The state counts “at-risk” students based on those who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch. Changes to that approach could include counting kids enrolled in Medicaid, but the state doesn’t yet have that data by district.
Colorado Children’s Campaign
Posted inOpinion Columns
Carman: We were winning the war on poverty last year. This year, we surrendered our ground.
Colorado voters can have a real impact on child poverty in November by electing candidates who makes kids a priority
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
What should Colorado’s new Department of Early Childhood look like? Leaders want parent, teacher say.
State officials want the input of parents, teachers and child care providers before launching what the governor’s office calls a bold new initiative: reinventing how Colorado provides services to preschoolers. Starting in 2023, the state will provide at least 10 hours a week of free preschool to every kid in the year before kindergarten. But […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Politics and Government
How Colorado counts kids eligible for subsidized lunch is a recipe for school budget disaster
As the pandemic closed schools and businesses and put livelihoods on the line last year, Colorado state lawmakers predicted many more students would fall into poverty — about 51,000 more. But the state counted about 3,000 fewer students living in poverty — also known as at-risk students — than the number tallied during the 2019-20 […]
Posted inCOVID, Education, News
Colorado districts prepare for CMAS testing amid uncertainty about federal waiver
Reluctant Colorado school districts are preparing to administer standardized tests amid uncertainty about whether the state can get any relief from federal testing requirements. Last Monday, federal education officials directed states to proceed with the administration of standardized tests, known here as the Colorado Measures of Academic Success or CMAS, because the tests will help […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Thousands of families redshirted their preschoolers and kindergarteners. Will they swell Colorado schools next fall?
Alamosa School District classrooms are typically full, with about 200 kindergarteners each school year. But that number dropped to 142 this fall. Many of Colorado’s 178 school districts saw a similar enrollment dip. The kindergarten count statewide dropped 8.5% this school year, meaning that thousands of kids who were on track to start kindergarten this […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Facing “seismic shift” this year, Colorado educators pioneer through permanent changes to schooling
Where there were once cracks in Colorado’s education system, Education Commissioner Katy Anthes now sees chasms, laying bare persistent inequities across schools and districts that have only worsened with the pandemic. “The really hard lesson is just how much we’ve been patching things together for so long,” Anthes told a group of parents, teachers, school […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, Election 2020, News, Politics and Government
As advocates tout preschool benefits, Colorado voters face question about funding it with tobacco tax hike
Only a sliver of 4-year-olds in Colorado attend preschool — a critical early step for a child’s school readiness, educators and advocates say — but that could change by 2023 should voters approve a ballot measure in November that would seek to expand the state’s preschool program. Proposition EE would increase the tax on cigarettes […]
Posted inGrowth, News, Politics and Government
As 2020 Census approaches finish line, Colorado looks to close the gap of who’s undercounted
The last day for Coloradans to respond to the 2020 census, the decennial poll of everyone living in the U.S. that determines how billions of dollars are spent across the country, is fast approaching. As of Thursday, more than 96% of the state’s households have been counted, with almost 70% responding on their own. That’s […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, Technology
In rural Crowley County, a safe return to in-person school is really the only option
What is distancing learning like without a laptop? Without internet? Without parents at home? Without a home at all? This spring, remote education brought on by the coronavirus pandemic raised difficult questions about equity and introduced unprecedented challenges for school districts across Colorado. These challenges hit Crowley County — a small, rural community in the […]