Early Childhood Education

New Mexico PreK is a voluntary preschool program created by the Pre-Kindergarten Act of 2005. The PreK program is jointly administered by the Public Education Department and the Children, Youth, and Families Department. Children who have reached their 4th birthday by September 1st are eligible to attend a PreK program. The purpose of PreK is to ensure every child in New Mexico has the opportunity to attend a high quality early childhood education program before kindergarten. The purpose of New Mexico PreK is to:

• Increase access to voluntary high-quality pre-kindergarten programs
• Provide developmentally appropriate activities for New Mexico children
• Expand early childhood community capacity
• Support linguistically and culturally appropriate curriculum
• Focus on school readiness

PreK Tools, Resources, and Criteria

FOCUS Trainings

Canvas Preschool Teacher Support Site

New Mexico Early Learning Guidelines

ECOT TRAINING

• ECOT Page
• ECOT Dates 2021-22
• ECOT Training on Canvas (New Staff)
• ECOT-R Training on Canvas (Returning Staff)

Canvas Preschool Teacher Support Site

WIDA Early Years focuses on supporting young multilingual children, ages 2.5 to 5.5 years.

• WIDA eLearning and Registration
• New Mexico Connections Document
• Promising Practices

Resources for Families

NM Early Childhood Toolkit- Census Bureau (PDF)

Tantrums, Tears and Tempers (PDF)

Early Literacy – Parents Play a Key Role (PDF)

Screen Time 2019 (PDF)

Toilet Training 2019 (PDF)

Family Involvement Ideas 2019 (PDF)

Build Relationships 2019 (PDF)

Family Activities 2019 (PDF)

Family Activities Skills 2019 (PDF)

Family Activities Math 2019 (PDF)

Family Activities Reading 2019 (PDF)

Tips for Separation Anxiety 2019 (PDF)

New Mexico Association for the Education of Young Children

New Mexico Kids

The PED would like to spotlight the Brown Early Childhood Center’s PreK Family Handbook (PDF) and the Las Cruces Public Schools Early Childhood Program Family Handbook (PDF) as exemplar family handbooks.

For Business Managers and Staff

Approval request for items over $5000.00 (XLS)

Approved Supplies that are Allowable for Pre-K (DOC)

List of Unallowable Expenses (DOC)

Annual Reports, Compliance Memos and Community Resources

New Mexico Focus Preschool Memo (PDF)

PED CYFD Pre-K Annual Report 2018-19 (PDF)

PED CYFD Pre-K Annual Report 2017-18 (PDF)

PED CYFD PreK Annual Report 2016-17 (PDF)

PreK Act 2015 (PDF)

New Mexico Association for the Education of Young Children

New Mexico Kids

Contact Us

Jerry Apodaca Education Building
300 Don Gaspar Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87501