California: 4K teachers dealing with 4yo kids still not potty trained

Aug 29, 2025, Ed Source: ‘Can you come wipe me?’: Younger 4-year-olds pose new challenges for TK 

https://edsource.org/2025/potty-training-challenges-california-schools/739604?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic%2Fcalifornia&amp=1 

More 4-year-olds across California are entering transitional kindergarten this year — curious and eager to play and learn. But some aren’t fully potty-trained, posing an unexpected challenge for schools.

This story is part of a special series on transitional kindergarten in California.

California is now offering TK to all 4-year-olds. What does quality TK look like? Who should staff it? And a new challenge: How can teachers manage a class and help kids not yet potty-trained? . . .

It’s a question school districts across the state are grappling with as they expand TK to younger children.

Once designed to serve only children who missed the kindergarten age cutoff, transitional kindergarten, often referred to as TK, has expanded to include all 4-year-olds, including those who turn 4 on Sept. 1.

Teaching children through play is one thing, but handling potty issues is another. There’s state guidance, but with little to no local direction, toileting practices differ across the board.

Private preschools vary in their approach to toilet-training. Many programs train preschool teachers to help children with toileting while others require children to be potty-trained before enrolling. Public schools cannot require students to be toilet-trained, but elementary school teachers are often not trained to help.  . . .

 “Can you come wipe me?” a Fresno Unified School District TK student yelled out last week from the connected bathroom in Kristi Henkle’s class.

“We don’t do that,” she responded. 

“Who’s going to do it?” the student quickly replied. It was the third day of school.  . . .

 “A lot of kids are not fully potty-trained,” Oakland Unified School District TK teacher Amairani Sanchez said. She has 24 students and two aides this year because the student-staff ratio for TK went down to 10-to-1. “Now that I have that second aide, if a kid needs help wiping, my para does that.” 

According to the California Department of Education’s 32-page toileting toolkit, districts and schools should engage with union representatives about “which jobs will include direct toileting support activities, such as assisting a child with changing clothing or cleaning themselves.” . . .

Special education paraprofessionals, who are often tasked with supporting children who are still in diapers, have helped general education teachers and aides create toileting resources for the classroom.  . . .

In one elementary bathroom, a naked TK student runs to the door each day, carrying her clothes because she doesn’t know how to put them back on. . . .

A partnership with families

Before this school year, there was a premise that 4-year-olds who were not potty-trained needed an individualized education plan (IEP) for special education services, which required an aide for changing diapers and helping with toileting. 

But that shouldn’t be the norm, some teachers and experts say.

“If you actually think there could be a disability, then let’s assess and check,” said Doerflinger, the TK teacher in Woodlake Unified who has one student who is not potty-trained and has been identified as having special needs and another student in the process of being recognized for such services. “Some kids just have trauma. Some kids just take longer. Some kids are terrified of a bathroom with a loud flushing toilet.”. . .