Can the Most Populous State Pull Off Universal Pre-K?

When Wendy Lundeen began teaching transitional kindergarten over a dozen years ago, it was seen as an unconventional option to help prepare children to one day enter elementary school.

Fast forward 13 years, and she is one of a growing number of teachers who have been tasked with expanding what is now essentially seen as an important additional early grade level across the entire California school system.

“I work at a Title 1 school; a lot of our students didn’t have the opportunity to attend a preschool program,” says Lundeen, who also serves as a board member for the California Kindergarten Association. “A lot of those who would be coming into our school, they couldn’t afford preschool anyway. It’s important to provide this first year into school for them.”

California first touted its plan for “universal pre-K” in 2021, pushing for a full rollout by the 2025-2026 school year. As the start of that academic year nears in August, the state has largely kept its promise that all 4-year-olds can attend a high-quality early learning program for free.

But with the rollout comes what many call growing pains, including unclear guidelines, fluctuating curricula and a potential drop in the number of teachers available.
Among the hurdles is helping families — and educators themselves — understand one of the flagship offerings of the program: transitional kindergarten.

The challenges show that there is more required for these programs to succeed than simply providing them.

All Eyes on California

In 2021, California unveiled its plan to provide universal pre-K for all 4-year-olds as well as expand access to income-eligible 3-year-olds by the 2025-2026 school year. Transitional kindergarten — often called TK — is one of a few formats available in the universal pre-K program, along with Head Start and the California State Preschool Program. Families can also choose to enroll children at private early childhood education centers at their own expense.

Most learning institutions are opting for transitional kindergarten, with a majority (85 percent) offering transitional kindergarten programs well before the 2025-2026 academic year deadline, according to a recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California.
What makes transitional kindergarten different from other pre-elementary-school options is its specific focus on prepping all children for kindergarten, while the California State Preschool Program focuses on younger children and Head Start is federally funded, focusing on lower-income families. The transitional kindergarten program is typically offered within existing elementary schools, and all districts will be required to offer it.

California was far from the first to offer a universal, widespread preschool program: Georgia pioneered a universal pre-K offering in 1995 with its state-funded program, with Oklahoma following in 1998. Former President Joe Biden called for universal early education programs in 2021.

But California’s sheer scope of size — both in geographic spread and the number of children it serves — makes its undertaking noteworthy.

“I’m sure there are those watching closely to see what happens,” says Cristi Carman, director of the RAPID survey project at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. “And what I’ve heard is if California can figure out how to do this, those with less complexity in diversity and administrative systems can. Like many things, California has an opportunity to be a strong model for other states.”

Staffing Up

With California’s early transitional kindergarten success comes a litany of unintended consequences.

The majority (92 percent) of educational agencies, including elementary schools, say they have enough teachers to staff transitional kindergarten classrooms, according to a report from the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit focused on K-12 education policy.
But a report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) categorized the universal pre-K rollout as “building the plane while flying it.” Anne Powell, senior research and policy associate at CSCCE, said finding staff — particularly classroom aides — that will meet the transitional kindergarten teacher standards implemented in the coming school year could be a concern as the program fully rolls out.

“Districts mostly have existing teachers on their roster to draw from; the first line of defense for schools is to hire those teachers over into TK,” she says. “The uptake of students was a bit slower, but this coming fall it will be all implemented. So it’s fair to say probably districts have found everyone within their staff and now are having to look for outside candidates.”
Because the transitional kindergarten programs receive state funding, they are required to be staffed by lead teachers with a valid teaching credential as well as 24 units of coursework in early childhood education or child development, a Child Development Teacher Permit, or equivalent experience.

The “equivalent experience” is decided by individual schools, and could mean anything from a decade of experience to one year in a preschool classroom. That chasm could cause future problems.

“Right now many of us have been saying it’s not a fair pathway and there should be some workarounds or fast tracks; many of us are not going to give up on trying to see those come to fruition,” Powell says. “Even if there’s enough TK teachers today, there’s shortages across the board. So you’d hope it encourages them to have an open mind but I do think it’ll take the pre-K teachers fighting for their right to become TK teachers.”

