SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) Kindergarten prepares children academically and socially for future academic success. Considerable research shows that children who attend kindergarten receive significant benefits. Achievement and opportunity gaps begin as early as kindergarten, and children who attend preschool perform better than those who do not. Kindergarten becomes even more important for children who do not attend preschool, as kindergarten is where they learn important academic and social skills before entering the first grade.
(2) In comparing the long-term outcomes of children born in states with mandatory kindergarten attendance to states with voluntary kindergarten attendance, children who attend kindergarten are more likely to go to college and earn higher wages, and are less likely to experience poverty as adults.
(3) The benefits of an increased availability of kindergarten are also substantially larger for children who are Hispanic, Black, English language learners, and from immigrant households and lower income families.
(4) A 2010 study, “Who Benefits From Kindergarten? Evidence From the Introduction of State Subsidization,” shows that children from lower income families who attend kindergarten are less likely to be below grade level throughout their academic careers and earn 5 percent higher wages as adults. Kindergarten helps to level the playing field for children who are less likely to receive high-quality childcare or preschool. Hispanic children with access to kindergarten are also 17 percent less likely to be below grade level for their age, and earn wages 5 percent higher as adults.
(5) According to a 2019 study, “The Returns of an Additional Year of Schooling: The Case of State-Mandated Kindergarten,” Black and Hispanic children subjected to compulsory kindergarten experience a 5-percentage point increase in college completion relative to White children. They also experience a nearly 7-percent increase in wages and income relative to White children. There are similar differential impacts on education and income for women. These findings are extremely important given the presence of large education and earning gaps between Hispanic, Black, and White adults, and between men and women.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that a parent or legal guardian of a pupil eligible for kindergarten maintain the discretion to enroll the pupil in either public school kindergarten or private school kindergarten, which includes home schooling, before enrolling the pupil in the first grade of a public elementary school.