{"id":421713,"date":"2025-12-03T11:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T11:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421713\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T11:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T11:43:14","slug":"why-l-a-county-preschools-are-closing-as-tk-thrives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421713\/","title":{"rendered":"Why L.A. County preschools are closing as TK thrives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the first four years of California\u2019s new transitional kindergarten program, 167 community-based preschools in Los Angeles County shut down, unable to financially survive amid enrollment drops or pivot to more costly infant and toddler care, according to new U.C. Berkeley research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The closures represent some painful and unintended consequences of the state\u2019s ambitious rollout of transitional kindergarten or TK \u2014 a signature education program of Gov. Gavin Newsom that provides universal public preschool to every 4-year-old, researchers found. The loss of community preschools has meant that some families of children younger than 4 have had to scramble to find other daycare in an already delicate network.<\/p>\n

At least in some cases, rather than bolstering California\u2019s child-care sector and serving more children, TK instead appears to be competing with \u2014 and even replacing \u2014 local preschools, as they struggle to take in younger children, according to the study. Areas that experienced the largest growth in TK enrollment were also the most likely to suffer preschool closures.<\/p>\n

\u201cTK seemed like a sparkling idea with very few negatives,\u201d said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of education and public policy who co-authored the study. \u201cBut the downsides were not weighed carefully enough in retrospect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a> <\/p>\n

Engage with our community-funded journalism <\/a>as we delve into child care, transitional kindergarten, health and other issues affecting children from birth through age 5.<\/p>\n

In 2019, before the pandemic, there were about 26,500 children enrolled in TK in public schools in the county.<\/b> Since then, with the help of the state TK expansion, the program grew to about 39,500 children by the 2024-25 school year, according to state data. <\/p>\n

But this growth \u2014 about 13,000 students \u2014 only slightly surpasses the loss of 12,000 child-care slots for 3- and 4-year-olds at the preschools that have closed since 2020. The 167 preschool closures from 2020 to 2024 compare with just 92 closures between 2014 and 2019. <\/p>\n

And while pressures from the pandemic as well as a decline in population contributed to this increase, the researchers\u2019 statistical analysis found that TK played an important role in driving the closure of these centers. <\/p>\n

Certain areas of the county actually experienced a net loss of child-care slots as TK expanded. In the Rolling Hills-Palos Verdes area, for example, TK enrollment climbed by 152 children, but the area lost four pre-K centers that could serve 316 children. In the Northridge area, TK enrollment grew by 96 children, but the closure of 3 preschool centers meant the loss of 184 spaces.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s many goals for the TK program \u2014 laid out in 2020 by the master plan for early learning <\/a>and care \u2014 include calling on preschools to counter the loss of their 4-year-old students by taking on more 3-year-olds, as well as infant and toddlers, whose parents have the greatest shortage of options. Licensed centers and family child-care homes in L.A. County only have the capacity to serve 13%<\/a> of working parents with infants and toddlers, according to the county public health department.<\/p>\n

But in reality, preschools have struggled to transition <\/a>to younger children amid challenges such as difficulties recruiting teachers, aging facilities, obstacles in securing the necessary permits and even the reluctance of some staff to change diapers, the researchers found. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A student at Angelina Preschool in Los Angeles practices her letters.<\/p>\n

(Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is we are serving more 4-year-olds. But the not-so-good news is that it\u2019s eroding the capacity of community-based pre-K\u2019s to serve younger children,\u201d said Fuller.<\/p>\n

State officials declined to respond to the results of the study, or to questions about the TK program\u2019s impact on community preschools. TK costs about $3.7 billion annually and became fully operational this year after its four-year phase-in. All 4-year-olds in California are now eligible for a free spot in the state\u2019s newest public school grade level.<\/p>\n

The study revealed another surprising enrollment trend in the county.<\/p>\n

Another goal of creating TK aims to shrink income and racial disparities in children\u2019s early cognitive skills. But TK enrollment growth has been the highest in the county\u2019s most affluent ZIP Codes, including Palos Verdes and Brentwood-Westwood. Since 2021, TK enrollment has grown by 50% in the county\u2019s poorest quarter of ZIP Codes, but 135% in the wealthiest quarter of ZIP Codes.<\/p>\n

One explanation, Fuller said, may be that many lower-income families were already accessing free child care in long-standing programs that include Head Start, the California State Preschool Program and vouchers that can be used for a variety of care options.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s folks that are beyond the income eligibility cap that have had to pay through the nose for quality preschool. So the quickest and biggest economic savings is felt by those upper middle-class families that had to pay for preschool,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Up close: one preschool\u2019s struggle<\/p>\n

