California’s expanding free Transitional Kindergarten reshapes private preschool landscape

As California expands its free Transitional Kindergarten, private preschools face new challenges including declining enrolments and increased operational costs, prompting debates over developmental quality and market sustainability.

California’s expansion of free Transitional Kindergarten has given many four-year-olds a public option that did not exist a few years ago, but it has also placed private preschools under fresh pressure. In Orinda, where all elementary schools now offer TK, educators say the shift is already changing how families choose early education and how local programmes can survive. The state Department of Education describes TK as the first year of a two-year kindergarten pathway, built around age-appropriate, developmentally suitable learning, while policy researchers say California’s Universal PreKindergarten effort was designed to widen access to pre-school for all four-year-olds.

At Holy Shepherd Community Preschool, executive director Claire Petersen said enrolment in classes for four-year-olds has been steadily falling as more families opt for public TK once children become eligible. Petersen, who has worked in early childhood education in Orinda for more than two decades, said that pattern has altered the economics of running a preschool, because younger children typically require more adults in each classroom. She said the school anticipated the change and began preparing for younger age groups, including building age-specific classrooms during a remodel, though she noted that such changes are expensive and slow to complete.

The same pressure is being felt at The Orinda Preschool, known as TOPS, where director Kristin Armanini said the TK rollout has brought “a lot of constant change”. Armanini said families in a highly academic community often worry about children missing out if they do not enter public TK as soon as they can. She argued that many parents are motivated by concern and affection, but that the result is a misunderstanding of how young children learn and what they need most at that stage. TOPS has responded by moving to a mixed-age model rather than keeping a separate TK class.

Researchers have warned that California’s universal pre-kindergarten drive could create exactly these kinds of strains. The Public Policy Institute of California has said the state’s TK expansion, launched in 2021, is intended to make pre-kindergarten available through public schools for all four-year-olds, but that bringing in younger children adds practical challenges that schools and providers must address. Reporting from KQED and other outlets this year has also described closures and shrinking enrolment at community-based preschools across the state, raising concern that the public programme may be squeezing out private operators and reducing licensed care options for children under four.

For private preschools, the change is not simply about losing older children to public classrooms. Petersen said the shift towards younger enrolments means schools must often hire more staff for the same number of children, which makes the business harder to balance financially. She also said some families in Orinda are turning to family childcare for babies and toddlers rather than group care, reflecting a broader search for options in a constrained market. Armanini said the shortage of qualified staff adds another layer of difficulty, particularly in a field that often pays poorly.

Even so, both educators emphasised that the question is not only about seats and staffing, but about what kind of experience children receive. Holy Shepherd uses a project-based, emergent curriculum that follows children’s interests, from nature to cooking, while the programme at TOPS is also play-based. Petersen said the real concern is that four-year-olds are losing a setting centred on social and emotional development as much as on early academics. Armanini said she does not want to criticise public schools, but wants TK programmes to remain developmentally appropriate. “I’m going to continue to fight the fight,” she said, adding that she spends significant time helping families understand child development and the value of play.