Wash. Latest to Consolidate Early-Childhood Programs

Hoping to break down bureaucracy, use tax dollars more efficiently, and provide a central resource for parents, Washington state has created a new agency to oversee a variety of programs that serve its young children.

The Washington Department of Early Learning pulls together more than a dozen services, including child-care licensing, a state-financed preschool program, a Head Start collaboration project, and a small early-reading initiative. Those programs are now run by three different state agencies.

“We must prepare Washington children to succeed in a global economy and, with this new department, we are making it clear that education in Washington begins long before kindergarten,” Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, said in a press release on March 28, the day she signed the bill establishing the department. The agency will...