By fall 2023, thousands more Colorado 4-year-olds could be gathering in preschool classrooms for a few hours each week to practice their letters and listen to storytime in preparation for kindergarten. It’s a vision that state leaders — namely Gov. Jared Polis — and early childhood advocates have been chasing for decades. They might finally […]
Colorado Children’s Campaign
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Even as Colorado child care centers reopen, their long-term survivability is at risk
As Becky Crowe plots the reopening of Clayton Early Learning’s 20-acre campus that shut down in March to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus, she said it’s almost like playing “a grand game of whack-a-mole.” “The second you address one problem, there’s like three others that pop up,” said Crowe, president and CEO […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, Health, News
How Colorado lined up child care for 1,000 essential workers in one week
It was almost like putting together a puzzle, one with about 1,700 pieces. What started as a broad-based effort to ensure Colorado’s essential workers have access to child care while battling the new coronavirus ended with a system that placed 1,700 kids into the hands of licensed providers statewide — all within the span of […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Politics and Government
Mill levy equalization: Three words that could dramatically shift Colorado’s school funding system
Not all school districts collect property taxes equally, which has been robbing some Colorado students of fair funding in education, according to advocates who hope to see lawmakers overhaul the state’s school finance system this legislative session. A key component of the overhaul would be establishing a uniform mill levy for schools. This would shift […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Politics and Government
Thousands of Colorado kids at risk of falling behind aren’t enrolled in preschool, but schools are out of room
Miss Hannah’s morning preschool class at Shawsheen Elementary School in Greeley is full of chatty 3- and 4-year-olds, full of moments gathered in a circle on the floor for storytime, and full of as much laughter as learning. It’s also just plain full. Hannah Halferty’s class is at capacity — as are all preschool classes […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
For Colorado’s diversifying population of children, advocates fear a census undercount
In 13 years, children of color are expected to make up a majority of Colorado’s kids, part of a trend that advocates for children fear makes the state especially vulnerable to a census undercount of its littlest residents. That could mean as much as $193 million in unrealized federal funding for programs in Colorado that […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Death rates among pregnant women in Colorado are climbing. Suicide and overdose are to blame.
The meeting always begins with a moment of silence for the moms who are dead, a reminder to consider the humanity behind the data they are about to discuss. And then the doctors, midwives and mental health experts dive into the records to find the reasons pregnant women and new mothers died in Colorado. They […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, Growth, Health, News
Colorado kids and teens are dying at a rate higher than the U.S. average — and suicide is to blame
Colorado is among the wealthiest, healthiest states in the nation but has a higher teen and child death rate than the national average, a rate that has grown worse over the past two decades. The reason is suicide, which reached an all-time high in 2017 and is the leading cause of death for Coloradans ages […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s kindergarten landscape will even out, with benefits flowing to state’s wealthiest, poorest families
A decade ago, when Colorado officials surveyed school districts about then-Gov. Bill Ritter’s big idea to put full-day kindergarten in every school, support wasn’t unanimous. School administrators in Telluride, one of the state’s wealthier resort towns, were dismissive of the full-day kindergarten priority from the governor back then, according to the survey conducted by the […]
Posted inEducation, Health, News, Politics and Government
5,800 Colorado kids in second grade or younger were suspended last year. State lawmakers want to reduce that.
A deal that gives school administrators control over the number of days preschool and young elementary students can be suspended from school has increased the odds for a new law that will make suspensions and expulsions rarer in Colorado. For several years, a broad coalition of civil rights groups, early childhood advocates and mental health […]