The Pleasanton (CA) Weekly (6/7, Aguilar) reports the California State Assembly approved a bill that would require children to attend kindergarten before they enter first grade, although the bill doesn’t require children to attend kindergarten when they’re five. Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan (D), a sponsor, said the bill was inspired in part by “the new Common Core State Standards,” which “have academic expectations for kindergarten students.” Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D), another sponsor, said the state is designing much of its educational policy “around the assumption that California’s children will attend kindergarten.”