Durham County is directly involved in a variety of ways with early education, and since 2016, has invested over $16 million in creating a universal preschool program called Durham PreK. Key components of Durham PreK include improved pay and professional development for teachers, intensive technical assistance with early educators designed to raise quality, and work with local educational institutions to increase and improve the supply of early education teachers. Early Years serves as the management agency for Durham County Government for the local investment in public preschool for four-year-olds. Built to enhance and expand the state funded NC Pre-K program, Durham PreK is open universally to all children and will grow incrementally over time to meet the full community need for publicly supported high quality early education.
