By Athena Stroben and Kai Arellano

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget provides $2.4 billion in ongoing Proposition 98 funding to permanently expand Transitional Kindergarten, or TK, which has been gaining steam in Capital area communities like Roseville.

California students who turn four on or before September 1st of the upcoming 2025 academic school year should be able to enroll in a transitional kindergarten program. 

Transitional Kindergarten is designed to emphasize early literacy and math skills while developing social development, emotional development, and fine motor skills.

In the Roseville City School District, TK enrollment has grown from 403 enrolled students in 2019-2020 to 520 students enrolled in 2023-2024. Roseville’s district now offers a 5-hour per day TK program that is meant to give its students a head start if needed or to help them before they go to traditional kindergarten. 

“Transitional Kindergarten represents a true bridge between preschools and regular traditional Kindergarten,” said Jessica Hull, the Roseville City School District Executive Director of Communication. 

Hull said her district’s program aligns with the curriculum from the California Preschool Foundation and is designed to “support our youngest student’s social, emotional, physical, and academic needs. 

In the Western Placer Unified School District, TK enrollment has grown from 194students enrolled in 2019-2020 to 343 students enrolled in 2023-2024. WPUSD offers TK at seven of its 14 school sites. These are the Dual Language Immersion Program, the STAR Program, and the C.A.R.E. Program. 

“We have a longstanding Transitional Kindergarten program at seven of our eight elementary schools, our Transitional Kindergarten is a yearlong pre-kindergarten program that uses a curriculum that is age and developmentally appropriate,” said Emma Oehler, the Western Placer Unified Marketing Communications Officer. 

Several local colleges are preparing students to become TK teachers. Wendy Westsmith, William Jessup University’s Lead Faculty for Child Development and assistant professor said her students are being taught everything they can about TK.

She said that TK has been on the radar for public schools and in practice in public schools for at least five years or longer. 

Westsmith said that students and other teachers have long practiced and studied teaching in TK settings to be ahead of the curve before the program was expanded in California.

“We have more mandates from the state like a one to 12 ratio and other issues that must be adhered to,” said Westsmith. “Everyone I’m working with, that would mean candidates, has to be prepared.”

Besides strengthening student’s social, emotional, physical, and academic needs it offers an extra year of child care for busy parents who cannot afford to send their children to external daycare.

In Sacramento County, TK enrollment has grown from 2302 students enrolled in 2019-2020 to 5,047 students enrolled in 2023-2024.

H. Alix Gallagher, the director of Strategic Partnerships for Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) based out of Stanford University, said that children up to four years old can be added to TK.  However, enrolling your child into TK is not enforced.

“While every district is required to offer TK, California does not require students to enroll in school until first grade,” said Gallagher. “Kindergarten and TK are both optional.”   

TK, which will be universal throughout California, has existed in many forms around the United States. Local education agencies in California had 46% TK stand-alone classes since 2022-2023. These ranged from the California State Preschool Program, Head Start, and others like this. 

“TK truly provides our youngest Kindergarteners with the gift of time, enabling all students to begin traditional Kindergarten ready to thrive,” said Hull.