West Virginia is a nationally recognized leader for its strong commitment to high-quality early learning education programming. West Virginia is one of a very small handful of states in the nation with free, full-day, five-day kindergarten for all children AND voluntary universal pre-k to all four-year-old children (and three-year-old children with special needs). The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) (2017) notes that West Virginia is one of five states in the nation to meet all current 10 quality benchmarks for its Universal Pre-K Program, and places West Virginia as sixth in the nation for access to four-year olds (seventh in the nation for access for three-year-olds). Ten new quality benchmarks were introduced in the 2016 NIEER State of Preschool. The new benchmarks were introduced to reflect current research and focus on process quality. West Virginia meets 9 of those in the first year. While the Universal Pre-K program is voluntary, the state participation rate is 76%. West Virginia has continued to foster a progressive approach to early learning to best meet the holistic needs of all young children in the state. This annual report is divided into five sections. Part One provides an introduction to early learning in the state. Part Two defines "Universal" in WV Pre-K, and contains an overview of West Virginia's Pre-K program. Also provided are key facts and data about universal Pre-K in the state. Part Three contains WV universal Pre-K access and collaboration trend data. Part Four contains WV Universal Pre-K quality current and trend data. Part Five discusses closing the early literacy achievement gap in West Virginia via the WV Leaders of Literacy Campaign for Grade Level Reading. The long term goals of the WV Leaders of Literacy: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading are to improve student achievement and close the 3rd Grade Literacy achievement gap, ultimately ensuring all West Virginia students graduate high school with the skills and dispositions required for college and/or career readiness. [For the 2016 Annual Report, see ED594492.]