrant
Assistance- State-Administered
Programs X
93.571 Community Services Block Agency reported that this program did
Grant Discretionary not meet our criteria; our review
Awards-Community Food and confirmed this.
Nutrition c
93.575 Child Care Development Name changed to Child Care and
Fund X Development Block Grant in 1995.
93.576 Refugee and Entrant
Assistance- Discretionary Grants X
93.583 Refugee and Entrant Agency reported that this program
Assistance- Wilson/Fish Programs does not meet our criteria; our
c review confirmed this.
93.584 Refugee and Entrant
Assistance- Targeted Assistance X
93.600 Head Start X
93.645 Child Welfare
Services-State Grants X
93.667 Social Services Block
Grant X
aIn some cases, programs were deleted from the CFDA. In other instances,
they were transferred or consolidated.
bThe agency questioned whether its program meets our criteria. For
purposes of our report, we have interpreted out criteria
broadly and have determined that each of the programs listed meets the
criteria. For example, we determined that grants to
state agencies and nutrition programs in school settings are forms of
support and that some of the children who benefit will
meet our age criteria.
cThis program is not included in the 2005 list.
Enclosure II Enclosure II
Table 2: Additional Programs
Interior
15.130 Indian Education-Assistance to Schools
15.144 Indian Child Welfare Act-Title II Grants
Justice
16.575 Crime Victim Assistance
16.736 Transitional Housing Assistance for Victims of Domestic Violence,
Stalking, or Sexual Assaulta
Education
84.245 Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Vocational and Technical
Institutions
84.356 Alaska Native Educational Programs a
84.359 Early Reading Firsta
84.362 Native Hawaiian Educationa
84.365 English Language Acquisition Grants a
HHS
93.569 Community Services Block Grant
93.577 Early Learning Funda
93.596 Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the Child Care and
Development Fund
aProgram added to CFDA since 2000 report.
(130468)
Page 8 GAO-05-678R Update on Prekindergarten Care and Education Programs
*** End of document. ***