Since becoming state law, universal preschool has greatly expanded access to early child care in Colorado, with some local school districts leading the charge.
A new report released by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) ranked Colorado third in the country for preschool enrollment for the 2023-24 school year, with nearly 70% of all eligible 4-year-olds enrolled in a program and over 52,600 3- and 4-year-olds served.
These totals vaulted Colorado from 27th in the nation to third in the NIEER’s “State of Preschool” report with only Washington, D.C., and Vermont having greater percentages of 4-year-olds served.
“The experiences children have in their first few years of life lay the foundation for their future,” said Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) Executive Director Lisa Roy in a press release.
“That’s why Colorado created the Universal Preschool program — so that every child, no matter their background, can have the best possible start.”
Starting in July 2023, Colorado replaced its former preschool program with the current universal preschool that grants every 4-year-old in the state up to 15 hours of state-funded preschool each week.
Applying elements from the previous state preschool program, 4-year-olds living with additional factors like foster care, homelessness, dual language learning or an individualized education plan (IEP) are eligible for 15 more free hours per week.
Families can select either licensed community-based, school-based or home-based preschool providers to meet these requirements.
The report found that Colorado spent over $301 million in total preschool funding, with an average of $5,722 going toward each child enrolled. The CDEC’s first annual report on universal preschool reported that this saved participating families an average of $6,100 annually.
“Colorado is proud to be breaking down barriers to help increase access to early childhood education and save families thousands of dollars per year,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in the release. “We look forward to building on the success of free preschool, and helping even more children and families enroll and access the benefits.”
Local options
In El Paso County, the total number of 4-year-olds who received preschool services was 4,896 or 54.2% in 2023-24. In its annual preschool report, Colorado reported 71 school-based, 68 community-based and 36 home-based preschool providers in the county.
Of these providers, local school districts like Colorado Springs D-11 have worked to increase access to preschool throughout the county in recent years.
El Paso County freezes child care subsidy program, limiting low-income parents
The school district has expanded its preschool programming to 31 of its 33 elementary schools. The two elementary schools that don’t offer these services, Bristol and Steele, can’t because of limited class space. D-11 Superintendent Michael Gaal said the plan is to expand these spaces in the years ahead for preschool classes.
“This has been a several-year initiative. The year before the state went with the universal pre-k (pre-kindergarten) program, we realized that we weren’t serving as many members of our community as we could,” he said.
As of April 30, over 1,000 county children are enrolled in the district’s preschools.
D-11’s Early Childhood Education Director Sarah Carlson said it is the only district in the Pikes Peak region to accept students from neighboring districts, with 63 such students utilizing services this year. D-11’s programs provide field trips, weekly parent-child playgroups and foundational academic skills during the school year.
Children play a musical video game at Audubon Elementary School on Feb. 6, 2025. D-11 serves more than 1,000 preschoolers in El Paso County, with 31 of its 33 elementary schools offering preschool programming.
The district hopes is to have its preschoolers begin their K-12 education at these same locations. Audubon Elementary School Principal Aaron Ford said having the school’s preschool services housed under the same roof has provided students with long-term consistency in their education, behavior and child care, along with a stronger community culture among school families.
“They are going to spend eight years here at this school,” he said of his students. “That’s the most time they’re going to spend at one place during their entire education.”
Quality remains lacking
Beyond the guaranteed hours and costs covered, Colorado’s universal preschool doesn’t guarantee much else in the way of quality or services, according to the NIEEH report. Colorado met only two of the organization’s 10 benchmarks this year. While the state program meets the group’s requirements for curriculum support and early learning and development standards, other policies like teacher qualifications, class sizes and continuous improvement systems were not met.
Current state standards have maximum class sizes set at 20 for 3-year-olds and 24 for 4-year-olds with staff-to-student ratios set at 1-to-10 and 1-to-12, respectively.
Local school districts have previously expressed frustrations with the current state of universal preschool. D-2 was among the school districts to file a lawsuit against the state over its implementation that would ultimately get dismissed.
Representatives from D-2, including Superintendent Wendy Birhanzel and Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Rachel Laufer, told The Gazette via email that the district has strengthened its existing partnership with Community Partnership for Child Development (CPCD) to improve its preschool services since the ruling.
They added that, while they’re no longer pursuing legal action, the judge’s dismissal of their lawsuit ensures that the CDEC now has “no accountability” for the implementation of universal preschool and that the program continues to have gaps in quality.
Lewis-Palmer D-38 approves new location for home-school programming
“UPK (universal pre-kindergarten) has given families options to use state funding to pay for lower quality programming provided by less qualified individuals outside of the district,” they wrote.
The statewide assessment does not account for the quality of individual programs, however. Using the same checklist, Carlson said D-11’s program meets nine of the 10 NIEER benchmarks because it decided to limit class sizes to 16 children, set staff-to-child ratios at 1-to-6 and implement other quality standards.
The only benchmark she said it didn’t meet this year was regarding its requirements for assistant teacher degrees. Colorado requires preschool educators to have an associate degree in early childhood education or a related field, a Child Development Associate credential or a child care professional credential.
D-11 preschools require a state teaching license in addition to a license in early childhood special education to serve special needs students at every location. To help potential employees meet these requirements, she added that it is offering different pathways for both incoming teachers and those pursuing teaching with an unrelated four-year degree.
“It’s a hard-to-fill position and it has been for years and years,” she said. “And so, as we’ve been trying to expand, there certainly have been challenges around finding enough of the best people in the world, which is who you want in front of your preschoolers.”
Colorado Springs schools recognized by state for military support
Shortcomings that remain
Since universal preschool’s rollout, families and school districts have faced challenges with the enrollment process. D-2’s leadership said many of these same issues remain.
“Navigating the system is still a major barrier to getting students enrolled and in class on day one,” they said. “It has taken a ton of effort from CPCD and D-2 to help parents walk through each step of the process for registration, as it is cumbersome and not parent-friendly.”
D-11 parent Melinda Beames agrees, saying her daughter was denied services after Beames filled out the form “a million times” during the first year of universal preschool.
According to its annual report, CDEC is still developing several policies to be implemented over the coming years. During the current legislative session, a bill was introduced that would have created a state board to manage the department rather than its executive director. Its intent was to improve standards and assist families with enrollment and other needs, but the bill failed to make it out of the Senate.
Starting this year, additional free preschool is now offered to children living below the poverty line. Like those with IEPs and ELL learners, these students are eligible to receive 30 total hours per week.
Further expanding its own options for early childhood education, D-11 announced in late April it would begin offering full-day preschool and after-school options for 4-year-olds at four of its elementary schools. While the cost for this care is $11 per week, Carlson said scholarships are available to families who qualify based on their income.
This comes partly in response to El Paso County’s Department of Human Services freezing its enrollment for the Child Care Assistance Program, but also in better recognizing the needs of families.
link