The Colorado Department of Education matched families during the first round of applications and will begin pairing applicants from the second round with providers next month
preschool
Posted inEducation
Help wanted: A Colorado nonprofit is recruiting retirees to educate preschoolers amid staff shortages
The Early Childhood Service Corps puts adults 50 and older in preschool classrooms to help teach and fill workforce gaps
Posted inEducation
Is Colorado ready to serve English learners under new universal preschool?
Under Colorado law, 4-year-olds identified as English learners are eligible for additional hours of preschool. The additional hours — 30 instead of 15 — are dependent on state funding.
Posted inOpinion Columns
Opinion: Unpredictable work schedules cause havoc with child care
When child care is a patchwork of providers, child development suffers and costly labor churn increases. Parents need a reliable schedule.
Posted inEducation
Many kids in universal preschool will likely end up in school districts. Will that shutter community providers?
Colorado’s expanded preschool program will serve 3-year-olds who need more schooling before kindergarten. With districts managing state funding for those kids, community providers worry they will meet a financial cliff.
Posted inEducation
Colorado parents can now apply for universal preschool. Here’s what they need to know.
State officials expect about 30,000 children to opt into the universal preschool program in its first year. That’s about half the number that will be eligible.
Posted inNews
These entities want to run Colorado’s universal preschool program at the local level
Early childhood councils, school districts, and nonprofit organizations are among the three dozen groups that have applied to run Colorado’s universal preschool program in local communities when the initiative launches next year. There’s a single application for the job in 31 of the state’s 32 zones, which generally cover one to six counties. Douglas County, where both […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
5 challenges facing Lisa Roy, Colorado’s new early childhood chief
As chief of Colorado’s new early childhood department, Lisa Roy will shape a new state agency with more than 300 employees and lead the biggest expansion of state-funded preschool in program history. Roy, 58, recently returned to Colorado after spending more than two years in Omaha, Nebraska, as director of program development at the Buffett […]
Posted inNews
With universal preschool, can Colorado boost workforce pay?
Chrissy Simmons, the director of a child care center in the western Colorado city of Montrose, was one of the presenters talking about career paths at a local high school this spring. Students were visibly excited when speakers discussed potential earnings for jobs in welding and health care — wages of $20, $30, even $50 […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
These four states already have universal preschool. What can Colorado learn from them?
When Colorado launches free preschool for 4-year-olds in 2023, it will join a half dozen other states that already offer universal preschool. All of them have encountered the same tricky task Colorado leaders now face as they try to knit together a disparate patchwork of public and private preschools into an equitable and high-quality statewide […]