Bill Text: CA AB22 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 22 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Preschool data: data collection.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2022-09-30 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 901, Statutes of 2022. [AB22 Detail]

Download: California-2021-AB22-Amended.html

Amended IN Assembly February 03, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 22

Introduced by Assembly Members McCarty, Berman, Bonta, Burke, Carrillo, Chiu, Friedman, Eduardo Garcia, Lorena Gonzalez, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Blanca Rubio, Santiago, Ting, Waldron, and Wicks
(Principal coauthors: Senators Dodd, Gonzalez, Limón, and Rubio)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Levine, Mayes, Nguyen, and Quirk)
(Coauthor: Senator Min)

December 07, 2020

An act to amend ~~Section 48000 of~~ Sections 8236 and 48000 of, and to add Section 42238.026 to, the Education Code, relating to ~~transitional kindergarten.~~ childcare.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 22, as amended, McCarty. ~~Transitional kindergarten: enrollment for 4-year-old children.~~ Childcare: preschool programs and transitional kindergarten: enrollment.

(1) The Child Care and Development Services Act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer all California state preschool programs, which include part-day age and developmentally appropriate programs designed to facilitate the transition to kindergarten for 3- and 4-year-old children. The act provides that applicant or contracting agencies are eligible to contract to operate a California state preschool program. The act requires these applicant or contracting agencies to give first priority to 3- or 4-year-old neglected or abused children who are recipients of child protective services, or who are at risk of being neglected, abused, or exploited, as provided.
This bill would require all eligible children meeting certain requirements and who are not enrolled in transitional kindergarten to have access to a California state preschool program the year before they enter kindergarten, if their parents wish to enroll them. The bill would make this requirement contingent upon the appropriation of sufficient funding in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose.
(2) Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the local control funding formula to include, in addition to a grade span adjusted base grant, a 10.4% adjustment to the kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, base grant for school districts that maintain, or make progress toward, as specified, an average class enrollment of not more than 24 pupils for each schoolsite. Existing law requires average daily attendance generated by certain pupils enrolled in a transitional kindergarten program to be included in the average daily attendance generated by pupils in kindergarten.
This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to compute an additional adjustment to the kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, base grant, adjusted as described above, that is equal to an unspecified percentage for each transitional kindergarten pupil who is enrolled in the school district or charter school that maintains certain instructional minute, average class enrollment, adult-to-pupil ratios, and minimum credentialed teacher requirements for transitional kindergarten classrooms at each schoolsite, as specified.
~~Existing~~

(3) Existing law authorizes a school district or charter school to maintain a transitional kindergarten program. Existing law requires, in the 2014–15 school year and each school year thereafter, and as a condition of receipt of apportionments for pupils in a transitional kindergarten program, a child who will have their 5th birthday between September 2 and December 2, inclusive, to be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by a school district or charter school. Existing law authorizes, for the 2015–16 school year and each school year thereafter, a school district or charter school to admit a child to a transitional kindergarten program who will have their 5th birthday after December 2 but during that same school year, as provided. Existing law prohibits a pupil voluntarily admitted to a transitional kindergarten who has their 5th birthday after December 2 from generating average daily attendance or being included in the enrollment or unduplicated pupil count until the pupil has attained their 5th birthday, as provided.

This bill would ~~require, by no later than the 2030–31 school year and in each school year thereafter,~~ revise the timespans for those mandatory and optional admittance requirements to be phased in from the 2024–25 school year to the 2032–33 school year, as provided, at which time a school district or charter school, as a condition of receipt of apportionments for pupils in a transitional kindergarten program, would be required to admit to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school children who will have their 5th birthday between September 2 of the calendar year in which the school year begins and September 1 of the following calendar year. The bill instead would require a pupil voluntarily admitted to a transitional kindergarten who has their 5th birthday after the date specified for required enrollment for the applicable school year to generate average daily attendance and be included in the enrollment and unduplicated pupil count, as provided.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) Quality early learning and care for children from birth to five years of age, inclusive, is a sound and strategic investment to narrow achievement gaps that are present well before children enter kindergarten.

