Universal PreKindergarten

California’s Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) investments through FY 2024–25

• Increased access to high-quality early learning opportunities for children with disabilities through the California State Preschool Program (CSPP):
  • A phased in requirement to reserve 5 percent of CSPP enrollment for children with disabilities starting in 2022–23.
• $1000 million to expand the Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program, which funds infrastructure, professional development, and other elements necessary to support general education and special education students in inclusive classrooms.
• $485 million to support enrollment of children with disabilities, expand access to three-year-old children, and provide support for dual language learners.
• Expanded access and quality for the CSPP, including by providing continuous eligibility for 24 months to high-quality early learning and increasing income eligibility to 100 percent of the state median income.
• $500 million for planning and implementation grants for UPK for school districts and charter schools that have kindergarten enrollment, and county offices of education for countywide capacity and support for local educational agencies (LEAs) planning and implementing UPK.
  • Of these funds, over $100 million for the Early Education Teacher Development Grant to support UPK workforce at LEAs.
• $54.9 million dispersed over three years for the California UPK Mixed Delivery Planning Grant Program to support preschool planning in a mixed delivery system focusing on:
  • 2022-23 planning and relationship building necessary to expand UPK options for families through a mixed-delivery system.
  • 2023-24 enrollment of eligible children into high-quality UPK programs and ensuring parents are aware of Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELO-P) programs that meet their family’s needs.
  • 2024-25 emphasis on implementing recommendations from the state level UPK Mixed Delivery Quality and Access Workgroup with a focus on family child care home providers.
• In 2022-23
  • $357 million for the first year of transitional kindergarten (TK) expansion, making TK eligible for all children turning five years old between September 2 and February 2.
  • $283 million for one additional certificated or classified staff person in every TK class.
• In 2023–24
  • $988.7 million for the second year of TK expansion, making TK eligible for all children turning five years old between September 2 and April 2.
  • $390.2 million to fund lower ratios of 1 adult to 12 students in every TK class.
• In 2024–25
  • An estimated $1.5 billion ongoing for the third year of TK expansion, making TK eligible for all children turning five years old between September 2 and June 2.
  • An estimated $515.5 million ongoing to fund lower ratios of 1 adult to 12 students in every TK class.
• $100 million for the California Preschool, TK, and Full-Day Kindergarten Facilities Grant in 2022–23.
• $10 million to update the California Preschool/Transitional Kindergarten Learning Foundations (PTKLF), revise the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), and create the P-3 (Preschool through Third Grade) Learning Progressions. The updates ensure that both the PTKLF and DRDP reflect recent research in the field of child development, provide an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and are more inclusive of TK. The P-3 Learning Progressions support P-3 alignment by showing educators the developmental progression of children preschool – Grade 3 in five domains of development.

California launched UPK in the 2021–22 state budget by putting into action recommendations laid out in the California Master Plan for Early Learning and Care through a dramatic expansion of TK with universal access to TK for all four-year-old children by the 2025–26 school year and expanded access to the California State Preschool Program for income-eligible three-year-old children and children with disabilities.

While UPK relies heavily on Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK) and CSPP, it also includes other early learning programs serving three-and four-year-old children, including the federal Head Start Program, subsidized programs that operate a preschool learning experience and are operated by community-based organizations (including family child care), and private preschool programs.

Families with four-year-old children can choose which pre-K program to enroll them in, but TK is the only option that will be universally available, and free of cost, for all four-year-old children as part of California’s public education system. Part of UPK is also the ELO-P, which includes before school, after school, summer or intersession learning programs that develop the academic, social, emotional and physical needs of students and provides access to a full-day of programming that meets the needs of California's working families. A goal of UPK is to ensure families have a meaningful choice of programs that can support the needs of their children and equitable access to these opportunities.

The CDE’s vision for UPK is to provide a strong, early start to inclusive education through high-quality, joyful, rigorous, developmentally informed, and coherent Preschool through third grade learning opportunities to ensure children thrive in school and in life and are college and career ready. Delivering on the UPK promise requires alignment between the early education and TK–12 systems, with UPK serving as a bridge between them, to support children’s development over time and ensure gains made in early years are sustained, and not lost.

To contact the UPK program, email UPK@cde.ca.gov.

For more information, visit the UPK FAQs web page.

Universal PreKindergarten is one key part of State Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s Transforming School Initiatives.