What Age Does Preschool Start in California? 2026-27 Guide

Pick a birthday to see this school year and the next three.

California’s age rules, 2026–27 to 2029–30

When does your child start TK and kindergarten?

Pick a birthday. You see the first public school year, then each school year with the programs your child is old enough for.

Your child’s birthday or due date

JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930312028202720262025202420232022202120202019

Or try an example

Born Sept 2Born Aug 31Born Dec 1A spring 2-year-old

Example: born September 2, 2022 TK in 2027–28. Kindergarten in 2028–29.

Born September 2: one day past TK’s September 1 line for 2026–27. TK starts in fall 2027, and they’d be among the oldest in the room. The calendar made that call. It isn’t redshirting, which means holding a child back by choice.

Next date to act Each district sets its own registration dates for fall 2027, and some choice programs close months earlier. Check your district’s enrollment page now. Meanwhile, each state preschool and Head Start program takes its own applications. Ask about waiting lists. When to sign up

School years, 2026–27 to 2029–30

1. under way 2026–27

   • State preschool (CSPP)
   • Licensed preschool

   Age 3 on September 1. Turns 4 on September 2, 2026.

2. next fall · First public school year 2027–28

   • TK
   • Kindergarten from Sep 2, case by case

   Age 4 on September 1. Turns 5 on September 2, 2027.

   After the fifth birthday, a district can also admit them to kindergarten, case by case.

3. the fall after 2028–29

   • Kindergarten

   Age 5 on September 1. Turns 6 on September 2, 2028.

   School becomes required on the sixth birthday, September 2, 2028 (EC 48200).

4. 2029–30

   • First grade and up

   Age 6 on September 1. Turns 7 on September 2, 2029.

Head Start counts age by your local public-school date, so ask the program.

What’s required, and when → Which schools near us run TK? →

See the rules by birth date as a table

What opens in each school year for at least some birthdays in each window. Age rules only. The path above gives exact dates for one birthday.

Born	2026–27	2027–28	2028–29	2029–30
Sept 2, 2019 – Sept 1, 2020	First grade or above	First grade or above	First grade or above	First grade or above
Sept 2, 2020 – Sept 1, 2021	Kindergarten	First grade or above	First grade or above	First grade or above
Sept 2, 2021 – Sept 1, 2022	TK Kindergarten after the 5th birthday, if the district agrees	Kindergarten	First grade or above	First grade or above
Sept 2, 2022 – Sept 1, 2023	State preschool age; Head Start by your local school date	TK Kindergarten after the 5th birthday, if the district agrees	Kindergarten	First grade or above
Sept 2, 2023 – Dec 1, 2023	State preschool age; Head Start by your local school date	State preschool age; Head Start by your local school date	TK Kindergarten after the 5th birthday, if the district agrees	Kindergarten
Dec 2, 2023 – Sept 1, 2024	State preschool from age 3 (December 1 rule) State preschool may take a 2-year-old (new enrollment to June 30, 2027)	State preschool age; Head Start by your local school date	TK Kindergarten after the 5th birthday, if the district agrees	Kindergarten
Sept 2, 2024 – Sept 1, 2025	State preschool from age 3 (December 1 rule) State preschool may take a 2-year-old (new enrollment to June 30, 2027) Licensed preschool age from the 2nd birthday Toddler room from 18 months, if the center has one	State preschool from age 3 (December 1 rule)	State preschool age; Head Start by your local school date	TK Kindergarten after the 5th birthday, if the district agrees
Sept 2, 2025 – Sept 1, 2026	Toddler room from 18 months, if the center has one Younger babies: infant care age	State preschool from age 3 (December 1 rule) Licensed preschool age from the 2nd birthday Toddler room from 18 months, if the center has one	State preschool from age 3 (December 1 rule)	State preschool age; Head Start by your local school date
Sept 2, 2026 – Sept 1, 2027 (or due)	Infant care age	Toddler room from 18 months, if the center has one Younger babies: infant care age	State preschool from age 3 (December 1 rule) Licensed preschool age from the 2nd birthday Toddler room from 18 months, if the center has one	State preschool from age 3 (December 1 rule)

How young can a child start preschool in California?

Licensed preschool can begin at 2, and each center sets its own age range.

What the state defines is the licensing categories. A child under 2 is an “infant,” and infant care runs under its own rules (22 CCR 101152). “Preschool age” means the children in a licensed center who aren’t in infant care or school-age care (Health and Safety Code 1597.059). So licensed preschool care begins where infant care ends, at 2. A preschool can also run a toddler program that takes children from 18 months (22 CCR 101216.4).

That’s the floor, and a center can start higher. If you’ve been told your 2-year-old is “too young,” that may be the center’s choice rather than the state’s.

The public options open by age:

• At 2, a California State Preschool Program (CSPP) site may enroll your child if it chooses to. New enrollment of 2-year-olds ends June 30, 2027, and a child who starts before then keeps their place (CDE Management Bulletin 25-03).
• At 3, CSPP and Head Start open to children who qualify. A child who needs special education can get preschool services through the school district from 3 (Education Code 56001).
• At 4, TK opens for children who turned 4 by September 1.
• At 5, kindergarten opens on the same date.

