Transitional kindergarten stirs worry, praise in San Mateo County

Instead, many have opted to enroll their children in transitional kindergarten, the first of a two year kindergarten program focused on age and development appropriate curriculum being offered by public school districts. The offering comes to families, free of charge regardless of income level, thanks to a state mandate that districts begin establishing TK programs and welcoming 4-year-olds who will turn 5 between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2.

Qualifying age requirements for public school TK programs will fall even lower over the next five years, eventually welcoming kids as young as 3 but will turn 4 by Sept. 1 onto campus.

State-funded universal TK has been lauded by many as being a major step in evening the educational playing field. Children from families who once struggled to afford child care services will now have access to early learning opportunities, acclimating a child to the education environment while providing vital cost savings for families, especially those facing intense financial burdens.

“When you provide early childhood education, you’re giving families a path toward their children becoming competent learners and allowing for children to adjust to the changes that go along with starting school,” Diego Ochoa, San Mateo-Foster City School District superintendent, said.

Enrolling younger students could also help stabilize a public school system that hit a two-decade enrollment low last year after losing roughly 500,000 students in the last 15 years, according to data from the California Department of Education.

The additional students won’t likely translate to additional funds to local districts that, like the state, have been losing students for years largely due to the high and ever growing cost of living in the Bay Area, Burlingame School District Superintendent Chris Mount-Benites said. But he’s also excited to be expanding the district’s TK program. For years now, the district has offered TK at three of its six elementary school sites so Mount-Benites said the expansion to three more locations was less of a lift than other districts may have experienced.

The equity component is what really matters, Ochoa and Mount-Benites said. While Ochoa argued the program will mostly attract families who seek more informal child care — resulting in little change on paid programs — Mount-Benites conceded child care centers will face some dwindling numbers. But both argued students will ultimately benefit from receiving approved curriculum from credentialed teachers in an official classroom setting.

“It’s not even the same world. I feel bad for providers but the fact is … they aren’t schools,” Mount-Benites said. “This is going to be a great opportunity for families.”

Rolling out and safeguards

The state’s TK rollout hasn’t been seamless though, said Mount-Benites and David Fleishman, executive director of Child Care Coordinating Council of San Mateo County, a nonprofit also known as 4Cs that aims to connect families with affordable and quality child care services

Mount-Benites said more details on curriculum and how TK will differ from the state’s Head Start program are still needed. And Fleishman said the state should have offered communities more time to prepare, conducted a more robust and transparent economic analysis of how the program would impact the child care industry and developed a system of monetary resources to keep providers in operation.

Without that infrastructure and information, child care providers will be left to adapt to what challenges arise alone, likely causing years of greater disruptions to the local workforce that continues to rely on their services.

“It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to be quick. It’s the right direction, it’s the right intentions, it’s the right thing in so many ways and yet this system is just so hurting right now,” Fleishman said. “A lot of people and providers are very concerned about this. Everyone in a supporting role is worried about this.”

Like Fleishman, Ward said the state should have done better to support the child care industry, especially after a two-year pandemic when centers and family child care homes — day cares operated out of a residential home — stayed open so first responders could go to work.

To safely provide that service, child care programs had to reduce their enrollment numbers, bringing in less money while fixed costs like rent remained the same and other expenses for safety and cleaning materials increased.

Many centers and home providers have not yet recovered from that strain, Ward said. Federal, state and local funds have helped keep some child care providers afloat but what public dollars do flow in are nothing compared to what is pumped into public schools and more aid has not been proposed as part of the TK rollout.

As people started to return to work, programs began to see enrollment numbers increase, but then came a new struggle — finding staff who were either let go or left the child care industry.

Now with TK rolling out in public schools across the state, Ward said providers are again taking the hit by losing the clients they thought they could rely on to rebuild their programs. And individual programs have no chance of competing against school districts for staff given the benefits and pay packages they’ll be able to offer, she said, noting providers have been told to pick up roles in the new TK programs instead of being offered support.

“Many women have dedicated their lives to this profession and just like that it’s being pulled away and it’s by your own government and there’s no safety net and no regard,” Ward said. “Public school was closed and people needed us and we rose to the moment and this is kind of a slap to the face.”

More support needed

No one, however, has argued school districts are flush with money. Many districts will not receive extra state funding for offering TK given that they are community funded, meaning they’re budgets are fully supported by tax payer dollars. School districts have also long faced staffing issues as employees left the region in chase of new opportunities and more stable financial footing.

Staffing ratios are also much tighter in TK programming, increasing staff costs. Compared to standard classroom sizes where one teacher can oversee up to 30 students, TK classrooms have at least one adult for every 12 students and, eventually, that ratio will fall to one for every 10. And some districts are having to determine how to build out classroom capacity with limited grant support from the state.

Ward noted that child care providers have already had the infrastructure in place that’s needed to provide young children with the early education they deserve and often can do that at lower ratios — frequently one adult to every eight kids. Some child care providers offer more flexible hours than what will be offered through the public school TK program, Ward also said.

Districts will have the option to provide either full-day or half-day instruction and Mount-Benites and Ochoa noted their districts also have additional child care available outside of standard school hours.

Rather than provide families with one subsidized option, Ward argued the state should have worked closer with the existing preschool system which includes state, district and community-subsidies programming as well as private preschooling and expanded learning options.

Many parts of the state’s expanded TK program are still being worked out, years of expansion are still to come and it’s unclear how exactly the existing child care programs will have to adapt. Fleishman acknowledged that a private sector, similar to private schools, will always be in demand by people with the means to pay for the service.

And while some see this as a great opportunity for private care providers to begin serving younger children, Fleishman and Ward noted that transition would be an expensive one demanding more staff to care for an even smaller ratio of children and upgraded infrastructure.

Having dedicated her life’s work to child care and early child education, though, Ward said she feels more motivated than ever to speak out about what Fleishman called the unintended consequence of the state’s TK program — a blow to an industry that will disproportionately impact women and, more specifically, women of color, who largely provide child care services.

“A lot of times, people who work in child care are so busy with the children they don’t have the opportunity to speak up for themselves so that’s something I’m going to commit to doing,” Ward said. “I’ve been doing it and I’m going to continue to do it because our families need it, our providers need it and women of color need it. I’m feeling fired up and feel like there’s still an opportunity to help women of color and small businesses survive.”

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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