(2) In the annual Budget Act for the 2014–15 fiscal year, the Legislature and the Governor committed to providing all low-income children with at least one year of early care and education programs. That commitment is known as the California Preschool Promise. ~~Section~~ The Master Plan for Early Learning and Care, developed pursuant to Section 1 of Chapter 51 of the Statutes of 2019 (Senate Bill 75 of the 2019–20 Regular Session) ~~requires the development of a Master Plan for Early Learning and Care that~~ includes a recommendation to provide universal access to early learning opportunities for all ~~three- and~~ four-year-old ~~children~~ children, low-income three-year-old children, and children with disabilities in California.

(3) Evidence shows that providing universal or targeted universal access to preschool closes the school readiness gap and improves long-term academic achievement and life outcomes for children.

(4) Successful early learning programs also require key elements of quality programming, including all of the following:

(A) Well-prepared, trained, and justly compensated teachers.

(B) Classrooms that implement an evidence-based, developmentally appropriate curriculum that is aligned to elementary and secondary school standards, including aligned assessments.

(C) Classrooms with teacher-child ratios that allow for meaningful adult-child interactions to benefit the social-emotional and early academic development of young learners.

(D) Effective and high-quality professional development that is focused on teacher-child interactions, quality of instruction, and child outcomes, including, when appropriate, supporting dual language learners to develop their home language alongside English, creating supportive and inclusive environments for children with special needs, and using trauma-informed practices to support children who face significant risk factors to their healthy development and success.

(E) Use of child outcome data to inform instruction and continuous quality improvement.

(F) Robust parent engagement in childcare settings to meet the needs of working families and support parent choice.

(5) In 2010, the Legislature enacted legislation establishing transitional kindergarten, which provides every four-year-old whose fifth birthday occurs between September 2 and December 2, inclusive, with a free additional year of early learning before grade 1. The state’s success in implementing this law has been dependent on ensuring that nearly every school district offers transitional kindergarten in their community.

(6) California has an opportunity to build on the state’s strong start to provide universal access to a high quality early learning experience for every four-year-old child by expanding transitional kindergarten while implementing transitional kindergarten quality improvements to address the social-emotional and early academic development of the state’s youngest learners.

(b) (1) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to provide access to quality early learning opportunities for every four-year-old child in California through the expansion of transitional kindergarten and the institution of quality program improvements to meet the social-emotional and early academic needs of young learners, in alignment with the vision of the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care and as part of a strengthened, comprehensive early learning and care system for children from birth to six years of age, inclusive.

(2) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to gradually expand transitional kindergarten until all four-year-old children are served as part of the state’s comprehensive early learning and care system.

(3) It is the further intent of the Legislature that quality program improvements shall include, but not be limited to, classroom staffing ratios that are developmentally appropriate for four-year-old children, fair compensation for teachers and staff reflective of compensation for other teachers and staff with similar professional qualifications, full-schoolday programs, and a curriculum that aligns early developmental and learning standards with early academic standards.

SEC. 2.

Section 8236 of the Education Code is amended to read:

8236.

(a) (1) Each applicant or contracting agency funded pursuant to Section 8235 shall give first priority to three- or four-year-old neglected or abused children who are recipients of child protective services, or who are at risk of being neglected, abused, or exploited upon written referral from a legal, medical, or social service agency. If an agency is unable to enroll a child in this first priority category, the agency shall refer the child’s parent or guardian to local resources and referral services so that services for the child can be located.

(2) Notwithstanding Section 8263, after children in the first priority category set forth in paragraph (1) are enrolled, each agency funded pursuant to Section 8235 shall give priority to eligible four-year-old children who are not enrolled in a state-funded transitional kindergarten program before enrolling eligible three-year-old children. Each agency shall certify to the Superintendent that enrollment priority is being given to eligible four-year-old children.

(3) (A) All eligible children, pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 8263, who are not enrolled in transitional kindergarten shall have access to a California state preschool program the year before they enter kindergarten, if their parents wish to enroll them.
(B) This paragraph is contingent upon the appropriation of sufficient funding in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose.

(b) (1) (A) Commencing June 15, 2015, and notwithstanding any other law, in awarding new funding for the expansion of a California state preschool program that is appropriated by the Legislature for that purpose in any fiscal year, the Superintendent, after taking into account the geographic criteria established pursuant to Section 8279.3 and the data described in subparagraph (B), shall give priority to applicant agencies that, in expending the expansion funds, will provide the greatest progress toward achieving access to full-day, full-year services for all income-eligible four-year-old children.

