This August, as schools reopened for the 2022-2023 school year, California welcomed many more students than ever before into its transitional kindergarten classrooms. The state is investing $2.7 billion in early childhood education primarily through an expansion of transitional kindergarten. While transitional kindergarten (TK) has typically been available to children who narrowly miss the cutoff for kindergarten, the new policy gradually expands age guidelines over the next four years until all four-year-olds in California—nearly 400,000 children—are eligible for the program by 2026.

The transitional kindergarten expansion is being lauded as a significant step towards educational equity. High-quality early learning is linked to improved school readiness, increased rates of high school graduation and participation in college, and higher average monthly earnings. Access to preschool programs can level the playing field by ensuring more, if not all, children arrive in kindergarten well-positioned to succeed in school and beyond.

However, participation in transitional kindergarten (and kindergarten) is optional in California and school districts are not required to offer more than 180 minutes of instruction per day in TK. For working families, part-day preschool creates the challenge of identifying care options for the hours when children are not in school. Additionally, in part-day programs, there can be a tendency to prioritize academic skills over activities that emphasize play, social interactions, and relationship-building, all of which are critical for promoting children’s learning and development.

To bridge the gaps in access and quality, transitional kindergarten expansion must be complemented by a comparable investment in wraparound programs that address quality (like curriculum enhancements and after-school care) in order to make it a viable and attractive option for families. Without such wraparound programming, families are unlikely to choose to enroll their children in transitional kindergarten, compounding the problem of declining enrollment—and defeating the purpose of equitably providing high quality early childhood experiences.

Read the full article about Kindergarten expansion by Ryan Hazelton and Savitha Moorthy at EdSource.