California

Overview

During the 2022-2023 school year, California’s two preschool programs together enrolled 209,081 children, an increase of 27,467 from the prior year. State spending for the two programs totaled $2,989,941,651, with an additional $210,393,445 in federal recovery funds to support the program, up $830,595,002 (35%), adjusted for inflation, since last year. State spending per child (including federal recovery funds) averaged $15,307 in 2022-2023, up $2,258 from 2021-2022, adjusted for inflation. In 2022-2023, state spending per child was $19,817 (including federal recovery funds) for the California State Preschool Program (CSPP) and $11,165 for the Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program. The CSPP met 6 of 10 quality standards benchmarks and TK met 3 of 10.

What's New

California State Preschool Programs (CSPP) received additional funding to cover family fee waivers through the 2022-2023 school year. California published its Master Plan for Early Learning and Care (MPELC) in December 2020. The MPELC seeks to promote school readiness by recommending the expansion of a mixed-delivery system, increased access for three-year olds, and universal preschool for all four-year-olds.

In 2022-2023, California was in the first year of ramping up its full implementation of universal TK by funding $614 million to expand eligibility for TK to all children turning five years old by February 2. An additional $383 million supported reducing child to teacher ratios by adding a second adult to TK classrooms. In 2022-2023, the Universal Prekindergarten Planning and Implementation Grant Program allocated another $300 million to local educational agencies (LEAs) to support planning and implementation costs to expand access to classroom-based prekindergarten programs at LEAs. This school year, school districts and charter schools must maintain an average TK class enrollment of no more than 24 children with a 1 to 12 child to teacher ratio in each classroom. Commencing with the 2025-2026 school year, TK classrooms must have an average ratio of 1 adult to 10 children. Beginning in 2022-2023, TK expanded by increasing the age-eligibility window until the program is fully universal by 2025-2026. The California Department of Education continued to update the California Preschool Learning Foundations to reflect the prekindergarten year and incorporate research on supporting dual language learnings and children with disabilities.

In December 2022, the California Health & Human Services Agency received a Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B–5) planning grant for $4 million to include expanded activities from existing partners of PDG B–5 renewal grant, supportive resources for the Early Childhood Integrated Data System project and a new PDG B–5 California Department of Social Services team member to focus on Workforce Development and support PDG B–5 activities.

Background

In 2008, the California State Preschool Program Act created the CSPP by consolidating several early childhood initiatives into one funding stream. CSPP provides part- and full-day preschool to 3- and 4-year-olds. In addition to meeting eligibility requirements for CSPP (now 100% SMI), families are prioritized for full-day services if they have established at least one of the following: employment/ seeking employment, education or vocational training, homelessness, or parental incapacity. CSPP awards funding through a competitive application process to school districts, private and faith-based agencies, Head Start programs, higher education institutions, counties, cities, and tribal organizations. A family is eligible for full-day CSPP for at least 24 months if age-eligibility requirements are met. A family is eligible for part-day CSPP services for the remainder of the current program year and the following program year, provided the child continues to meet age eligibility requirements. Teachers are required to have California Child Development Associate Teacher Permits and can receive grants for professional learning. CSPP classrooms receive structured quality observations using the ECERS-R at least once a year.

California TK began during the 2012-2013 school year when the kindergarten age eligibility shifted from December 2 to September 1. In June 2015 an amendment to state law allowed children turning 5 years old after December 2 to attend TK at the beginning of the school year, at the discretion of the local educational agency. In 2022-2023, TK was the first year of a two-year kindergarten program for children born between September 2 and February 2. TK follows kindergarten law for class size, teacher qualifications, funding, and serving English language learners. By the 2025-2026 school year, TK will be available to all 4-year-olds in the state.

Beginning in the 2018-2019 school year, CSPP- and TK-enrolled children can be served in the same classroom. Classrooms consisting of commingled CSPP and TK children are intended to support student transition, allow school districts and charter schools to braid funding streams, and support the overall quality of the programs by requiring that standards from both programs are met.

California’s overall support for state-funded preschool is depicted in the first two sections of this state profile. The third section focuses on CSPP and the fourth on TK.