Communities need policymakers and state leaders to invest in the future of our youngest children by increasing the quality and availability of Early Learning and Care in our state.
Since 2003, Early Edge California has been a leader in Early Learning advocacy. Today, we are driving an ambitious agenda to strengthen the whole mixed-delivery Early Learning and Care system, through key legislation and budget requests that address the most critical challenges forof children, families, and the workforce that supports them.
Step into the history of Early Edge to learn about what we’ve accomplished for Early Learning and Care from our inception to the present day.
Early Edge California was originally founded as Preschool California with the goal of increasing children’s access to high-quality preschool programs.
We put Proposition 82 on the ballot, the Preschool For All Initiative, to give all California 4-year-olds a constitutional right to free preschool. Though it was defeated, the initiative helped us build a network of support for future advocacy efforts.
We co-sponsored bill AB 2759, California State Preschool Program Act, which created the California State Preschool Program, the largest state preschool program in the nation, reduced bureaucracy and increased local flexibility, and allowed preschool programs to serve an additional 19,000 children each year. We also co-sponsored bill SB 1629, the Early Learning Quality Improvement Act, to improve the quality of Early Learning programs in California.
We advocated for the creation of Transitional Kindergarten, a new grade level to serve as a bridge between preschool and kindergarten, adopted through SB 1381, the Kindergarten Readiness Act.
We supported 900+ school districts in implementing Transitional Kindergarten by providing technical information, connecting them to experts, hosting conferences and developing a new resource, TKCalifornia.org.
Preschool California rebranded to Early Edge California to recognize that Early Learning begins at birth and continues into early elementary school.
We advocated for the largest increase to child development in more than a decade resulting in more than $250 million in new, ongoing state investments, including 11,500 additional preschool spaces.
We sponsored bill AB 47, the Preschool for All Act, which called for a firm deadline for California to provide quality preschool to all low-income 4-year-olds which, while not signed, led to an additional $300 million investment by the state in child care and development funding. We continued to support Transitional Kindergarten implementation by defending the rights of 80,000 children to access the program and by hosting our annual TK Conference in partnership with the New Teacher Center.
Patricia Lozano joined Early Edge California as the new executive director, bringing her expertise in Early Learning policy, research, and practice.
For the first time in the State Budget history, Early Edge and partners helped secure $5M in the 2018-19 state budget to provide professional development to Early Learning teachers to support Dual Language Learners (DLLs). We also hosted our inaugural Early Learning Tour for California leaders and legislators, traveling to Boston and New Jersey to learn about exemplary Early Learning programs.
We successfully advocated for our co-sponsored bill AB 123 (McCarty), resulting in California implementing community eligibility in the California State Preschool Program (CSPP) for children in neighborhoods where 80% or more of children are eligible for free or reduced price meals. We established our first advisory group, hosting Early Learning educators to learn about their experiences in the field and consult with them on needed policy changes and investments. We held our 2nd Early Learning Tour for California leaders and legislators, traveling to Chicago.
We published our Dual Language Learner (DLL) and Workforce Policy Platforms to help inform California’s Early Learning and Care policies and investments in 2020–21 and beyond. We also contributed to a key knowledge brief on DLLs for the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care (MPELC) and designed and hosted distance learning webinars throughout the year to support the Early Learning and Care field during the pandemic.
We successfully advocated for Universal Preschool for all four-year-olds through the inclusion of Universal Transitional Kindergarten’s (UTK) in the CA state budget, a $2.7 billion program to be phased in over 4 years, beginning in 2022. Governor Newsom signed our sponsored bill AB 1363 (Rivas), making California the first state in the nation to establish an asset-based process to identify DLLs in State Preschool Programs. We launched the Multilingual Learning Toolkit website with our partners, designed for educators and administrators supporting Multilingual Learners in PreK-3rd Grade.
Governor Newsom signed our sponsored bills SB 1047 (Limón) and AB 22 (McCarty) to strengthen California’s Early Learning and Care system. We relaunched our TKCalifornia website with a new look and new content to support the official start of California’s expansion of Transitional Kindergarten. We established our Advisory Leadership Council to create a group of liaison members that bring cohesion to our different advisory groups for parents, providers, and educators. Early Edge and partners released a policy brief to uplift the needs of Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) providers.
Early Edge celebrated 20 years of supporting children, families, and early learning and care professionals! Governor Newsom signed our sponsored bill AB 393 (Rivas) to expand support to more DLLs in California’s Early Learning and Care system. We launched a video message from Governor Newsom celebrating Transitional Kindergarten produced in partnership with the Governor’s office. We led our 3rd Early Learning Tour for California leaders and legislators to visit Boston and New Jersey.
Governor Newsom signed our sponsored bill AB 2268 (Muratsuchi) to immediately exempt Transitional Kindergarten (TK) students from taking the English Language Proficiency Assessment of California (ELPAC). We launched our Birth to Three campaign to uplift our newest priority area of increasing access to child care for babies and toddlers. We released our second policy brief about Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) providers, led a yearlong cohort of FFN caregivers within our California Leading from Home program, and hosted an advocacy day in the state capitol for them to engage policymakers on key issues impacting the FFN caregiving community.
Universal Transitional Kindergarten reached full expansion with the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, meaning all 4-year-olds in California are now eligible to attend the largest universal preschool program in the nation. Governor Newsom signed our sponsored bills AB 753 (Garcia) and SB 271 (Gómez Reyes) which support children and families, and strengthen the Early Learning and Care system. We led our 4th Early Learning Tour for California leaders and legislators to visit Denver, Colorado.
