BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 713
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
713 (Weber)
As Amended June 1, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+----------------------|
|Education |6-1 |O'Donnell, Chávez, |Kim |
| | |McCarty, Santiago, | |
| | |Thurmond, Weber | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+----------------------|
|Appropriations |12-4 |Gomez, Bonta, |Bigelow, Gallagher, |
| | |Calderon, Daly, |Jones, Wagner |
| | |Eggman, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Requires, beginning in the 2017-18 school year, a child
to complete one year of kindergarten before he or she may be
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admitted to first grade. Specifies that a person, firm,
association, partnership, or corporation offering or conducting
private school instruction at the elementary or high school level
required to file notice with the Superintendent of Public
Instruction include those providing kindergarten instruction.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, unknown Proposition 98 (1988)/General Fund costs,
beginning in 2017, for increased average daily attendance (ADA),
potentially in the range of $100 million to $200 million. In
addition to increased ADA, local education agencies may experience
increased facility costs to accommodate additional student
enrollment.
COMMENTS: Background. Under current law, compulsory education
begins at age six until age 18. Any person subject to compulsory
education found away from home without a valid excuse for not
attending school can be arrested by school officials or peace or
probation officers. Current law does not require a child to
attend kindergarten but requires school districts to admit a pupil
for kindergarten if a parent wishes to enroll a child as long as
the child will be five-years-old by September 1.
This bill requires all kids to attend kindergarten before
enrolling in first grade. This bill also specifies that
organizations or individuals required to file notice with the
Superintendent of Public Instruction of private school instruction
includes those providing kindergarten instruction. According to
the author's office, this provision is to clarify that parents can
home school their children for kindergarten as long as they file
the required notice with the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
In the 2013-14 school year, 506,831 pupils were enrolled in
kindergarten out of a total enrollment of 6,236,672. The
California Department of Education (CDE) also reports that 45,521
pupils attended private kindergarten programs in 2013 to 2014.
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The CDE estimates that between 90% to 95% of pupils eligible for
kindergarten actually attend kindergarten (public and private).
The CDE reviewed data of kids enrolled in first grade in the
2011-12 school year but were not enrolled in kindergarten in
2010-11 and found that 28,000, or 5.7% of kids entered the public
school system for the first time in first grade. It is unlikely
that all 28,000 skipped kindergarten; many of these kids may have
enrolled in private schools for kindergarten.
Mandatory kindergarten in other states. The Education Commission
of the States reports that, as of December 2010, 19 states have
mandatory kindergarten policies, including Arkansas, Connecticut,
Delaware, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New
Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Tennessee, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Wisconsin and
West Virginia. Of the 19, 11 have compulsory education starting
at age five, the remaining eight require students to attend school
beginning age six or older.
Benefits of kindergarten. Kids who attend kindergarten are better
prepared academically and socially for first grade. For children
who have not attended preschool, kindergarten is where they learn
how to hold a pencil properly, follow directions, as well as the
alphabets and math concepts. Kindergarten is also where they
learn reading skills. Kids who enter first grade without having
attended kindergarten start first grade behind those who did.
First grade teachers must spend time teaching kindergarten level
academics and social skills instead of focusing full attention on
first grade standards if they have kids in their class that are
entering school for the first time in first grade. Bruce Fuller,
an education professor at University of California, Berkeley, made
this statement in a 2002 Los Angeles Times article, "Compulsory,
full-day kindergarten is the lost soul of public education."
A 2010 study, "Who Benefits from Kindergarten? Evidence from the
Introduction of State Subsidization," shows that kindergarten has
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a positive effect on those who are socioeconomically
disadvantaged. The study looked at outcomes - both long and short
term - in the academic and labor markets based on the availability
of public school kindergarten in the United States and found that
kids from lower income families who attend kindergarten are less
likely to be below grade level through their academic careers and
earn wages 5% higher as adults.
This bill does not change the age of compulsory education at age
five. A possible effect of this bill is that the age of kids in
the kindergarten through grade 12 system will be older in every
grade. If parents start their kids in kindergarten at age six,
then they will be older going into all remaining grades.
Arguments in support. The author states, "The current voluntary
status of kindergarten allows parents to delay their child's
entrance into school until first grade, leaving that student
unprepared for the educational environment they will encounter in
elementary school. The new Common Core State Standards have high
academic performance expectations for students. If children don't
attend kindergarten, they begin first grade behind socially and
academically, which is likely to inhibit their academic progress
throughout their school careers. We are making a significant
investment in the state's K-12 system to improve student success.
It's time we made kindergarten mandatory to ensure that our
investment in student success is maximized. This bill ensures
that children will not start first grade behind, while preserving
parent choice by not changing the compulsory age of education."
Arguments in opposition. The Independent Private Schools of
California opposes this bill and states, "AB 713 would place an
inappropriate financial burden on parents who have determined that
it is best for their child to wait an additional year (until age
six) to enroll their children in school and who plan to enroll
their child in the first grade of a private school at their own
expense. Under AB 713, parents who choose to delay their child's
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entrance into formal education by forgoing kindergarten will be
forced to undergo a time and financial penalty of adding a year of
school before graduation. Enrollment into kindergarten prior to
the first grade must remain optional for parents."
Analysis Prepared by:
Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN:
0000785