None of these is required. School becomes required at 6.

What are the exact TK and kindergarten cutoffs for 2026–27 and 2027–28?

For 2027–28, TK takes children born September 2, 2022 through September 1, 2023. Kindergarten takes children born September 2, 2021 through September 1, 2022.

For the current 2026–27 year, each window sits one year earlier. TK covers birthdays from September 2, 2021 through September 1, 2022, and kindergarten covers September 2, 2020 through September 1, 2021.

The same rule repeats every year. The Education Code sets TK’s rule for “the 2025–26 school year, and in each school year thereafter.” Kindergarten’s September 1 date has applied since 2014–15 “and each school year thereafter” (Education Code 48000). The birth windows are our arithmetic from that rule. San José Unified publishes the same windows for 2027–28.

If an older child missed TK because of a spring or summer birthday, the line has moved since: today any child who turns 4 by September 1 qualifies. TK began as a year for the children left out when kindergarten’s date moved from December 2 to September 1, between 2012–13 and 2014–15. From 2014–15 through 2021–22, it guaranteed a place only to children whose fifth birthday fell between September 2 and December 2 (EC 48000(c)(1)(C)). It then opened in steps: a fifth birthday by February 2 for 2022–23, by April 2 for 2023–24 and by June 2 for 2024–25. That rule has held since 2025–26.

Fees and income limits are in our cost guide.

Data source: California Department of Education (TK fiscal FAQ, kindergarten FAQ, Management Bulletin 25-03), California Education Code 48000 and 56001, and 45 CFR 1302.12, checked October 2026.

What if our child’s birthday falls just after September 1?

A child who turns 4 on September 2 can’t start TK that school year, and no readiness test or waiver changes it.

CDE’s TK fiscal FAQ asks whether a district can enroll a child who turns 4 after September 1 and answers “No.” The statute’s route for admitting younger children to TK early is tied to the phase-in years, which ended in 2024–25 (EC 48000(c)(2)(A)).

Kindergarten has a narrow opening. Under Education Code 48000(b), a school board may admit a child to kindergarten once they have turned 5, partway through the year. The board must find it’s in the child’s best interests, you must agree, and the district must explain the advantages and disadvantages. CDE’s kindergarten FAQ calls it “rarely used” and says the child can’t start until the fifth birthday.

For the year in between, the choices are private preschool, state preschool or Head Start if you qualify, or home. Private schools don’t have to follow the public kindergarten date, so a private kindergarten may set its own (CDE kindergarten FAQ). A September birthday is no problem for CSPP, which serves 3- and 4-year-olds and counts age by December 1.

Take a child born September 2, 2022, the example the figure starts on. They turned 4 one day after the line, so 2026–27 is a preschool year. Next fall they start TK as one of the oldest in the room. They turn 5 on September 2, 2027, early in that school year. That’s when 48000(b) could come up: the district could move them into kindergarten partway through the year, if it agrees.

Should we wait a year even though our child is eligible?

We wouldn’t hold back an eligible child just to buy an edge: the measured gain is small and argued over, and the extra year costs real money.

Redshirting means holding an eligible child out of kindergarten for a year, so they start among the oldest in class instead of the youngest. In California the same question can come up a year earlier, with TK.

It’s an uncommon choice. NWEA, a testing company, looked at more than 3 million kindergartners from fall 2017 to fall 2025. About 5% were redshirted in an average year, with a peak of 6.4% in fall 2021. White students and boys were the most likely to wait, and it was more common in low-poverty and rural schools.

The research disagrees about whether the extra year pays off, and both sides have real evidence. Researchers compare test results in standard deviations, a way to put different tests on one scale. We’d call 0.04 of a standard deviation tiny and 0.2 noticeable.

• Following the 2021–22 kindergarten class, NWEA found redshirted children started ahead, but “by third grade, redshirters were scoring equivalent to their peers who entered school on-time.”
• In North Carolina, the state moved its cutoff earlier in 2009–10. Children born in a six-week window had to wait a year. Jenkins and Fortner found those children scored about 0.04 standard deviations higher in third-grade reading and math, with no sign of the edge fading through elementary school. The authors add caveats. A comparison across birth years that strips out the advantage of being older than classmates found no effect. The authors trace the gains to being older and more mature, “not from hold-out year experiences.” And the benefit was uneven: it helped low-income students more, but “further disadvantaged students of color,” including in who was identified as gifted.
• In Florida, Dhuey, Figlio, Karbownik and Roth compared children born in September with children born in August. Being older for the grade was worth “always around 0.2” standard deviations on test scores, and the gap held steady across family backgrounds.

The studies answer different questions. NWEA followed families who chose to wait, and those families differ in other ways too. The North Carolina and Florida studies compare children born on either side of a date. They’re built to measure what being older in class does. They say less about what happens when a parent chooses the extra year. None of them can tell you what a year would do for your child.

