Christina Weiland, Brian Jacob and Jordan Berne: Getting Washington’s Transition to Kindergarten program right

By Christina Weiland, Brian Jacob and Jordan Berne

High-quality preschool programs get children off to a strong start in school, with benefits that can last into adulthood. But high costs and long wait lists have shut out many Washington children, particularly those from families with lower incomes and from rural communities.

Washington’s Transition to Kindergarten program – which offers a year of free, full-day education to 4-year-olds across the state – has helped to narrow these gaps. After the state officially opened up TK to all districts, the program grew fast, from 4,700 children in 2023 to over 7,000 in 2025. With the state facing budget shortfalls, the Washington Legislature has taken notice of TK. There have been debates in Olympia about TK’s future for several years running, including in the current session.

Since 2019, we have been researching the TK program in Michigan, the nation’s second-largest TK program (Washington’s is the third largest). Michigan’s program is the TK program most similar to Washington’s, according to the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. Our Michigan findings offer several key lessons for charting the future of TK in the Evergreen State.

First, the current TK bills under debate in Olympia, HB 1450 and SB 5769, are rightly concerned with making sure TK doesn’t crowd out other early learning programs, requiring a landscape analysis in each community. We had the same worries about Michigan’s TK program, but our research showed these fears to be unfounded. As TK expanded in Michigan, some children did switch from Michigan’s state-funded Pre-K program into TK. But other children quickly took up the newly open slots, resulting in more children in the state overall enrolled in early education programs. As in Michigan, significant numbers of Washington children don’t attend any kind of preschool. While it is wise to give some attention to preventing crowd out, our findings suggest the bulk of the Legislature’s energies would be better spent on other aspects of TK.

Second, the Legislature should work to ensure that communities with fewer resources are not left out, even as Washington explores caps on TK slots to keep costs down. In both Michigan and Washington, districts have to opt in to offering TK – they are not required to offer it. In Michigan, we found this “opt in” approach meant that more advantaged communities are more likely to offer TK than less advantaged communities – e.g., Ann Arbor offers TK but Detroit does not. In interviews with districts that don’t offer TK, several leaders asked us for resources and advice on how to start a TK program. As TK expands in Washington, the state can lead nationally in offering training, information, and technical assistance for less-resourced communities to start TK programs.

Third, the Washington Legislature should give additional focus to providing a high-quality TK experience. Data from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy shows that about 43% of Washington TK programs in 2022-23 used curricula that underdeliver in boosting children’s learning compared to other options. In Michigan, where we found TK programs improved children’s learning through third grade, few TK programs used these less effective curricula. A new National Academies consensus report advises that early learning programs shift to evidence-based choices, a recommendation that the Washington Legislature could take up in its TK discussions.

Finally, our work on Michigan TK underscores the critical importance of rigorous research as Washington TK expands. The TK bills under review in Olympia wisely require that TK participation be tracked via the state’s longitudinal data system. The state would also be smart to require independent evaluations of the impact of Washington TK on the early learning landscape and on children’s learning, along with studies of its quality.

With TK emerging as an important part of Washington’s early childhood landscape, the Legislature should be applauded for its careful attention to the program, especially at a fiscally fraught time in the state. Moving more young children in Washington to opportunity is a smart investment in the state’s future – a future in which it is increasingly clear that TK has a role to play.

Christina Weiland is a professor at the Marsal Family School of Education and the Karl and Martha Kohn Professor of Social Policy at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Brian Jacob is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and Professor of economics at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Jordan Berne is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Michigan, where he is also an Institute of Education Sciences Predoctoral Fellow.