Pupil admission: kindergarten and first grade.

(1) Existing law requires that a child be admitted to kindergarten at the beginning of a school year, or at any time later in the same year if the child will have his or her 5th birthday on or before December 2 of that school year. An elementary school is required to admit a child to the first grade during the first month of a school year if the child will have his or her 6th birthday on or before December 2 of that school year. This bill would change the required birthday for admission to kindergarten to September 1 commencing with the 2012–13 school year, and for admission to first grade to September 1 commencing with the 2013–14 school year. The bill, commencing with the 2012–13 school year, would authorize a child who will have his or her 5th birthday between September 1 and December 2 to be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program, as defined, that is maintained by the school district and would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate to a school district that maintains a transitional kindergarten program an amount equal to the revenue limit amount that the district would have received for the attendance of these pupils if they would have been eligible to attend kindergarten that year pursuant to the law governing admission to kindergarten as it read on January 1, 2012. To the extent those changes establish new administrative duties on the governing boards of school districts in implementing the changes, they would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.