California public school enrollment drops again, but transitional kindergarten is up

Transitional kindergarten students clap with teacher Matilde Lopez, right, and coach Claudia Mesa, left, on the first day of school at Weemes Elementary in Los Angeles. Enrollment at California’s public schools continued to decline this year, but by only.25%, or 15,000 students, state data showed, a much slower pace than the steep declines experienced during difficult pandemic years when classes were forced online. Explore the guide Although the outflow of students may have been stanched, “I would characterize that as the thinnest of silver linings,” said Thomas Dee, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education. In some districts, including Inglewood, San Francisco and Oakland, “genuinely painful discussions have begun around closing schools.” But there was also a bright spot in the data: Enrollment in transitional kindergarten — California’s newly expanding grade for 4-year-olds — doubled over the last two years, from 75,465 in 2021-22 to 151,491 in 2023-24, the state wrote in a news release. “It’s encouraging that more families have heard about and feel comfortable enrolling their 4-year-olds in TK,” said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor of education and public policy.