Report: Quality trailing expansion of early education in California

California’s expansion of transitional kindergarten is helping slow enrollment declines, but a new national report raises concerns about the quality of the state’s early education programs.

The 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook from the National Institute for Early Education Research, or NIEER, ranked California 14th in the nation for access to its public early education programs for 4-year-olds. It ranks 15th in access for 3-year-olds. Plus, the state met only a fraction of the quality benchmarks it is evaluated against.

The ranking is based on 2024-25 data. Some benchmarks have since been met, including the staff-to-child ratio, which now meets the 1:10 standard required by the state.

The findings underscore a broader tension in the state’s early education strategy: While expanding programs like transitional kindergarten, or TK, has helped stabilize overall enrollment, educators and policymakers are still working to ensure those programs meet key quality standards.

This tension prompted co-author Steven Barnett to add an unofficial caveat: Expanding early education before meeting all quality benchmarks is less worrisome if a state has set clear timelines to reach those standards.

“I’m OK with it in California, not in some other states,” said Barnett, who founded the institute. “And the difference is that California’s been willing to set timelines.”

Coincidentally, the report was released the same week the Los Angeles Unified School District — the state’s largest — approved a measure to expand early education programs, with a focus on the needs of lower-income families.

Among other things, the plan would boost enrollment by creating a pipeline that starts with LAUSD infant and early education programs and continues through transitional kindergarten and elementary school.

“Preschool is now one of the best-kept secrets of LAUSD,” board member Nick Melvoin said. “But given our enrollment … it can’t be a secret anymore.”

Focusing on younger learners is a strategy shared across the state amid declining enrollment. Without the rollout of transitional kindergarten, California enrollment would have fallen by 11.39% since the 2012-2013 academic year. With TK, the decline is 7.96%, according to an EdSource analysis.

More recently, enrollment dropped 1.29% from 2024-25 and 2025-26, compared with a projected 1.97% decline without TK. This year, TK accounts for 3.72% of all enrollment, the EdSource analysis found.

Families “have to go through all these troubles to find care for every age,” said Patricia Lozano, executive director of the early education advocacy organization Early Edge. “So why not build a system that, from birth, they have a plan, right? It’s our job to make it easy to navigate until they get to TK or kindergarten.”

LAUSD’s plan to expand access

The district is looking into opening new early education centers and state preschool programs on elementary school sites, as well as reopening previously closed early education centers.

By 2028, district officials aim to have at least one infant center program for children 2 years old or younger in each board district and expand partnerships with home-based child care providers.

“We are having some schools with some extra space,” said LAUSD Board Member Karla Griego. “We thought this would be a great opportunity for us to revamp the early ed centers and, why not use our own spaces?”

Melvoin said the district has already begun adding locations, including at the West Valley Occupational Center, where adult students can access on-site childcare. Several sites are already seeing strong enrollment, he said.

While details are still being worked out, Melvoin said the plan is intended to take a more “holistic approach” and “bring some intentionality” to the process. It also calls for prioritizing dual-language programs.

District leaders say expanding early education benefits students and families. Early access to childcare can improve school readiness and long-term academic outcomes — but it’s often financially inaccessible. In California, according to the resolution, the average cost of care for infants and toddlers is roughly $21,945 annually.

LAUSD’s preschool programs are not free, but they are significantly more affordable, Melvoin said, with some families paying around $200 per month compared with roughly $2,000 elsewhere, depending on their financial circumstances.

Quality benchmarks in early education programs

California families can choose from several early education options, but the NIEER report evaluates two public preschool programs: the California State Preschool Program, or CSPP, and transitional kindergarten.

The report measures programs against 10 quality benchmarks, including staff-to-child ratios, teacher qualification and learning standards.

TK now serves about half of the state’s 4-year-olds, but met only three of those quality benchmarks during the 2024-25 school year: teacher bachelor’s degrees, curriculum supports and comprehensive and culturally responsive standards.

CSPP, which has been available to families for several years longer than TK, met six benchmarks, including health screenings for students, a quality improvement system and specialized early education training for teachers.

“The good thing about quality is you can always work on it,” said Lozano. “Getting all the investment, the commitment from the governor and the Legislature — that’s, I think, really difficult.”

She was referring to the billions of dollars the state has committed in recent years to expand transitional kindergarten eligibility.

Ensuring quality as LAUSD expands early education programs

As it expands programs, LAUSD is working to ensure it meets the state’s standards for quality.

Griego also emphasized the importance of support and professional development for early educators. Melvoin added that a recent agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles will help LAUSD recruit and retain more early education teachers, who, historically, have been paid less than their K-12 counterparts.

Both also emphasized the value of outdoor learning, including through the district’s nature-explorer classrooms.

“Key factors in early education is not only learning academics and learning sounds and colors and things like that, but it’s also about how to get along, how to communicate with their peers, how to, even at such early ages — 2, 3, 4-year-olds — how to resolve conflicts,” Griego said.

“When we see kids who participate in the early ed programs, and then they go into TK and K, when they bring those social skills already, it really facilitates their learning of the academic skills.”

This story was originally published by EdSource.