How Universal Transitional Kindergarten’s Full Implementation Looks in Santa Barbara Schools

Across School District, New Classrooms Have Been Opening Up as TK Age Cutoff Has Widened

Transitional Kindergarten students work on vocabulary at McKinley Elementary. | Credit: Courtesy

This year, all 4-year-olds are eligible for the state’s transitional kindergarten (TK) program. Enrollment is open now at South County schools and will remain open until spaces are filled. With the program in full swing, Santa Barbara Unified schools are preparing for this new grade level.

Last year, the TK class at McKinley Elementary, one of the district’s Dual Language Immersion (DLI) schools, filled up right away, prompting the school to open a second classroom. That was with last year’s age cutoff — students had to turn 5 between September 2019 and June 2020. Now, all 4-year-olds can enroll.

Across the district, new classrooms have been opening up as the TK age cutoff has widened.

The state’s Universal TK program, which began its gradual rollout in 2022, was created to prepare 4-year-old students for elementary school and foster both academic achievement and social skills. Research has shown that enrolling children in TK and preschool can lead to higher rates of graduation and employment, less criminal activity later in life, and overall better health, while also providing parents with an extra year of free care for their children.

School in California is not mandatory until a child is 6 years old, but, as reported by CalMatters, enrollment in the free program for 4-year-olds went up from 75,000 in 2022 to 151,000 in 2023 — “a significant recovery after steep declines during the pandemic.”

McKinley Principal Daisy Ochoa said they once again expect to fill both of their TK classrooms this year. The trend is leaning toward another influx of families.

“There’s a lot of interest — we see that more parents are making that choice of going over to TK,” she said. “I think it’s a combination of, ‘Wow, my kids are eligible for TK now!’ and also the fact that we’re a DLI program.”

That is also partially because TK is an all-day program — starting as early as 7:45 a.m. and going to as late as 5:30 p.m. (if the child is enrolled in an after-school program) — while the state’s preschool program, by comparison, is only a half-day. Public school TK programs are completely free, and state-funded preschools, as opposed to private, are free to low-income families.

While TK has sometimes been accused of siphoning resources from state-funded preschools, Ochoa said she hopes to see preschools able to enroll younger children as more 4-year-olds shift over to TK, and possibly help alleviate the childcare shortage in Santa Barbara.

“Personally, at my kid’s preschool — my son’s 3 right now — they’re already considering opening up an infant classroom because they don’t have enough to fill a 4-year-old classroom,” she said.

Finding space and staffing for TK has been a challenge for schools across the district, however. Ochoa, formerly the district’s director of early childhood education, said she doesn’t want her TK classrooms to be like “watered-down kindergarten.” A TK classroom needs to meet certain layout requirements — such as a nearby bathroom — and must have a credentialed teacher with a background in early childhood education, which Ochoa compared to finding a “unicorn.”

However, unlike other California schools — which are facing vacancy rates of up to 12 percent for TK teaching assistants — Santa Barbara has had more “luck” in filling positions, Ochoa said. According to district spokesperson Ed Zuchelli, the district has all the classrooms and staffing they need right now.

At McKinley, these teachers are guiding young scholars in developing fine motor skills, creativity, and language through “intentional play” and introductory lessons. Their TK classrooms are big enough for kids to have space to play and explore.

“They’re still learning how to be, you know, little students,” said Ochoa.

Kids sit at tables playing with Play-Doh, talking with their peers (sometimes in both Spanish and English), practicing independent work, and building with blocks.

“It’s not preschool, it’s not kindergarten, but they still have hands-on, they still do play-based activities, but at the same time I am introducing them to kinder concepts such as writing and using the pencil,” said McKinley TK teacher Vanessa Balcazar. She smiled and pointed to the students’ New Year’s resolutions hanging on the classroom door. “They’re very capable of doing so. They want to learn. They want to do harder stuff.”

Enrollment for Santa Barbara Unified and Hope school districts is now open; Goleta Unified opens in February. Parents in other districts should contact their neighborhood school for more information.