This week, the state legislature of California adopted a bill that would force all children to complete one year of kindergarten prior to entering first grade. If enacted, the bill would make kindergarten attendance mandatory for all California students.
State Senate Bill 70 was approved by the state Senate on Monday and will now be signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
If passed into law, the bill would be implemented in the 2024-25 school year. Similar legislation, Assembly Bill 1444, was vetoed by then-Governor Jerry Brown in 2014. Newsom has not stated if he will sign Senate Bill 70.
The California State Assembly passed SB 70 earlier this month.
SB 70 was proposed by State Senator Susan Rubio, who stated that children who do not attend kindergarten miss out on valuable teachings and abilities that can be applied throughout their education.
Rubio stated in a news statement, “As a public school teacher for seventeen years, I have witnessed the devastating effects on young pupils who are deprived of vital early education.” Students who attend kindergarten on a voluntary basis are unprepared for the educational environment they will meet in elementary school.
If Governor Newsom signs the bill, California will become the twentieth state to require children to attend kindergarten. Connecticut, Maryland, and Wisconsin are three additional states with similar requirement.
The measure specifies that children can fulfill the kindergarten requirement at a public or private school, but that transitional kindergarten does not count.
Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho of the Los Angeles Unified School District supported the initiative in a news release, stating that it would level the playing field for kids from vulnerable neighborhoods.
Carvalho stated, “Research indicates that kindergarten is a vital aspect of a child’s development, closing opportunity gaps and lowering chronic absenteeism.” A full year of kindergarten guarantees that students enjoy high-quality academic, social, and developmentally-appropriate learning opportunities.
Children in states with mandatory kindergarten are “more likely to attend college, earn higher incomes, and be less likely to face poverty as adults,” according to the bill summary.
In addition to the Los Angeles Unified School District, education groups such as the California Teachers Association, the National Education Association (NEA), and Early Edge California support mandatory kindergarten.
According to the NEA, pupils who attend full-day kindergarten have a significantly greater chance of succeeding in math and reading. The group highlighted a research that examined the test scores of children who attended full-day kindergarten, half-day kindergarten, or no kindergarten at all.
“In one Indiana district, for example, students in full-day kindergarten had significantly higher basic skills test scores in the third, fifth, and seventh grades than students who only attended half-day kindergarten or did not attend kindergarten at all,” the National Education Association wrote in a policy brief.
Opponents of the initiative claim that mandating kindergarten would not necessarily address educational challenges like reading.
“Mandating kindergarten for the relatively tiny fraction of pupils who do not attend will not alleviate California’s major literacy and numeracy challenges,” stated Lance Izumi, senior director of the Pacific Research Institute’s Center for Education.
Izumi says that because children age at different speeds, it makes more sense for parents to make the decision.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, school enrolment has decreased. During the 2020-21 school year, the number of households opting for homeschooling doubled, according to U.S. Census data.
According to data from the California Department of Education, while kindergarten enrolment increased in California for the 2021-2022 school year compared to the previous year, the number of children attending kindergarten in the state is much fewer than it was prior to the outbreak.