The Los Angeles Unified School District is pushing the gas pedal on its expansion of transitional kindergarten, and will offer the program to all four-year-olds this fall, two years ahead of the state’s mandate that school districts must do so.
The expansion seeks to better prepare all children for school and in life, but especially low-income children, English Language learners, and children with disabilities. Research shows that children who attend school before kindergarten are more likely to take honors classes and less likely to repeat a grade or drop out of school.
“Why wait two years to empower students with early literacy, early numeracy, earlier socializations … when we can do it now?” said LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, unveiling the plan at Van Deene Avenue Elementary STEAM Academy in the Harbor Gateway. “It’s literally an early start for students who absolutely need the normalcy, the routine and the early attention.”
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond joined Superintendent Carvalho in announcing the expansion and lauded the district’s bold plan to speed things up. Thurmond touted the importance of developing early reading skills in transitional kindergarten, because students who haven’t learned to read by third grade are at high risk of dropping out and becoming involved in the criminal justice system.
“We have the ability to make sure that we educate and not incarcerate our kids,” said Thurmond. “This is a human rights issue. This is a civil rights issue.”
About 14,000 students are now enrolled in transitional kindergarten at 317 LAUSD elementary schools. In August, the district will expand that to all 488 grade schools with a goal of enrolling 10,000 to 11,000 more students.
The push for more early childhood education comes from Sacramento, where in 2021 lawmakers passed SB 130 to establish a timeline for all school districts to offer transitional kindergarten by 2026. In the 2023-24 school year transitional…
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