Schools

Transitional Kindergarten Offered for First Time as Students Head Back to School

The new legislation "will get kids off to a strong start at no additional cost to the state," according to the bill's author, State Senator Joe Simitian.

Today is the first day of school on campuses, and today also marked the first time in more than a century that a new grade level -- transitional kindergarten -- is being offered to some students.

was created by the Kindergarten Readiness Act, authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, and signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September 2010.

The legislation targets children who are too young to enter regular kindergarten and changed the minimum age a student can enter kindergarten.

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The two-year program does not involve bringing new, younger students into classes, but rather it accommodates students born between the old kindergarten cutoff date, Dec. 2, and the new cutoff date, which is being moved up a month at a time over the next three years to Sept. 1.

Transitional kindergarten will feature a more age-appropriate curriculum for that first year before the students move onto regular kindergarten the second year.

Find out what's happening in Redwood City-Woodsidewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

An estimated 40,000 students around the state will be offered the transitional kindergarten curriculum this year, and eventually about 125,000 children will be eligible once the program is fully phased in by 2015.

The new grade level is the first in California since 1891, according to Simitian, who said in a statement that transitional kindergarten "will get kids off to a strong start at no additional cost to the state."

Motorists are being reminded to drive with extra caution now that school is back in session. AAA estimates that one-third of child pedestrian fatalities occur in the after-school hours between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

--Bay City News

 

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