One California wrinkle: waiting at 4 doesn’t always mean skipping TK. A child who is already old enough for kindergarten can enroll in TK if the district agrees. After the TK year, the family signs a form agreeing to a year of kindergarten (CDE kindergarten FAQ). That’s a district decision, so it’s worth settling before you plan around it.

The costs are more certain. The extra year is another year of preschool or care to arrange. You pay for it unless you qualify for a free program or family can help. Our cost guide helps you price the one you’d actually use. It also shifts the rest of school by a year, so your child finishes high school a year older.

If you’re worried about readiness, talk to your child’s preschool teacher, who sees them with other kids every day.

Do CSPP and Head Start have their own age rules, and who qualifies?

Both start at about 3, both have more ways in than the income line, and qualifying doesn’t guarantee a seat.

Head Start

Head Start takes children who are at least 3, or who turn 3 by the date your local public schools use for eligibility. Children stay eligible until they reach the age when school is required (45 CFR 1302.12). Programs apply that local date themselves, so check it with the program near you.

A family qualifies on income at or below the federal poverty guideline: $33,000 a year for a family of four in 2026. A child also qualifies whatever the family earns in three cases: foster care, homelessness, or public assistance such as CalWORKs, SSI or CalFresh (Head Start). Head Start’s definition of homeless includes families sharing someone else’s home because they lost their own or couldn’t afford one (42 U.S.C. 11434a). If that sounds like your situation, ask the program whether it counts.

Programs can also fill up to 10% of their seats with families who don’t meet those tests. They can take more from families under 130% of the poverty line, once eligible families have been served. Qualifying puts you in line for a seat. It doesn’t hold one.

California State Preschool (CSPP)

CSPP counts a child as 3 for the whole program year if they turn 3 by December 1. A child with a later birthday can start on their third birthday (MB 25-03), and CDE’s age calculator checks a specific date. Until June 30, 2027, a provider may also enroll 2-year-olds.

Income is one route, not the only one. A family qualifies without an income test if it gets cash aid or certain other means-tested benefits, or is homeless. A child also qualifies without one if they receive protective services, are at risk, or have a disability (CDE CSPP FAQ). For a disability, that means an active IEP or IFSP and services (CDE).

Otherwise, the 2026–27 limit for a family of four is $136,044 a year, or $11,337 a month. That’s 100% of state median income (Management Bulletin 26-03). A second band reaches $13,038 a month, about $156,000 a year by our arithmetic from CDE’s monthly figure. Families in that band can fill no more than 10% of a provider’s enrollment, after families with higher priority. We’d treat it as possible rather than likely.

Part-day CSPP has no family fee (MB 26-04). Full-day usually needs a documented reason such as work or school, with exceptions, and may carry a fee; the cost guide has the numbers. You apply to the local contractor, which may be a school district, a county office of education or a community agency. Your county’s child care resource and referral agency can tell you which ones serve your address.

Special-education preschool

If an evaluation finds your child needs special education, the school district provides it from age 3. The IEP team makes that call (5 CCR 3030). The law makes it available to all children 3 to 5 who need special education (EC 56001), so family income doesn’t come into it. Start with the district’s special education office.

When do we need to sign up?

For fall 2027, the district windows we checked open between October and January, and LAUSD’s Choices window closes November 6, 2026.

If your child is old enough for TK or kindergarten this school year and isn’t enrolled, contact the district now. A district can’t keep an age-eligible child out of TK by putting them on a waiting list. It must name the schools that have a TK classroom, which may not include your neighborhood school (CDE’s TK enrollment guidance).

For next fall, each district sets its own dates. When we checked on October 12, 2026, San Francisco Unified had posted its 2027–28 dates. Applications open October 23, 2026, and the main-round deadline for TK through grade 12 is February 1, 2027. Families who apply after that join waitlists and are assigned a school with space. Sacramento City Unified starts TK and kindergarten enrollment on January 11, 2027. Its school-choice applications for kindergarten through grade 8 run January 11 to February 5.

Choice programs can close sooner. LAUSD’s Choices application for 2027–28 covers magnets and other programs, some of which start at TK or kindergarten. On-time applications run October 1 to November 6, 2026, and late ones open December 1. When more students apply to a charter school than it has seats, it holds a public lottery (Education Code 47605). Our charter guide walks through how to apply.

Districts ask for proof of age (Education Code 48002), proof you live in the district and immunization records, and each sets its own list. TK follows the kindergarten immunization rules (California Department of Public Health). CSPP contractors and Head Start programs set their own application timelines, so ask each one how its waiting list works.

For a child turning 2 or 3 this year, the free routes are part-day state preschool and Head Start. Head Start’s Early Head Start program serves children under 3 (45 CFR 1302.12). Check the routes that skip the income test, including benefits, foster care and homelessness.

For a child born September 2, 2022, that’s a preschool year now and a TK application this winter. Next fall, they take a seat among the oldest in the room.