The Early Childhood Program Participation report shows the number of children reported as participating in early childhood programs.
This may not include every child who was enrolled in early childhood programs in the given school years in Michigan. Entities are required to report participation in the following EC programs to the State of Michigan:
- Childcare Subsidy
- EarlyOn ®
- Early Childhood Special Education
- Great Start Readiness Program
- GSRP/Head Start Blend
- 32p Early Childhood
- 32p (4) Home Visitation
Reporting participation for all other early childhood programs is voluntary, which can cause gaps in the data presented in this report.
The report is updated in winter. See the Recently Posted Reports page for when the report was last updated.
Historical Changes
- Starting in 2017-18, Childcare Subsidy was added to the report as a program option. Children ages seven or younger who received services during the selected school year are included in the Childcare Subsidy data.
- Some children were enrolled in multiple programs at the same time. Because of that, the sum of individual program participation may exceed the statewide total of children participating in programs. Beginning with 2017-18 data, an unduplicated count of option was added to the “All Programs” setting. This represents the distinct number of children participating in early childhood programs.
- Due to a 2018 policy change, the English Learner subgroup is no longer included beginning with the 2017-18 school year. Per the Michigan Department of Education, potentially eligible English Learners are formally identified using Michigan’s Entrance and Exit Protocol beginning in Kindergarten, and this subgroup cannot be identified outside of that protocol. Note that formal English Learner status is distinct from family risk factors considered in Great Start Readiness Program eligibility determination.
- Starting in Fall 2017, the eligibility (direct certification) of students for free or reduced-price lunch was expanded to include students who were eligible for Medicaid. This expansion resulted in a significant increase in the number of students eligible for free meals, and a decrease in the number of students eligible for reduced-priced meals. Overall, there was a significant increase in the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals compared to Fall 2016, thus increasing the number of economically disadvantaged students.
- Starting in 2016-17, Head Start was added was added to the report as a program option.
Use the Location and Report Settings to select a location, school year, program and report category.
Data view options include:
- Count or Percent
- Snapshot (a graph and table of the selected data)
- Trend (a graph and table showing changes over time)
See the MI School Data Quick Start Guide for the basics of navigating the site and customizing a report.
Location Options
Locations Setting options: Statewide, or search by County, by ISD/District, or by Early Childhood Provider. Use the Location Search radio button to search all options, or to select which location options to search.
Logged-in Users
Users with secure access who are logged in can see unsuppressed numbers for the entities for which they have been specifically authorized.
The Center for Educational Performance and Information collects the majority of this data from public schools and intermediate school districts via the Michigan Student Data System. For more information on the MSDS application and reporting rules, please see the MSDS Collection Details Manual on the CEPI website.
The exception to this is Childcare Subsidy, which is collected by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Service.
Only the programs GSRP and GSRP/Head Start blend will have an associated Delivery Schedule count because these are the only program where a delivery schedule of full-day or half-day can be reported.
When viewing by race/ethnicity, you may see gaps and breaks in the trend view. This is because federal definitions and categories have changed over the years. More information about race and ethnicity categories can be found on the CEPI website.
The data are for the student district of residence, not the location of enrollment.
If you have questions not addressed here or in the linked resources, please contact CEPI customer support at cepi@michigan.gov.
Disclosure Avoidance
To protect the privacy of individual students, CEPI applies data suppression rules to sensitive data when report settings would yield fewer than 10 students in a given group. Complementary groups may also be suppressed. In some cases, values less than 10 may be shown when there is no risk of identifying individual students. Secure users can log in to view unsuppressed data for their authorized location. Please see How CEPI Protects Education Data for more information.
Report Labels
See the glossary for additional terms and acronyms used on MI School Data.
Childcare Subsidy: This program offers payment assistance to parents in certain eligibility subgroups that need childcare for reasons such as pursuing high school completion or unavailability due to employment.
Delivery Schedule: Children in GSRP can either be enrolled in a full-day or a half-day program. This variable is not available for any other early childhood program.
Sec. 32 p, Early Childhood Block Grant: Children from birth to age 8 who are receiving early childhood services under Section 32p who are not receiving services under the GPGS program. It is mandatory for entities to report children enrolled in this program.
Sec. 32 p (4), Home Visitation Grants: Children birth through age 8 who are experiencing factors that place the children at risk of not achieving success in school.
Data Calculations
The Percent of Total column is calculated using the following numerator/denominators:
- Percent of Total for Single Subgroups = Total for selected subgroup / All Children for specified location, year and program(s).
- Percent of Total for Cross-tabulated Subgroups = Total for selected subgroup / All Children for specified location, year and program(s) within the race/ethnic subgroup.
Examples:
Report Settings = Statewide, 2018-19, GSRP, Gender
- Male: 16,463 students in male subgroup / 32,025 total students in subgroup (statewide, 2018-19, GSRP) = 51.4 Percent of Total
- Female: 15,562 students in female subgroup / 32,025 total students in subgroup (statewide, 2018-19, GSRP) = 48.6 Percent of Total
Report Settings = Statewide, 2017-18, Early On, Race/Ethnicity by Gender, White
- Male: 9,826 students in male subgroup / 15,457 total students in subgroup (statewide, 2017-18, Early On, White) = 63.6 Percent of Total
- Female: 5,631 students in female subgroup / 15,457 total students in subgroup (statewide, 2017-18, Early On, White) = 36.4 Percent of Total
