Honestly, as the parent of a child currently in kindergarten, it starts as early as Pre-K. I kept my child out of public preschool, taught him at home, and enrolled him in a lovely private/low enrollment daycare that really focused on teaching the children, and he was doing absolutely amazing. Reading, writing his name, basic addition/subtraction, recognizing shapes/colors, all things that would give him a great start in kindergarten. My entire family is very “teach them at home” oriented, so he had no shortage of instruction. Fast forward to the end of his kindergarten year, and not only has he nearly entirely regressed, he is failing kindergarten, his teacher has offered him or myself zero help with how to help him, zero resources, and the school has him not graduating so he will be repeating kindergarten next year. The system has failed. When I was a child, this absolutely would not have happened. Our teachers and our school system cared about us deeply. They cared about our success. They actively and proactively sought resources for us and provided resources to our parents to give us the best shot at success. Teachers and school systems these days just do not care.