PPIC报告：加州过渡幼儿园扩围对补贴托育冲击「有限」：合资格四岁儿童8月退出比例高2.1个百分点
加州公共政策研究所（Public Policy Institute of California，PPIC）最新发布的研究报告显示，加州扩大过渡幼儿园（Transitional Kindergarten，TK）招生后，四岁儿童加速离开补贴托育，但这类流失对托育体系造成的扰动总体「有限」。
报告发现，有资格入读 TK 的四岁儿童，在学年开始的8月退出补贴托育的可能性，比刚好错过入学资格的同龄儿童高出2.1个百分点，且这一效应主要集中在中心式托育。研究人员指出，这与托育业界普遍感受到的「强烈冲击」存在落差；不过该分析仅涵盖由「加州儿童保育与发展基金」（California Child Care and Development Fund）资助的托育，不包括私营托育、州立学前班等其他项目。
报告认为，效应有限的部分原因在于 TK 上课时间较短：家长仍需要全日制照护，或把补贴托育作为 TK 之外的补充。2024年，入托儿童中，6.5%的四岁儿童为非全日制，其他年龄段约为3%。
与此同时，补贴托育的入托结构正向低龄倾斜：2024年，婴儿占新入托人数的24%，高于2019年的19%。加州自2022年起分阶段把 TK 扩展到全体四岁儿童，入学人数在2021年秋季至2023年秋季之间翻了一倍以上。受访家长普遍认为 TK「更方便、更像学校」；部分托育从业者则认为，TK 的教育质量并不高于自家项目。
关联：
加州大学伯克利分校研究：上过过渡幼儿园的孩子三四年级阅读领先近11个月，低收入家庭受益最大
PPIC: California's TK Expansion Has a 'Modest' Effect on Subsidized Child Care
California's expansion of transitional kindergarten (TK) has nudged more four-year-olds out of subsidized child care, but the disruption has been "modest" overall, according to a new study from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
Comparing children just eligible for TK with those who narrowly missed the cutoff, the researchers found that eligible four-year-olds were 2.1 percentage points more likely to leave subsidized care in August, when the school year begins — an effect concentrated in center-based care. That is a smaller impact than many providers report feeling, the study notes, though the analysis covers only care funded through the California Child Care and Development Fund, not private programs or state preschool.
One reason for the modest effect: TK sessions are short, so families still need full-day care or use subsidized care to supplement TK. In 2024, 6.5% of four-year-olds in care attended part time, compared with about 3% for other ages.
Subsidized care is also skewing younger: infants accounted for 24% of new enrollees in 2024, up from 19% in 2019. California began phasing in TK for all four-year-olds in 2022, and enrollment more than doubled between fall 2021 and fall 2023. Parents surveyed described TK as more convenient and more like school, while some child care providers said TK's educational quality was not higher than their own programs.
Related:
UC Berkeley study finds TK alumni ahead in reading by third and fourth grade
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：图：幼儿在托育课堂内活动（示意照片）。照片：Vincenzo Mainardi，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Young children in a childcare classroom (illustrative). Photo: Vincenzo Mainardi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
