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Publication: EdSource
Date: September 2021
Quality early childhood education is a key factor in preparing children for success in school and beyond. Advocates have long pushed to increase access to early learning in California, a state with almost 3 million children under the age of 5.
Now, amid a pandemic and President Biden championing universal preschool, universal transitional kindergarten, or TK, is poised to become a reality in California’s education space.
The state’s new $2.7 billion TK program will be phased in beginning in 2022, until it includes all of the state’s four-year-olds by the 2025-26 school year.
Providers, advocates and policymakers explore the importance and impact of early education and how TK fits into the journey between preschool and kindergarten.