As learning loss from the pandemic continues to be evaluated, California is expanding an early childhood education program that may help younger children bounce back. Starting next fall, Grass Valley School District Superintendent Andrew Withers says transitional kindergarten will be far more available…

click to listen to Andrew Withers

The plan is to gradually phase in younger students each year until all four-year-olds are eligible by the 2025-2026 school year. Transititional kindergarten was approved by the Legislature in 2010. It’s often described as a steppingstone between preschool and kindergarten, which is now more academically demanding than it once was…

click to listen to Andrew Withers

Both transitional kindergarten and kindergarten are optional. Children are only required to attend school in California once they turn six years old. But in recent years, momentum has been building in the Legislature to make kindergarten more mandatory and full-day, in an attempt to help close the widening achievement gap.