For the last two years, as the TK expansion has marched forward, the staff at Angelina Preschool <\/a>in the Temple Beaudry neighborhood near downtown has been struggling to fill its classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur 4-year-olds really have been disappearing,\u201d said Jacqueline Torres, administrative director of child development programs at the Little Tokyo Service Center, which operates the preschool. <\/p>\n

In July, Torres was confident that 10 of the 4-year-olds students who were had attended the previous year would be staying on at the school. But when L.A. Unified started in August, six ended up transferring at the last minute \u2014 some to the elementary school right across the street \u2014 leaving empty spaces in Angelina\u2019s classrooms.<\/p>\n

This year, 49 children are enrolled at Angelina \u2014 down from a high of 58 in 2023. \u201cAnd it\u2019s been a hard-fought 49,\u201d said Torres. She\u2019s been trying \u201cextremely hard\u201d to make up the loss of the school\u2019s 4-year-olds by targeting infants and toddlers, but with limited success. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Angelina Preschool is located within an affordable housing complex in Los Angeles. The school, which is part of the Little Tokyo Service Center, has been struggling to keep enrollment up as more parents are choosing transitional kindergarten instead. <\/p>\n

(Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

One problem, she said, is that the state didn\u2019t give community preschools like hers \u201cmore warning and a ramp-up-period\u201d when they started the TK expansion. Caring for younger children requires preparation, and schools didn\u2019t have time to make the shift before they started losing their older students. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has really put preschools and school districts as almost competitors, when really I think TK should have been just another option,\u201d said Torres.<\/p>\n

Taking on infant and toddlers<\/p>\n

Some preschools have successfully begun to serve infants and toddlers, and the state has helped by increasing payments to state preschools that care for younger children. <\/p>\n

However, obstacles persist. <\/p>\n

Caring for infants and toddlers requires a special health and safety license from the state, a process that can take 6-12 months, said Nina Buthee, executive director of EveryChild California, a membership association for child-care centers. There is also a new set of fire regulations for centers that care for younger children to contend with, she said. <\/p>\n

Many preschool teachers are not trained or interested in caring for babies, making recruitment a challenge. Infant care is a \u201cdeclining specialty,\u201d Buthee said. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s also a difficult financial proposition. Because of ratio requirements, a single teacher can care for 12 preschoolers, but only three infants or four toddlers. Preschool operations often depend on collecting tuition from more 4-year-olds to subsidize losses from fewer <\/a>but costlier and resource-needy toddlers and babies.<\/p>\n

Buthee said she was not surprised by the results of the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes time to be able to shift this. It\u2019s almost like moving the Titanic. You point it in one direction, but it takes a little time for that momentum to shift and for all of these different policies to be able to move along with it,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it was as easy just flipping a switch, you better believe that programs would be doing it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Preschool budgets tighten<\/p>\n

At the Segray preschool program<\/a>, which has locations in Eagle Rock and Thousand Oaks, owner Annette Gladstone said she has a waiting list for infants and toddlers but has been having trouble enrolling preschoolers. She wants to serve more younger children and even has an empty classroom that she could fill with infants and toddlers \u2014 but she says the process is too burdensome. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to do it, but we just don\u2019t love dealing with the process of what licensing puts you through, to be honest,\u201d said Gladstone. So instead, she\u2019s being more careful with her budget, and paying closer attention to spending on materials.<\/p>\n

Buthee said as TK continues to grow, it\u2019s likely that more preschools will find the numbers don\u2019t add up anymore. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen the full impact of this. Over the next year or so we will definitely see more programs closing.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the TK program passed through the legislature, Fuller said, this sort of collateral damage of the program on California\u2019s child-care sector likely didn\u2019t factor into their vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a classic public policy case where the policy designers in government have a simple idea about implementation, but in fact, it unfolds in a much messier way.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article is part of The Times\u2019 early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children, from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com\/earlyed<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the first four years of California\u2019s new transitional kindergarten program, 167 community-based preschools in Los Angeles County…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":421714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,4471,4415,196897,3059,29673,2961,224,5337,5948,32679,290,7572,66367,196898,196896,1628,133771],"class_list":{"0":"post-421713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-child","11":"tag-closure","12":"tag-community-preschool","13":"tag-county","14":"tag-infant","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-loss","19":"tag-public-school","20":"tag-state","21":"tag-study","22":"tag-tk","23":"tag-tk-enrollment","24":"tag-toddler-care","25":"tag-year","26":"tag-young-child"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115655463476608377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}