Preschools Struggle As Transitional Kindergarten Grows

Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, May 10, 2024:

• Several state bills pending in Sacramento this week seek more guardrails on Artificial Intelligence in the workplace.
• A proposed state budget change could stall the program that sends behavioral health workers — instead of police — to respond to mental health emergencies.
• California’s newest grade — transitional kindergarten — has been lauded as a success, with enrollment doubling over the past few years. But that growth has come at a cost, as community-based preschools struggle to compete.

A Make or Break Moment for AI Legislation

Concern about AI replacing workers is leading labor unions and Democratic lawmakers to push for more protections. One bill demands humans remain the medical decision-makers in hospitals and clinics. Another bill would prevent employers from using workers’ data to train AI tools that end up replacing them. Industry groups are largely opposed, arguing the bills hinder innovation. Appropriations committees in the senate and assembly now decide which measures advance or die, in large part based on their fiscal impact.

CA Budget threatens funding for Mobile Crisis Services

Across California, demand for mobile crisis services – an alternative to badges and sirens for people in their darkest moments – is surging. But just as these services are proving their worth, federal funding that supercharged their growth is set to end. Lacking that boost, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget blueprint proposes changing the service from a required benefit to an optional one, meaning the state does not have to cover the funding gap.

Counties that choose to keep this service will have to pay for it themselves at a price tag of $150 million to $200 million a year. Where counties cannot afford it, crisis teams could decrease or disappear entirely, if the Legislature approves the governor’s budget proposal.

In 2023, California made mobile crisis response a statewide benefit when a federal law offered a financial incentive to do so: the federal government would temporarily cover 85% of the costs, up from the usual 50%. At the time, people with mental health and substance use disorder made up one-fifth of all emergency department visits in California – a pressure point the state said mobile behavioral health teams could help address.

National research has shown that behavioral health professionals responding without police – like county crisis teams – do a better job than law enforcement of keeping people out of emergency rooms and connecting them to mental health care.

As TK Grows, Preschools Close

As public school enrollment continues to decline across California, a remarkable thing is happening in districts: More students are entering transitional kindergarten. But that growth has come at a cost.

Community-based preschools across the state have struggled to compete with free TK, and many have shuttered — worsening the shortage of licensed child care spaces for children younger than 4 years old.

Between 2019 and 2025, around 1,100 preschools have closed their doors across California, representing just under 10% of the total, according to research published Monday by UC Berkeley’s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood. They were licensed to serve around 32,000 young children, and experts say their closures will likely increase prices in a state where the average annual cost of infant care surpasses $20,000.

Transitional kindergarten isn’t the only contributor to these programs’ demise. The pandemic, followed by rising costs of living, destabilized their operations. Centers that provide subsidized care are competing with increased state funding for vouchers, which allow low-income families to choose between licensed care or unlicensed care at home by a family, friend or neighbor.