Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0006-9468-6382

Graduation Year

2025

Date of Submission

4-2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics-Accounting

Reader 1

William Lincoln

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

2025 Adamaris Sanchez

Abstract

In 2021, California announced a $2.9 billion investment to establish a Universal Prekindergarten Program (UPK) by 2026. The state is primarily focusing on expanding its preexisting Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program to achieve its goal of providing free high- quality early childhood learning experiences to all 4-year-old children, regardless of income or background. This paper examines Transitional Kindergarten (TK) data to examine the overall and cross-sectional impact of California’s recent Universal Prekindergarten Program (UPK) policy on district level TK enrollment and capacity. A dynamic event study framework was used and found that California’s UPK expansion policy increased TK enrollment and capacity at the district level, with the effects being more pronounced in districts serving racially and ethnically diverse student populations and those located in metropolitan and urban regions. Additionally, school level Transitional Kindergarten (TK) data, in combination with American Community Survey (ACS) census-tract estimates and Child Opportunity Index (COI) classifications, were used to analyze trends in equity concerning TK access. This study concluded that California is achieving its goal of expanding free Transitional Kindergarten access to all 4-year-old children without compromising access to children from communities that were prioritized by the state’s previous targeted program.

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