DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis celebrated the launch of universal preschool in Colorado and responded to questions and concerns many have had about its rollout.
Polis visited Fisher Early Learning Center in Denver on Tuesday, accompanied by Dr. Lisa Roy, the director of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood.
“This is Colorado's first year of universal free preschool, and it's absolutely incredible,” Polis said.
Roy said providing free preschool across the state will provide benefits to Coloradans for generations.
“There's a ton of research that shows that if you invest in children early, it makes a difference as far as learning and health outcomes throughout their lives,” said Roy. “Many people don't know that as far as brain development, most of our brain development through childhood and adulthood happens between the ages 0 to 5.”
Polis says about 40,000 children are enrolled in preschool this year, a 43% increase.
“It saddens me that for so many years that many families weren't able to go to preschool in our state because it costs money that they couldn't afford with a high cost of living,” Polis said. “This [program] increased preschool enrollment and removed the economic barrier for every child to be able to go to preschool.”
But some children won’t be attending full-day preschool (30 hours per week) as their families had hoped for.
The state says there wasn’t enough funding to meet the high demand.
Therefore, it can only pay for half a day of preschool (15 hours per week), unless they meet two qualifying risk factors.
Those risk factors include students with special education plans, dual language learners, those experiencing homelessness, and those who live in foster care.
Originally, families said they were told their children would be able to attend full-day preschool if they qualified for just one of those risk factors.
“They're telling them that when they had that one qualifying factor, they were going to get the 30 hours. And now, they're saying they would need two qualifying factors,” said Jean Doolittle, the owner of Southglenn Montessori Preschool. “They decreased the amount of children that would qualify for that 30 drastically.”
According to Chalkbeat Colorado, while half of the four-year-olds in universal preschool have one qualifying risk factor, only 13% of participants will attend full-day preschool.
Like the governor did a number of times Tuesday, Roy reiterated that voters only approved 10 hours of free preschool in 2020.
The Polis Administration was able to add an extra five hours.
“We were hoping that we could give as many children full-day as possible, but we did say it was based on available funding,” said Roy. “With looking at the number of qualifying factors that we could pay for, it was decided that we would do two qualifying factors.”
The governor said despite the funding shortfall, families are saving money since the state is paying for half-day preschool for everyone.
“Really, the half day is a universal building block for everybody. It saves every family in the state money. And, of course, many families that had full day, will be saving about $6,000 a year,” said Polis. “Over 10,000 families that didn't have preschool at all [last year], will now benefit from half day.”
Polis said there are programs, such as the Denver Preschool Program, that are available for families who want full-day preschool and who might not be able to afford it.
“And, of course, if you're paying for it yourself, you're only paying for half the day,” said Polis.
For more information about universal preschool in Colorado, click here.
