Across the country, more states are offering free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, regardless of income. In recent years, Virginia has worked to increase access, but it’s far from what some would call a universal system.
Curious Commonwealth looked into what’s holding the commonwealth back from offering free preschool to Virginians.
Earlier this year, Virginia state Del. Irene Shin (D—Herndon) introduced a massive state budget amendment. The ask: $480 million each year to spend on free public preschool for all 4-year-olds in the state, regardless of income level.
She said the goal was to ensure anyone who wants their child to attend preschool, can.
“If you have a 4-year-old kid, your school district should have a preschool program in which you can enroll your 4-year-old,” Shin told VPM News. “Like, it's as easy and simple as that. That’s what we're looking for.”
But Shin failed to get her Democratic colleagues on board. In fact, she said there weren’t any meaningful discussions about her proposal. She suspects that was because of the price tag, despite how preschool has been shown to help kids: The sticker price is more than what Virginia currently spends on all early childhood education programs each year.
“We know that studies have shown, over and over again, that students who have access to pre-K tend to graduate at higher rates from high school, that they go on to go to higher education at higher rates, too.”
Who qualifies for free public preschool in Virginia?
More than 20,000 4-year-olds enroll in free public preschool each year, which covers about three-quarters of qualifying Virginia families, according to a state Department of Education estimate.
The initiative started in the mid-1990s and provides state funding for public schools and some community organizations to enroll eligible 4-year-olds. In 2020, it was expanded to include 3-year-olds.
Only those who are low-income or “at-risk” qualify, and localities have some flexibility in how they determine who is eligible. For example: Some English language learners and children with an incarcerated or deployed parent may qualify.
Past limitations to program expansion
The program requires local governments to pick up some of the cost, which is why some choose not to participate. Lee County, Lexington City and Highland County do not offer VPI, according to VDOE.
About half of the elementary schools in Henrico County Public Schools have a VPI classroom. And for those that don’t, lack of physical space in public school buildings is a big reason why.
When the Elizabeth Holladay Elementary building was expanded in 2021, it freed up space for additional preschool classrooms. VPI classes at nearby HCPS schools moved there to ease districtwide overcrowding.
“Not all of our schools have that space,” said Tina Alsop, who helps oversee Henrico’s pre-K programming.
Despite the limitations, VPI has grown steadily over time and has a reputation for being high quality. Teachers in the program are paid on-par with kindergarten teachers — more than what most child care staff in the private sector are paid.
In VPI classes, 4-year-olds regularly sound out letters and words. There’s also a big focus on social-emotional learning, too: Students take turns as “student of the day” and have special classroom duties, while also enjoying compliments from their classmates.
Mandi Mulholland, an early learning preschool specialist for HCPS, said all of it prepares students for kindergarten.
“They come in, they’re ready to learn,” she told VPM News. “But they also know what school is all about.”
Demand for full-day hours
The state’s preschool initiative is popular, but it doesn’t work for everyone. One reason why is the schedule: it only operates during elementary school hours and generally ends around 2 p.m. Many parents need care until regular business ends at 5 or 6 p.m.
Alsop told VPM News that private child care providers usually offer these extended hours, though at a cost to families.
“I think that’s where that choice piece comes in,” said Alsop. “A family may choose to say: ‘We want our kid in the public school and we can work around the hours.’ Or a family may choose to say, ‘Well, we want to choose this community provider because they have that availability for my child to stay after school.’”
Because of the demand for full-day programs, Henrico expanded its VPI program to include private providers that can charge families to keep kids after-school.
About one-third of Henrico’s roughly 1,100 VPI spots are now filled through private providers — though statewide, only a handful of districts have similar partnerships, according to VDOE.
Focus on funding private, full-day programs
State officials have noticed the demand for full-day programs, as well. That’s part of the reason the state has recently directed more funding toward its Child Care Subsidy Program, which serves a much wider age range of kids (including infants, toddlers, preschoolers) by subsidizing private providers.
There were nearly 6,000 4-year-olds enrolled in this program as of December 2025, according to VDOE.
“The state has worked hard to expand on these other programs that give families a little more flexibility and that can still deliver those services at an affordable cost for the state,” said Kathy Glazer,” president of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation.
The subsidy program serves both low- and middle-income families who are responsible for an income-based copay, which Glazer thinks makes sense.
She prefers a system that provides access for all families based on the setting of their choice and what they can afford, instead of a free-for-all approach.
“We recognize in Virginia the wealth that comes from having a diversity of types of providers,” she said. “It really is a wonderful montage of programs and opportunities. And there's a lot of richness in that.”
A diversity of providers is also best practice, according to early education expert Elliot Haspel.
“Virginia, I think, has been very wise and has for basically the entirety of its early childhood policy-making pursued a mixed delivery approach: this idea of, we can do state-funded pre-K, yes through schools, also through private providers.”
Haspel said other states like California that’ve pursued universal pre-K within the confines of public schools have led to some private provider closures that also served infants and toddlers: “And that’s obviously a negative consequence.”
Some are skeptical, however, that the quality in some private preschool settings isn’t as high as in the public school setting — because of disparities in different standards and teacher pay.
Pay for private providers is generally much lower, with research connecting higher pay with lower teacher turnover, an important factor in the quality of early childhood programs.
Private child care providers also aren’t required to have the same credentials as those in VPI classrooms, though the state has taken steps to monitor quality in all settings by doing annual classroom observations.
Virginia’s path forward
Haspel, the early education expert, said he doesn’t think Virginia will be moving in the direction of universal public preschool anytime soon.
But Virginia has debated the idea before.
In 2007, the General Assembly’s research arm studied the costs and benefits of making its public preschool program universal.
Aris Bearse, who worked on the report, told VPM News that VPI clearly showed significant gains for those enrolled. It was some of the most important research of his career, he said.
“It was generally acknowledged by everybody that it's a quality program and it was helpful to at-risk children,” Bearse said. “The question was, how much it would benefit non-at-risk children?”
In other words, middle and higher-income families: Bearse said the researchers questioned whether Virginia should pay for pre-K when some families were already covering the cost.
The state said no at the time — and has shown no indication of moving to universal preschool since.
However, newer research now shows there are academic benefits to preschool classrooms with a mix of low-income and higher-income kids.
Haspel said there’s also evidence suggesting universal programs are more sustainable politically, because they create a larger base of eligible families who want to see the programs funded. That can spare them from the chopping block during budget negotiations, he said.
Experts say Virginia has a long way to go before preschool and early childhood education will be accessible to all families that need and want it: Nearly half of families eligible for state-subsidized child care (which includes preschool) don’t receive it, according to a Virginia Early Childhood Foundation analysis.
It’s a statistic that keeps Kathy Glazer up at night. She’s seen incremental improvements to access over the last 20 years, but said progress has been slow.
“I think slow and steady can win a race, but once you kind of have that proof of concept, then we should be able to move a little faster,” she said.
Both VPI and the statewide Child Care Subsidy Program have waitlists, though there are proposals to decrease the wait. And, the more well-known federal preschool program Head Start is even more limited in who it serves.
For all of these reasons, Del. Shin said she’ll keep advocating for universal public preschool for families who want it.
“Every year, we’re just trying to chip around the edges,” Shin said. “But if we all agree that 4-year-olds in Virginia deserve an equal opportunity to a great public education, then I think we can all agree that universal preschool is something we have to get to. ”
Shin plans to bring back her budget amendment next year; she calls it the “sledgehammer approach.” And she told VPM News that she’ll keep swinging — until she breaks through.