Early Childhood Education

The governor tripled early childhood funding and expanded TK to all 4-year-olds. But preschools are closing, making infant care harder to find.

In California, almost 40% of the workforce is foreign-born and more than a million parents — immigrant and otherwise — rely on child care providers so they can go to work.

As funding deadlines approach, one Head Start program has closed and three others are about to. More closures are expected in the coming weeks.

Four decades after education reformer Marian Joseph pushed phonics in schools to change the way young readers learn, California lawmakers are embracing it.

At a minimum, schools should teach children to read. But for years California’s elementary schools have been failing many of them. The results are so obvious even those who struggle to read can see them: Nearly 6 in 10 third graders scored below grade level on California’s reading tests during most of the last decade. […]

Head Start staff and advocates launched a nationwide campaign to save the program, which Trump eliminated in his budget draft.

Child care's expense is linked to a lack of supply, which is linked to a lack of workers, which is linked to low pay and poor benefits in the industry, panelists said.

California is losing teachers while also preparing for even greater demand under the expansion of transitional kindergarten. Apprenticeship programs that prepare teachers for a career in early care education can help build the pipeline California needs.

The overall number of 4-year-olds in transitional kindergarten has increased. But as the program is being phased in, the percentage of eligible children enrolling has dropped.

California's public schools depend on state aid for the lion's share of their operational income. Two trends – declining enrollment and high absenteeism – are creating financial headaches.