(B) In awarding funding pursuant to subparagraph (A) and in order to promote access for all income-eligible four-year-old children to at least a part-day California state preschool program, the department shall take into account the needs assessments submitted to the department pursuant to Section 8499.5 and any other high-quality data resources available to the department.

(2) Expansion funding awarded pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be apportioned at the rate described in Section 8265 and as determined in the annual Budget Act.

(3) A family ~~child care~~ childcare home education network shall be eligible to apply for expansion funding awarded pursuant to paragraph (1).

(c) This section does not preclude a local educational agency from subcontracting with an appropriate public or private agency to operate a California state preschool program and to apply for funds made available for purposes of this section. If a school district chooses not to operate or subcontract for a California state preschool program, the Superintendent shall work with the county office of education and other eligible agencies to explore possible opportunities in contracting or alternative subcontracting to provide a California state preschool program.

(d) This section does not prevent eligible children who are receiving services from continuing to receive those services in future years pursuant to this chapter.

(e) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2019.

SEC. 3.

Section 42238.026 is added to the Education Code, to read:

42238.026.
(a) In addition to paragraph (3) of subdivision (d) of Section 42238.02, the Superintendent shall compute an additional adjustment to the kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, base grant specified in paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) of Section 42238.02, as adjusted for inflation pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 42238.02 and as adjusted pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (d) of Section 42238.02, that is equal to ____ percent for each transitional kindergarten pupil, as described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of Section 48000, who is enrolled in the school district or charter school. The additional grant shall be calculated by multiplying the kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, base grant specified in paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) of Section 42238.02, as adjusted for inflation pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 42238.02 and as adjusted pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (d) of Section 42238.02, by ____ percent for each transitional kindergarten pupil only.
(b) As a condition of receiving the additional adjustment pursuant to subdivision (a), a school district or charter school shall do all of the following:
(1) Notwithstanding Sections 46111 and 46117, operate a transitional kindergarten program that meets the requirements of Section 46112.
(2) Maintain an average transitional kindergarten class enrollment of not more than 24 pupils for each schoolsite, unless a collectively bargained alternative annual average class enrollment for each schoolsite is agreed to by the school district or charter school.
(3) Maintain an average of at least one adult for every 8 pupils for a class size of 24 pupils or an average of at least one adult for every 10 pupils for a class size of less than 24 pupils for transitional kindergarten classrooms.
(4) Have at least one credentialed teacher who satisfies the requirement in subdivision (g) of Section 48000 in each transitional kindergarten classroom.

SEC. 2.SEC. 4.

Section 48000 of the Education Code is amended to read:

48000.

(a) A child shall be admitted to a kindergarten maintained by the school district at the beginning of a school year, or at a later time in the same year, if the child will have their fifth birthday on or before one of the following dates:

(1) December 2 of the 2011–12 school year.

(2) November 1 of the 2012–13 school year.

(3) October 1 of the 2013–14 school year.

(4) September 1 of the 2014–15 school year and each school year thereafter.

(b) The governing board of the school district of a school district maintaining one or more kindergartens may, on a case-by-case basis, admit to a kindergarten a child having attained the age of five years at any time during the school year with the approval of the parent or guardian, subject to the following conditions:

(1) The governing board of the school district determines that the admittance is in the best interests of the child.

(2) The parent or guardian is given information regarding the advantages and disadvantages and any other explanatory information about the effect of this early admittance.

(c) (1) As a condition of receipt of apportionment for pupils in a transitional kindergarten program pursuant to Section 46300, and Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 47610) of Part 26.8, as applicable, a school district or charter school shall ensure the following:

(A) In the 2012–13 school year, ~~children~~ a child who will have their fifth birthday between November 2 and December 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.

(B) In the 2013–14 school year, ~~children~~ a child who will have their fifth birthday between October 2 and December 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.

(C) From the 2014–15 school year to the ~~2029–30~~ 2023–24 school year, inclusive, ~~children~~ a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and December 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.

