Somewhere in the world, Dolly Parton is likely smiling. That’s because the state agency that oversees K-12 education in Washington state has stepped in to fund the country-music icon’s Imagination Library program for another year — ensuring that children up to 5 continue to receive free books monthly.
Funding for the state’s Imagination Library program had been cut from the Washington Legislature’s budget as lawmakers struggled to resolve a multi-billion-dollar shortfall.
But state Superintendent Chris Reykdal announced this week that OSPI will keep the program rolling for one more year using discretionary funds. The ultimate goal is to secure renewed fiscal backing from the state Legislature during the 2026 session. Funding for other early-learning efforts, such as the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) and Transition to Kindergarten, also was reduced this year.
“Washington’s youngest children cannot afford to have their opportunities for early learning cut to this extent,” Reykdal said in a Wednesday news release.
In 2022, Washington’s Legislature partnered with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) to expand the Imagination Library access to kids under the age of 5. Families could enroll in the program, no matter their income, at no cost.
Parton, a Tennessee native, founded the Imagination Library in 1995 to honor her father, who couldn’t read or write. Books reportedly get shipped from a Tennessee warehouse directly to Washington homes.
Most of the money to keep the statewide Imagination Library program going came from a combination of “one-time federal funding, reprioritized early learning funding, and tightening spending around staff travel and other expenses,” an OSPI spokesperson said via email. About $2 million is going to support the effort.
Every book in the Imagination Library program costs $2.60, half of which is covered by local partners and the other half typically by the state, the June 25 news release says. Some 120,000 Washington children are served by the program, which runs in all 39 counties.
As of April, Washington was one of a dozen U.S. locales fully covered by statewide Imagination Library programs.
Brooke Fisher-Clark, executive director of the Imagination Library of Washington, said the organization is grateful to OSPI and Reykdal for their support and investment.
“This program has the potential to be absolutely life changing for Washington students, and we already see through rising kindergarten readiness scores that our efforts, along with other early learning investments, are making a difference in our children’s learning,” Fisher-Clark said in the news release. “As Dolly Parton often says, ‘you can never get enough books into the hands of enough children.’”
Families interested in the program can visit imaginationlibrarywashington.org. There’s also a bilingual option to receive titles in Spanish and English.
