Investing in children early.

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS

Bucking a national budgeting trend, early childhood appropriations didn't get the squeeze this past year despite tight state economies. Early care and education funding was stable, and prekindergarten and home visiting programs even received increases nationwide, according to a recent survey by NCSL.

In FY 2011, overall state appropriations to early care and education (prekindergarten, child care, home visiting and early childhood initiatives) were up almost 1.5 percent, as well as investments in programs for infants and toddlers, early childhood mental health care, and public-private partnerships.

States were able to draw on federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds, including money appropriated to the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant, and the education and fiscal stabilization funds. Most of the ARRA funds went to child care, with smaller amounts for prekindergarten and home visiting programs. Fewer states allocated these funds in FY 2011 than in FY 2010, probably because those states spent more of these federal funds in FY 2010 to avoid cuts.

A big surprise this year was that a third of the...