(D) In the 2024–25 school year, a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and January 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.
(E) In the 2025–26 school year, a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and February 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.
(F) In the 2026–27 school year, a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and March 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.
(G) In the 2027–28 school year, a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and April 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.
(H) In the 2028–29 school year, a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and May 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.
(I) In the 2029–30 school year, a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and June 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.
(J) In the 2030–31 school year, a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and July 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.
(K) In the 2031–32 school year, a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and August 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.
~~(D)By no later than the 2030–31~~

(L) In the 2032–33 school year, and in each school year thereafter, ~~children~~ a child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 of the calendar year in which the school year begins and September 1 of the following calendar year shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school.

(2) (A) ~~From the 2015–16 school year to the 2029–30 school year, inclusive,~~ In any school year, a school district or charter school may, at any time during a school year, admit ~~children~~ a child to a transitional kindergarten program who will have their fifth birthday after ~~December 2 but during that same school year,~~ the date specified for the applicable year in subparagraphs (A) to (K), inclusive, of paragraph (1), with the approval of the parent or guardian, subject to the following conditions:

(i) The governing board of the school district or the governing body of the charter school determines that the admittance is in the best interests of the child.

(ii) The parent or guardian is given information regarding the advantages and disadvantages and any other explanatory information about the effect of this early admittance.

(B) Notwithstanding any other law, a pupil admitted to a transitional kindergarten program pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall ~~not~~ generate average daily attendance for purposes of Section 46300, or and be included in the enrollment or unduplicated pupil count pursuant to Section ~~42238.02, until the pupil has attained the pupil’s fifth birthday, regardless of when the pupil was admitted during the school year.~~ 42238.02.

(d) For purposes of this section, “transitional kindergarten” means the first year of a two-year kindergarten program that uses a modified kindergarten curriculum that is age and developmentally appropriate.

(e) A transitional kindergarten shall not be construed as a new program or higher level of service.

(f) It is the intent of the Legislature that transitional kindergarten curriculum be aligned to the California Preschool Learning Foundations developed by the department.

(g) As a condition of receipt of apportionment for pupils in a transitional kindergarten program pursuant to Section 46300, a school district or charter school shall ensure that credentialed teachers who are first assigned to a transitional kindergarten classroom after July 1, 2015, have, by August 1, 2021, one of the following:

(1) At least 24 units in early childhood education, or childhood development, or both.

(2) As determined by the local educational agency employing the teacher, professional experience in a classroom setting with preschool age children that is comparable to the 24 units of education described in paragraph (1).

(3) A child development teacher permit issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

(h) A school district or charter school may place four-year-old children, as defined in subdivision (aj) of Section 8208, enrolled in a California state preschool program into a transitional kindergarten program classroom. A school district or charter school that commingles children from both programs in the same classroom shall meet all of the requirements of the respective programs in which the children are enrolled, and the school district or charter school shall adhere to all of the following requirements, irrespective of the program in which the child is enrolled:

(1) An early childhood environment rating scale, as specified in Section 18281 of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations, shall be completed for the classroom.

(2) All children enrolled for 10 or more hours per week shall be evaluated using the Desired Results Developmental Profile, as specified in Section 18272 of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations.

(3) The classroom shall be taught by a teacher that holds a credential issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing in accordance with Section 44065 and subdivision (b) of Section 44256 and who meets the requirements set forth in subdivision (g).

(4) The classroom shall be in compliance with the adult-child ratio specified in subdivision (c) of Section 8264.8.

(5) Contractors of a school district or charter school commingling children enrolled in the California state preschool program with children enrolled in a transitional kindergarten program classroom shall report the services, revenues, and expenditures for the California state preschool program children in accordance with Section 18068 of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations. Those contractors are not required to report services, revenues, and expenditures for the children in the transitional kindergarten program.

(i) Until July 1, 2019, a transitional kindergarten classroom that has in attendance children enrolled in a California state preschool program shall be licensed pursuant to Chapter 3.4 (commencing with Section 1596.70) of, and Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 1596.90) of, Division 2 of the Health and Safety Code.

(j) A school district or charter school that chooses to place California state preschool program children into a transitional kindergarten program classroom shall not also include children enrolled in transitional kindergarten for a second year or children enrolled in kindergarten in that classroom.