Explore the Data

Preschool Enrollment

A fourth of all children ages 0-5 are enrolled in preschool in Lincoln

Preschool, or nursery school,¹⁶ attendance has been shown to have a positive impact on children’s lives. It has been shown to improve development of their social-emotional skills and to improve their later academic achievement.¹⁷ Preschool attendance also likely improves children’s earnings later in life.¹⁸ Being able to send children to preschool can enable some parents/caregivers to work, impacting families’ financial well-being.

• In 2023, there were 4,391 children enrolled in preschool in Lincoln. This is 26% of all children between 0 and 5 years of age.

Notes

U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 1-year estimates, Tables DP05 and B14007 series.

Footnotes

16. U.S. Census Bureau. (2021) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about School Enrollment. The U.S. Census bureau defines nursery school “as a group or class that is organized to provide educational experiences for children during the year or years preceding kindergarten. It includes instruction as an important and integral phase of its program of childcare…Children enrolled in Head Start programs or similar programs sponsored by local agencies to provide preschool education to young children are counted under nursery school.” For U.S. Census Bureau data, nursery school and preschool are not differentiated.
17. Pianta, Robert C., Barnett, W. Steven, Burchinal, Margaret, and Kathy R. Thornburg. 2009. The Effects of Preschool Education: What We Know, How Public Policy is or Is Not Aligned with the Evidence Base, and What We Need to Know. Psychological Science in the Public Interest 10(2) 49-88.
18. Bartik, Timothy J. 2014. From Preschool to Prosperity: The Economic Payoff to Early Childhood Education. Kalamazoo, Michigan: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.