Preschool enrollment in New Jersey is declining.

It's an alarming trend highlighted in a newly released report by the Education Law Center, finding that in the 2023 24 school year, just 78% of eligible preschoolers residing in a number of high poverty urban districts participated in the pre-K program.

That means nearly 10,000 students missed out on an opportunity to receive a high quality early education.

So what's causing that decline and what does that mean for preschool programs moving forward?

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis has more.

It's shocking to me, actually, how many parents of three year olds don't know about this free preschool program.

Students who live in 31 districts in New Jersey once known as Abbott districts, are eligible for free preschool.

The Education Law Center released a report looking at enrollment in these pre-K classes 25 years after their court ordered start.

78% of eligible preschoolers are currently enrolled in the other preschool program.

So that means that there's like over 10,000 students who are not enrolled.

That could be.

Danielle Farias, coauthor of the report.

Districts are required to enroll at least 90% of all eligible preschoolers.

Only five of the 31 districts met that mark.

Only four had higher enrollment numbers in the last school year compared to the 2009 2010 year.

And many are much further away from hitting their 90% enrollment goals than in the 2009 ten school year.

After the first stages of implementation, while the state was growing, the program, we saw increases and then, you know, enrollment basically leveled off for a number of years.

And then starting a little bit before COVID, we did start to see declines in enrollment.

And then when COVID happened, those declines were actually exacerbated.

But the troubling thing is that what we have seen is that the enrollments have not in many districts, even rebounded to the levels that they were pre-COVID.

Some preschools are run through school districts.

Others are partnerships between districts and private providers like the Egg and Offer Early Childhood Center in Elizabeth that, along with the district, has struggled to meet its enrollment numbers.

The transportation issue a lot of parents have.

And in my district, parents have to live two miles or more from their preschool in order to get transportation.

A lot of young families are pushing strollers and that's walking four miles a day.

I think that needs to be looked at.

Lorraine Cooke also wants to see local providers like herself able to register students when they come in instead of pushing them over to district buildings.

And they've been pleading with the District of Elizabeth to allow them to expand to a two year pre-K program rather than only serving three year olds.

Providing that continuity where if the child stays at Agnus or in the community provider for two years, we can continue to have that skill building knowing where the children are instead of transitioning them to another program.

Far reaching families continues to be a challenge across districts.

Janet Venancio Rodriguez is conducting a research study in New Brunswick to better understand what challenges families face enrolling in pre-K. She's heard parents say that only one year is needed.

There's no information in about telling them that there's pre-K one and two with different curriculums.

She also encounters families who have been given wrong information from their friends and family.

Somebody told me that I have to enroll my kid at size when that wasn't true.

So it's more about social network.

And if they are new and they have no relatives or know no social network at all, it's it's more difficult for these young families.

And some districts are getting it right.

Hopes capping is a Head Start community action program, working with Hoboken to hit their Abbott requirement numbers by trying to reach families everywhere they can.

Door to door.

We do the menus on the at the diners.

We do postings in the local grocery stores at the laundromat.

There's other places that potentially we could interact with families on a more regular basis pediatricians offices, other kinds of community events.

Realtors should have it.

Maybe hospitals should have that information.

When children are born.

These folks would like the state to step up its outreach in all the places a family goes so they understand the need and the availability of these pre-K programs.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Joanna Gagis.