2023–24 TK Early Enrollment Executive Summary - Legislative Report

California Department of Education
Report to the Fiscal and Policy Committees of the Legislature and the Department of Finance: Universal PreKindergarten Mixed Delivery Quality and Access Workgroup Report
Executive Summary

This report is required by California Education Code (EC) Section 48000.15(f) which was codified through the signing of Senate Bill (SB) 114 (Chapter 48, Statutes of 2023). EC Section 48000.15(f) states that for the 2023–24 and 2024–25 school years, any school district or charter school that serves early enrollment children in transitional kindergarten (TK) must report to the California Department of Education (CDE) the number of teachers in TK classrooms that do not meet the additional apportionment requirements of early childhood education (ECE) and child development knowledge defined in EC Section 48000(g)(4) (full text for EC Section 48000[g][4] and EC Section 48000.15 can be found in appendix A). It additionally requires that the CDE report this information to the California State Legislature and the California Department of Finance.

An early enrollment child is a child whose fourth birthday falls between June 3 and September 1 preceding the school year in which they are enrolled (EC Section 48000.15 [b][4]). In order to admit early enrollment children in a TK classroom, school districts and charters must follow lower adult-to-child ratios, class sizes, and prioritize meeting the additional TK teacher requirements for these classrooms (EC Section 48000.15[d]), the latter of which is the focus of this report.

To meet the reporting requirements of EC Section 48000.15(f), the CDE surveyed 2,208 school districts and charter schools with TK programs to request the number of TK teachers of early enrollment children that both did and did not meet the requirements of EC Section 48000(g)(4) in the 2023–24 school year. Of the 1,579 local educational agencies (LEAs) that responded to this survey, school districts reported 54 of the 749 TK teachers of early enrollment children (7 percent) did not meet the additional TK teacher requirements. Charter schools reported 85 of the 330 TK teachers of early enrollment children (26 percent) did not meet these additional TK teacher requirements.

This report will summarize the survey findings and provide background information needed to fully understand TK programs that include early enrollment children and TK teacher requirements of early enrollment children for the 2023–24 school year.

Although the purpose of this report is to share the number of TK teachers of early enrollment children that did not meet the requirements of EC 48000(g)(4) in the 2023–24 school year, it is important to recognize that many LEAs already made their enrollment and hiring decisions for the 2023–24 school year before the requirements provided in EC 48000.15 became law or were even introduced in legislation. Specifically, the legislature authorized these requirements on July 1, 2023; however, most LEAs begin enrolling TK students in the early spring of the preceding school year and work to fill staffing vacancies and make assignments for the following school year by late spring or early summer. Many LEAs with TK teachers assigned to classrooms that included early enrollment children made these assignments prior to the new requirements being in place and were unable to make immediate adjustments, when the law was passed, due to time constraints, union obligations, and other factors outside of their control. It is important to acknowledge the challenges created with changes introduced late in the budget process. This context is critical to fully understand the challenges LEAs faced in meeting stricter adult-to-child ratios, class size limits, and TK teacher requirements for early enrollment children.

If you have any questions regarding this report, please contact Nicole Seymour, Education Programs Assistant, Early Education Division, by phone at 916-445-0969 or by email at nseymour@cde.ca.gov.

You can find this report at the CDE UPK Planning and Implementation Grant web page.

Report to the Legislature and Department of Finance (DOCX)