Hawaii has been awarded a $2 million federal grant to launch public preschool programs at charter schools.

The state was one of 18 states awarded $226 million under the federal Preschool Development Grants program to increase access to high-quality preschool, the U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday.

“Expanding access to high-quality preschool is critically important to ensure the success of our children in school and beyond,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. “These states are demonstrating a strong commitment to building and enhancing early learning systems, closing equity gaps and expanding opportunity so that more children in America can fulfill their greatest potential.”

Preschool in the islands has historically been provided by community-based organizations funded with philanthropic and federal support. Half of the state’s 3- and 4-year-olds enter kindergarten without a preschool education, a rate that has remained relatively flat the past five years.

The state for the first time last year designated public funds — $3 million — for preschool education, establishing pre-kindergarten classes at 18 public schools to serve about 420 students. But, the state’s 34 charter schools were not included in the program.

The State Public Charter School Commission applied for $14.88 million over four years to create 18 new preschool classrooms to eventually serve a total of 920 children.

“This is a very, very exciting development,” said commission executive director Tom Hutton.

Hawaii was awarded an initial $2.07 million for the first year of its plan, which will be used to establish four classrooms at four charter schools on the Hilo side of Hawaii island.

“We were strategic in focusing on schools that were serving communities where there is a great deal of need and not many options for pre-kindergarten,” Hutton said.

He said the grant comes with specific requirements to ensure quality.

“The feds have real expectations about what kind of program you put in place. This is intended to fund high-quality programs, so there are a lot of requirements about the professional quality of staff, the professional development that they take,” Hutton said.