U p d a t e d: LAUSD EXPANDS TRANSITIONAL KINDERGARTEN DISTRICTWIDE while GOVERNOR’S BUDGET REVISE SEEKS TO MAKE TK OPTIONAL

LAUSD will expand its Transitional Kindergarten program districtwide By Barbara Jones Staff Writer, Daily News/Daily Breeze |http://bit.ly/JSpPcA

May budget still seeks to make kindergarten-readiness optional By Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report.| http://bit.ly/K2ylH7

5/17/2012 07:03:50 PM PDT  ::  Despite a lack of financial and political support from Gov. Jerry Brown, Los Angeles Unified will expand its transitional kindergarten program this fall to all 400-plus elementary schools in the district, officials said Thursday. TK is a two-year program that lets youngsters progress at their own pace, giving them extra time to master the academic, social and developmental skills required of today's kindergartners. Los Angeles Unified has been operating 109 TK classes under a pilot program. While the district initially planned to add 100 more schools each of the next three years, officials have decided instead to launch TK everywhere this fall. "With the success of our transitional kindergarten pilot program, we have seen firsthand the impact of giving our students the gift of time," Superintendent John Deasy said in a statement. "Our students are making strong gains, especially in early literacy and math, and our English-language learners are making dramatic progress." TK is the result of a 2010 law that gradually moves up the date that kids are eligible to enroll in kindergarten. Under the new law, the cutoff for standard kindergarten shifts this year from the long-standing Dec. 2 deadline to Nov. 1, and to Oct. 1 in 2013 and Sept. 1 in 2014. Youngsters whose birthdays fall between the cutoff date and the previous threshold of Dec. 2 will be eligible for TK - an estimated 125,000 statewide by 2014. There has been considerable uncertainty about the future of transitional kindergarten. Because of the state's financial crisis, Brown said in January he wanted to eliminate TK, a proposal that was eventually rejected by both the state Senate and Assembly. When he released his revised budget proposal on Monday, there was no money to fund TK programs. But Nora Armenta, executive director of the Early Childhood Division for Los Angeles Unified, said administrators so believe in the program they figured out a way to expand TK using existing resources. Essentially, TK students will be assigned to an existing kindergarten class, with teachers given additional training for how to best work with the younger kids. "We're doing the work already, but this is just a different way of organizing the children and having more skill in understanding their needs," she said. She estimated that 4,000 students will qualify for TK classes this year, with a similar number signing up annually through 2014 as the new cut-off date is implemented. "This is putting 4,000 students back into the system," she said. "It's saving jobs and helping parents who wouldn't have a place to put their kids or would have to put them in a private preschool." Los Angeles Unified is among the nearly 200 districts that are registering students for transitional kindergarten for next year. smf: TK is supposed to be a stand alone program, not a combination class with K – that was the intent of Senator Simitian and SB1381.   TK should not be a revenue generator for school districts, it is supposed to  be an opportunity for four and five year olds. TK and K are both optional programs, neither is mandatory for parents and their kids. There is pending legislation to make Kindergarten attendance compulsory – (appx 10% of CA kids don’t go to K)  - but not TK.

Thursday, May 17, 2012  ::  Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget still seeks to eliminate the legal requirement that schools, starting this fall, must offer a new kindergarten-readiness program for 4-year-olds whose birthdays occur after Nov. 1, the kindergarten age cutoff date. The governor’s proposal would, instead, make transitional kindergarten optional by giving districts authority – and average daily attendance money – to offer those 4-year-olds an extra year of kindergarten, effectively creating a two-year kindergarten program. The proposal sends something of a mixed message to districts, many of which have been planning new programs to comply with the Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010 – the law requiring transitional kindergarten. Brown’s revised May budget, released Monday, does away with the term transitional kindergarten and contains no funding for it. But the governor’s Department of Finance staff has said districts still can, on a case-by-case basis, offer to enroll certain 4-year-olds in regular kindergarten classes and the state would pay for them just as it does other students. But many legislators who worked in support of the bill that created the program already this year have shown a strong reluctance to follow the governor’s lead and cut the program. The issue is just one of many Brown and legislative leaders are focused on as part of closing the state’s yawning $16 billion spending shortfall this summer. There is some sense among Capitol insiders that supporters of the program have gained the upper hand. In January, when Brown first proposed eliminating transitional kindergarten, the administration estimated the savings at $223.7 million. But fiscal analysts subsequently have trimmed the expected savings to $91.5 million as a result of what the administration calls the “anticipated declining enrollment costs as well as an expected increase in two-year kindergarten costs.” As proposed in the revised budget, those savings would be used to restore budget reductions to support and expand preschool programs. The governor’s initial suggestion in January that transitional kindergarten be de-funded left many districts in limbo, wondering whether they should expend the energy and resources to plan and implement the program. Even now, with the governor standing by his proposal to cut the program, state law still requires districts to prepare age-appropriate curriculum this fall for 4-year-olds whose autumn birthdays occur after Nov. 1, the cutoff date by which a child must turn 5 to enter kindergarten in the 2012-13 school year. For the 2013-14 school year, the deadline date becomes Oct. 1; and Sept. 1 is the cutoff date for the 2014-15 school year and each year thereafter. Some districts, like LA Unified, already offer a transitional kindergarten program and plan to continue doing so. Others plan to begin programs this fall while still others have said they have no intention of trying to create something new given their fiscal positions. Education consultants and advocates who closely monitor the ever-shifting political landscape mostly are advising districts to follow the law and to plan for some form of transitional kindergarten. “We continue to advise districts that the legislature is unlikely to implement the elimination of the transitional kindergarten requirement,” said Barrett Snider, a legislative advocate and director of government and public affairs at School Innovations & Advocacy (SI&A is corporate host of the Cabinet Report). “The governor cannot “blue pencil” transitional kindergarten funding. That money is based upon average daily attendance and is provided as a continuous appropriation, rather than as an appropriation in the budget act. Schools are virtually certain to receive funding for transitional kindergarten attendance going forward.”