California would make kindergarten mandatory under new bill

California children would be required to complete a year of kindergarten before starting first grade, under a bill that has passed the state Senate.

SB 70, sponsored by Susan Rubio (D-West Covina), passed Wednesday on a 32-5 vote and will be sent to the Assembly.

Although a large majority of California schoolchildren attend kindergarten — 95%, as estimated by the state Department of Education — it is not currently mandatory. The new bill, which applies only to public schools, specifies that starting in the fall of 2022, incoming first-graders will have to have completed a year of kindergarten as well as being 6 years old by Sept. 1.

Some children will have two years of kindergarten: Since 2010, California public schools have offered “transitional kindergarten” for children who turn 5 between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2, and so do not meet the age cutoff for traditional kindergarten.

The bill has been opposed by some home-school advocates, although the addition of language limiting it to public schools appeased some of them.

A similar mandatory kindergarten bill passed the Legislature in 2014, but it was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who said he “would prefer to let parents determine what is best for their children.”