Growing Pains

Communication has been muddled over what exactly transitional kindergarten is and when children are eligible for the programs. According to a RAPID survey project that will be released by the end of July, roughly one-third of parents say they are not 100 percent sure what transitional kindergarten is, how to enroll their child and if it is an option for them.

“At a fundamental level, there’s still some work to do to expand that awareness and make sure the messages are reaching all families and communities across the state,” Carman says, adding some outside programs refer to themselves as ‘TK’ despite not being offered within public schools, further muddying the waters. “There’s so much complexity in the space for parents just trying to navigate it all.”

The Learning Policy Institute found similar confusion through their own studies, with Victoria Wang, a research and policy associate, stating that a top focus of the transitional kindergarten rollout should be streamlining communication.

“We saw information gaps as a barrier; a lot didn’t know TK was an option or if they had an eligible child,” she says. “It’s important to continue examining why families are choosing TK or not, especially if there are accessibility concerns. If they’re not choosing it because they couldn’t find information on it, or enrollment was difficult, there’s obviously some changes to be made at a state or local level.”

If transitional kindergarten has an identity issue, that is partly because of the question mark of its curriculum. While the state has a set of standards under the California Transitional Learning Foundation, there are no guidelines on exactly what to teach. Lundeen — who was the sole transitional kindergarten teacher at her school for 12 years — said for new teachers, this could prove challenging if they have no partners to work alongside with.

Another concern is the discrepancy between how elementary school educators tend to focus on learning through instruction, while early childhood educators tend to emphasize learning through play.

“From what I hear from other teachers and see on social media, the biggest concern is the lack of understanding by the school district or administration on what TK should look like and what play-based learning looks like for TK,” Lundeen says. “They get a lot of push into what would be considered traditionally kindergarten or first grade tactics, because people don’t know.”

She and Wang of the Learning Policy Institute say it is not necessarily the fault of the administrators, but there needs to be a push from the state to illustrate what transitional kindergarten looks like.

“On top of professional development for teachers, something that’s come up is professional development with school leaders,” Wang says. “Some may never have been in a preschool before, so it’s making sure they understand and then support their lead teachers in making sure it’s developmentally appropriate.”

There are also issues for California to consider that are not unique to transitional kindergarten and are seen across the board in early learning programs. There is stress among families over finding child care: anything over four hours is considered an “all day” transitional kindergarten program, and even with true all-day programs that run from from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., many parents need before- or after-school care as well. Then there is the need for developmentally appropriate facilities — from having small enough toilets for early learners to enough play space.

If You Build It, Will They Come?

Even as California builds more early learning capacity, enrollment trends nationwide raise questions about family participation.

According to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), many states offering universal pre-K — including Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia — all had “substantial” dips in enrollment since the 2019-2020 school year, with other states including Iowa and West Virginia “stuck” at a stagnant enrollment rate over the last five years.

“An alarm is raised by enrollment trends in some states with universal pre-K programs where enrollment rates have not recovered since the pandemic and continued to decline into 2024,” the NIEER annual report states, venturing it could be due to parent dissatisfaction with the program, its hours, or transportation issues.

Experts also acknowledge there will never, nor should there be, an expectation for the transitional kindergarten program to hit 100 percent of enrollment. Head Start and privately funded programs will fill some of that gap, especially as more communities seem to be relying on friends, family members and neighbors more than ever to provide child care.

Yet the benefits of transitional kindergarten outweigh the woes, according to most experts interviewed by EdSurge and several research papers published over the years. Lundeen says kindergarten teachers specifically notice the difference in social and emotional skills in those who have attended transitional kindergarten versus not, with children being able to more easily solve problems, work with peers and sit quietly during story time.

These potential advantages leave observers optimistic about California’s ambitious effort.

“Basically adding a whole new grade level in three to four years is really difficult, and there’s always going to be growing pains, but the promise of TK is really important,” says Wang, of the Learning Policy Institute. “It’s important we don’t give up on this initiative and support schools in making it developmentally appropriate.”