The Malloy administration announced Tuesday the school districts that will be getting state funding to open 1,000 new preschool seats — with Bridgeport, Hartford, Danbury and Meriden adding the most.

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Last school year, 6,400 students in Connecticut — 16 percent — showed up to kindergarten having spent no time in a preschool. Half were from the state’s 19 poorest districts, reports the State Department of Education. Connecticut spent about $85 million for state-funded preschool programs in 2011, reaching 10 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who spurred this drastic $6.8 million expansion for 1,000 new seats, has said he would like to see universal access to preschool to ensure that family income is not a barrier to preschool.

Here is a list of the 38 school districts that were awarded funding to expand enrollment in their high-quality preschool programs.

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Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

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