The gap between men’s and women’s labor force participation rates largely stems from women with children (Soldani,2021)). As the mothers need to make arrangements for the kids while she is at work, the provision of public schooling can narrow the gap. On the other hand, there has been a trend of moving the kindergarten cutoff earlier over the last four decades, causing fewer five-year-olds to enroll in school (Elder and Lubotsky, 2009). Though the educational outcome of the change in the kindergarten cutoff is still debatable, it significantly saves the states’ money at the cost of the burden on the parents, particularly mothers (Datar, 2006). Under these circumstances, it is worthwhile to investigate whether the kindergarten cutoff change adversely affects the maternal labor market outcomes. Using data from the American Community Survey(ACS), I apply a staggered difference-in-difference model to assess the change in mothers’ labor market outcomes explained by the fall in enrollment in states that changed the kindergarten cutoff. In this study, I adopt the quasi-experimental approach to evaluate the potential impact of this change in the kindergarten cutoff on labor market outcomes of mothers with five years old kids. The change
in the kindergarten cutoff can be regarded as exogenous and applied for identification. In particular, I utilize the variation across states and over time in the kindergarten cutoff to assess whether there is a causal link between eligibility for kindergarten enrollment and mothers’ labor supply. Eligibility for kindergarten enrollment depends on the birth quarter, state of residence, and time. Previous studies on ’quarter of birth’ focused only on the 1980 census (Gelbach,2002; Soldani,2021). I use yearly data from 2005 to 2019. My results confirm the considerable impact on mothers’ labor supply. Making the cutoff earlier reduced the labor supply among mothers, and single mothers of five years old without younger children responded less.