New Changes to Transitional Kindergarten (TK) Assignment Policy

The San Francisco Board of Education recently approved two policy changes starting in the 2026-27 school year to make the Transitional Kindergarten (TK) assignment process simpler and more responsive to families’ needs:

1. Create feeder patterns that connect TK at Early Education (EE) sites to Kindergarten at elementary schools, so that families completing TK at Early Education sites starting in 2026-27 do not need to re-apply for Kindergarten. Students in TK at EE schools will automatically be promoted into Kindergarten at their feeder school without having to re-apply starting in 2027-28.
2. Ensuring that all Attendance Area elementary schools have a TK class, either on the Attendance Area elementary school site, or at a nearby Early Education school. This means that all families in San Francisco will have a tiebreaker to a nearby school for TK.

As a result, TK students in the school year 2026-27 do not need to submit an application for the school year 2027-28 if they wish to remain in their same school or feeder school and program for Kindergarten. 

Background Link to this section

Before making these policy changes, SFUSD sought feedback from the community, whose opinions were favorable:

• 67% of parents agreed with creating feeder patterns and ensuring that all families have an attendance area tiebreaker for TK
• More than 90% of site leaders were in favor of the feeder patterns with automatic promotion
• Many families identified proximity, stability, and simplicity as important factors in their TK decision-making process 

If you have any questions about how these changes impact your student, please reach out to SFUSD staff at the Enrollment Center (EC): 

• Email: enrollinschool@sfusd.edu
• Phone: 415-241-6085
• In-Person: 555 Franklin Street or 1520 Oakdale Avenue
• Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Oakdale office is only open on Thursdays)