Noting that one of the major educational policy shifts in recent years has been the establishment of state-funded prekindergarten programs, this report details a study examining how five states (Georgia, Illinois, New York, South Carolina, and Texas) managed this educational policy shift, identified the major facilitators and major barriers, and identified strategies useful in achieving this result. Information was obtained through interviews conducted with and documents obtained from a total of 40 individuals representing early childhood, Head Start, child care, the political scene, and others relevant to each state's educational policy. Following an executive summary, the report is presented in four sections. Section 1 discusses change theory and resistance to reform. Section 2 outlines the methodology of the study. Section 3 presents a case study for each state. Section 4 discusses the findings, describing commonalities and differences among states, and delineating recommendations for other states considering prekindergarten education. The findings indicate that all the states had high percentages of change facilitators in the institutional, individual, and political categories. The barriers mentioned most frequently were in the institutional, resources, and economic categories. Common elements across all five states included the importance of political leadership, the goal of reducing early school failure, the importance of making the program part of larger educational reform, cooperation between professional and political leaders, and the increase of mothers in the workforce pressuring decision makers for action. Major state differences included program financing, gradual versus sudden implementation, program administration and the degree of support services provided. (Contains 32 references.) (KB)