This story is part of Young Brains, Huge Stakes, a new series from KVPR. Read more stories here.
CLOVIS, Calif. — Luke Rou’s favorite activity is anything involving dirt. So, on a recent day, Rou helped his mom pull out weeds on the side of his family’s house.
He wore a giant smile on his face, even though it wasn’t an activity you’d think a four-year-old would gravitate toward. But his mom said her son wasn’t always so adaptable.
“He was having a lot of behavior, listening, following instructions, [and being] aggressive,” Paule Rou said. “He was aggressive towards his sister.”
His aggression, she said, stemmed from not being able to communicate as a result of his autism. Luke was lashing out when he couldn’t use his words, which led to many physical fights with his siblings.
Doctors encouraged Rou and her husband to enroll Luke in transitional kindergarten – and then a switch flipped.
“He's talking a lot more,” Paule said. “He's engaging with other classmates. He's talking to them. He's making friends.”
More special needs students like Luke are enrolling in transitional kindergarten.
A data analysis by KVPR found the proportion of special needs TK students grew last school year compared to the year prior. Last year, about one in 10 TK students had special needs, and most Valley counties saw an increase between the two years.
But as transitional kindergarten makes its full launch at all public schools in the state, the increase in special needs students poses challenges for school districts in rural areas with limited resources.
TK curriculum stimulates all kids
Luke Rou’s improvement with social interactions and emotional outbursts makes sense to experts, including early childhood special education consultant Lucia Garay.
That’s because students are often screened for disabilities for the first time when they enter school, Garay said, and the public schools where TK is offered are required to provide speech and behavior support. So the increase in TK students with a disability isn’t surprising, she said.
But she said two other things could contribute to the increase: Teachers may potentially refer too many students who aren’t reaching typical milestones at 4 years old for screenings, and parents may request a screening for the same reason.
“We need to make sure that we get people who know how to observe the children so that they can have that conversation with the parents…. working as a team for the parents to agree to have their child evaluated, and agree for the child to receive services,” Garay said.
Beyond services, Garay said TK also offers social interaction and structure students may not otherwise get in an isolated environment at home.
“Sometimes just being in school and in a structured setting that provides those incidental, repetitive opportunities for learning that just makes the child develop at an exponential pace,” Garay said. “You can have autism and be at home and your parents drill you on different social skills but you're not out there really having somebody else run off with your bicycle or your trike and [learning] how to request it back.”
TK also presents a more equitable option for families because it’s free and cheaper than private preschool.
When Luke was born, Paule became a stay-at-home mom to care for him. But the family said “pretty much all of her income” went to private daycare before that. With only one income, the Rou family found themselves banking on TK.
“The only universally available option for all children to equitably have access to this right now is TK, because it doesn't matter where you live in California, there's a school district that you belong to and your income, social, immigration, economic or work status does not matter,” Garay said.
More needs strains resources
Despite transitional kindergarten’s benefits to students with special needs, the increase in special needs students has caused a strain for some Valley school districts, especially in rural areas.
Mark Odsather, the superintendent of Pleasant View Elementary School District in Tulare County, said he’s seen schools struggle to find enough aides and support staff for TK classrooms when they previously worked in other grades.
In 2023-24, Odsather’s district only had one TK student with a disability. But last year, it jumped to six, which he said created a strain in staffing levels because TK students aren’t as independent as older students.
“The littles need a lot of support,” he said. “The younger they are, there's more need for staff to support that.”
Part of this problem, Odsather said, is that many rural areas in the Valley have fewer hospitals and doctors than urban areas. Parents are more likely to find out about their child’s disability for the first time when they enroll them in school, he said, which can require more initial support than if the child was already receiving help.
“Parents aren't going to these appointments, or nurses aren't coming into homes,” Odsather said. “And so some of these delays, or in us diagnosing or finding out about it, don’t happen until age 4 or 5 when they first enter school.”
This struggle isn’t unique to Pleasant View Elementary.
Ashley Baker has an autistic son who is about to enter TK in Merced County. Even in preschool, she said she’s seen the shortage of trained professionals. She moved her son to another school site because the previous one didn’t have the staff to help him.
“At his new school, there's four aids and a teacher to 12 students,” Baker explained. “But at the first school that he was at, there were only two aides, one teacher, and 20 students.”
Since enrolling, she’s heard the school is trying to move his special day class into TK next year because of its positive results.
“I'm very excited,” Baker said. “I think he's going to do a wonderful job.”
Rou family looks ahead
After weeding, the Rou family set up a tee in their batting cage so Luke could practice his swing. With Little League starting soon, the family wastes no time. His sister loaded dozens of baseballs onto the tee while her brother swung at them.
Their dad, Sam Rou, said he feels like Luke’s learning to become a more independent kid — and eventually an independent adult some day.
“I think if we would have waited longer, for him to be like 5 or 6, that's more time for him to be just dead-set in his ways,” Sam said. “If we start him early, earlier in TK, I think he's more pliable.”
If TK is like baseball, then Luke is learning how to catch, throw and hit a homerun.
“Catch them while they're early, if you know that they have it,” Sam said. “And then, start providing them the resources that they need.”
This article was produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2025 Data Fellowship.
