Enlargement of Transitional Kindergarten Might Current Issues for Some Dad and mom – CBS San Francisco

SACRAMENTO (KPIX) – Governor Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers expand their transition kindergarten to allow all four-year-old California children to enroll in a publicly funded school for free, regardless of income.

It’s a turning point for California, which has lagged behind other states in early childhood education.

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But while seven out of ten Californians polled by the Public Policy of California this spring support state-funded preschools, not all agree on how to do it.

Joyce Gomez and her husband are thrilled that their three-year-old son Asher may have a free year of pre-kindergarten school at their neighborhood public elementary school next year.

“I’m so happy! I can’t wait,” said Gomez.

The home mom says childcare is expensive and a free year before K would allow her to get back to work and give her son the jump-start he needs.

“The human brain develops 90 percent between the ages of one and five, so it gets better for him how early he can get into a preschool program,” she said.

The California transition kindergarten – or TK – currently accepts around 100,000 children.

These children, who will turn five between September 2nd and December 2nd, are currently receiving a free year of publicly funded Pre-K.

From one year onwards, however, more children will gradually start school until all four-year-old children can attend a transitional kindergarten in public schools by September 2025.

MP Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) presented the bill to expand the transitional kindergarten.

“This will really help the students. It’s a big win for California, ”said McCarty.

However, critics say universal TC would cripple an already fragile childcare industry and hurt families they serve.

BAHIA Inc. provides childcare for children ages two to ten in Berkeley.

Managing director Beatriz Leyva-Cutler only heard of the state’s plans to expand the transition kindergarten last year.

“It was like a cold bucket of ice on our face,” said Leyva-Cutler. “We had to do with COVID and then found out about this transition kindergarten.”

She fears that four-year-old children will leave their bilingual child development program for a free transition kindergarten that does not offer the same high quality education.

That would force them to switch to caring for children ages three and under, a more expensive business model that requires different education and more individualized care.

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“Panning is not as easy as the authors of this bill seem to think,” said Leyva-Cutler. “You know, you just can’t say ‘OK’, you’re a preschool teacher, now a toddler teacher or an infant toddler teacher.

The results could decimate licensed childcare workers who are unlikely to survive the pandemic.

“Many programs have already told us that they must be closed. You have to close. You will have to cut working hours, your staff, ”said Laurie Fürstenfeld from the Child Care Law Center.

Lizz Nolasco says this could put her family in a bind, and not just for her as the preschool director.

If her little son registers in the TK in a few years, the working mother may have to take him from place to place because the transition kindergarten only lasts a few hours and there are still no concrete plans for all-day offers.

“So we would have to start looking for these pre- and post-care options. In the worst case, I might not have a job, ”said Nolasco.

Others worry about additional support for students.

Head Start Executive Director Christopher Maricle says he is working to ensure families can keep the health services they depend on.

“We have a hundred thousand children in Head Start. We just want to make sure in the end that the parents are getting what they need and some of them will need it, ”said Maricle.

The Early Edge education initiative supports the expansion of the transition kindergarten.

According to Executive Director Patricia Lozano, this means around 225,000 more students will have an extra year of schooling at a crucial time for learning.

“All in all, it’s an amazing budget. A historic household. How can we implement this now and help with the implementation? ”Said Lozano.

McCarty says expanding the transitional kindergarten is a huge undertaking and there are still many details to be clarified.

Every fourth public school already has a transitional kindergarten. The state plans to spend billions of dollars to provide elementary schools with portable rooms or to retrofit classrooms that are empty due to falling school enrollments.

Despite a labor shortage, teachers would be reassigned or hired and trained.

Reimbursement rates and support will increase for subsidized childcare serving children under the age of three.

“We think it’s an absolute win-win situation. But the reality is that change is difficult. It disrupts the way things are today, ”said McCarty.

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California plans to have the country’s largest universal transition kindergarten in the next five years, but it is clear that transitioning in or out of the classroom will not be easy.