The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of public preschool education on kindergarten preparedness for $quot;at-risk$quot; children participants versus $quot;at-risk$quot; children nonparticipants. The result of the study using one-way Analysis of Variance found that the participants of the preschool program scored significantly higher on the Early Prevention of School Failure screening instrument than did the nonparticipants. The means of the experimental and control group differed significantly {F(1, 58)=13.9, p$lt;.01 }. It was concluded that the $quot;at-risk$quot; children who had participated in a preschool program entered kindergarten more academically equipped for early school success than those with no such experience.