9 Essex County Districts Will Get NJ Aid For Preschool (See The List)

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Several public school districts in Essex County will get state funding to run preschool programs in the upcoming fiscal year.

Gov. Phil Murphy held his final budget address last week. The spending plan will include $12.1 billion in funding for local school districts. Read More: More Taxes, Big Spending: 5 Takeaways From Murphy’s Final Budget

The New Jersey Department of Education has released its 2025-26 funding figures, showing how that money will support the state's preschool programs.

The districts in Essex County that made the list for funding include:

• Belleville - $9,094,466
• East Orange - $20,029,700
• Irvington - $20,981,642
• Montclair - $5,926,202
• Newark - $96,460,706
• Nutley - $4,149,001
• Orange - $10,996,429
• South Orange-Maplewood - $6,729,959
• West Orange - $9,432,483

In his 2025 state of the state address, Murphy said that “free full-day kindergarten” and “free universal preschool” are some of his top priorities for his final year in office. It’s a road the state is already traveling down, he said: over the past seven years, funding for public preschool has increased by over $550 million, with New Jersey currently spending $1.2 billion to create and sustain programs in communities across the state.

According to the governor’s office, nearly 300 elementary-serving school districts in New Jersey currently offer some form of “free, high-quality preschool” to local residents. But the push to expand access to early childhood education isn’t stopping there, Murphy added.

The governor said he and some other fellow Democratic lawmakers – including Teresa Ruiz, the Senate majority leader – have been working on several pieces of legislation to keep the ball rolling.

The list includes:

• Codify Preschool Funding – “Preschool education aid is currently distributed through budget language. By enacting separate legislation, we are making the program more reliable for the future.”
• Require access to full-day kindergarten – “All five-year-old students will be ensured access to free, full-day kindergarten.”
• Strengthen Mixed Delivery – “The Department of Education will develop a mixed delivery handbook to clarify and standardize the process of forming agreements between school districts and private providers.”
• Create the Preschool Teacher Pipeline Investment Program – “The Office of the Secretary of Higher Education would have to publish guidance on dual admission programs for early childhood education studies. The Departments of Human Services and Children and Families would have to publish joint guidance for child care centers to implement graduated salary scales for private teachers working towards preschool certification.”

“Investing in early education is one of the most powerful ways to transform our communities,” Ruiz said. “It offers dual benefits — providing students with a strong educational foundation while easing the financial burden of child care for parents.”

“It’s long past time for full-day kindergarten to be the standard in every New Jersey school, a crucial step toward building a unified early childhood ecosystem and achieving universal pre-K,” she added.

• See Related: NJ Senator Joins Push To Expand Free Pre-K, Kindergarten

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