Orinda schools implementing new TK pre-school program this fall

    Enrollment is open for Orinda’s new Transitional Kindergarten (TK) for the 2025-2026 school year. The free program offers parents the added choice of a developmentally appropriate program for four-year-olds that uses a modified kindergarten curriculum.
    Often referred to as the first year of a two-year kindergarten experience, TK is targeted at children who may not be ready for kindergarten but are too advanced for pre-school.
    Children who turn four years of age on or before Sept. 1 are eligible to enroll in the program. Enrollment began on December 16, 2024, and as of the end of February, 183 students had registered. New students must be enrolled through the online process at bit.ly/4k8gDqJ.
    For the regular kindergarten program, children who turn five years of age on or before Sept. 1, are eligible to enroll.
    TK is central to California’s Universal PreKindergarten (UPK) initiative, passed by the legislature in 2021. Universal Pre-K also supports other early learning programs serving three and four-year-old children under the initiative, including the federally funded Head Start Program, subsidized programs run by community-based organizations (including family childcare), and private preschool programs.
    TK is the only program free to all participants, and the state has mandated that all public elementary schools offer it starting in the 2025-26 school year. The half-day program (typically 8:30–11 a.m.) includes a free breakfast and lunch and before and after school programs 
as well.
    Although it will be funded by the Local Control Funding Formula in the same way as K-12, TK is subject to strict requirements for facilities, student/teacher ratios and teacher training, all of which impose significant unfunded costs on districts. For example, TK classrooms will need new furniture, classroom materials, and be equipped with bathrooms. Playgrounds will now need bathrooms, along with other significant safety upgrades.
    Making room for the new students also presents the district with a difficult choice. Aide Glimme, OUSD Superintendent, said, “Either we add new facilities (each new portable is about $400K) or we change the way we offer programming to offer a.m./p.m. programming and use the same room for two classes of TK students. Considering the significant cost we will have to adjust the schedule.”
    OUSD’s TK will have a 1:10 ratio of teachers to students, with a maximum class size of 20 children. Teachers will need to be specially credentialed.
    “We can’t just move teachers from other grade levels – TK requires an early childhood education certificate,” said OUSD Superintendent, Aida Glimme.
    As the launch of TK approaches, the district is gearing up for summer construction. Del Rey will close its playground temporally for a $1.1 million upgrade to include the required safety features (all the money for the project was raised by parents.) Glorietta is also undergoing 
construction.
    TK is the biggest expansion of the California public school system in decades, and Glimme said it will affect all students and parents, regardless of grade level.
    “We are all excited about TK,” said Glimme. “But we also need to be aware that this is going to have a major impact on our culture as well as our budget.”