Prices are going up for Eagle County School District preschool, toddler, infant programs

To cover the cost deficit of running its early childhood education programs, the Eagle County School District is raising tuition rates for infant, toddler and preschool programs.

Unlike K-12 education, the district’s infant, toddler and preschool programming is not funded by property taxes or the state.

“It’s all tuition-based programming,” said Sandy Farrell, the district’s chief operating officer, during a Dec. 11 presentation to the school board.

While families of preschoolers currently receive some dollars from the state after the universal pre-k measure ballot measure passed last year, the district has yet to receive funding.

The district’s infant and toddler program started small, as a way to support the district’s students who became parents as teenagers, grew to accommodate the children of district staff, and continues to grow, with the expansion of the Edwards Early Learning Center and the construction of the Gypsum Early Learning Center.

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As a result, the district ran a $2.6 million deficit administering its preschool programs last year. Without changes, that deficit was only projected to grow. 

At the Dec. 11 meeting, the school board approved tuition increases that will enable the district to take a bite out of its early education deficit going forward.

Families of young children enrolled in the district’s programming will pay more, on a sliding scale that should cost them up to 10% of their income.

Why do these programs cost the district so much money?

Early childhood education programs have, by design, higher costs than K-12 education. For one, the state-required ratio of staff members to students is higher.

For preschoolers ages 3-4, Colorado state regulations require one staff member for every 10 children. For infants and toddlers under 18 months, the ratio is lower, with one staff member per every five children.

According to a 2021 report by the public policy research and advocacy organization Center for American Progress, the cost of providing high-quality, center-based infant care in Colorado amounts to $29,000 per year. A “base-quality” infant care program is $17,400. For toddlers, the prices decrease to $22,400 and $14,300, and for preschoolers, $17,100 and $12,000.

The district’s 2023-24 school year expenses for infant and toddler care totaled $17,084 per child annually, while the preschool expenses were $20,568 per child, including extended day and summer programming. The preschool expenses were, counterintuitively, higher than the infant and toddler costs because there were students receiving special education services.

The main takeaway? The per pupil cost per year for infants and toddlers in the district “is significantly less than what research has shown is the cost of quality,” said Shelley Smith, the district’s early childhood education program director. This means the district’s early education deficit is “not due to frivolous spending and not being mindful of district dollars.”

Why is the district raising tuition rates?

The district does not plan to use higher tuition rates alone to address its early education budget deficit. Rather, the increase in tuition costs is designed to unleash more funding from a county-level assistance program.

The Colorado Child Care Assistance Program provides funding through the county to early childhood education providers as a reimbursement designed to cover 75% of market rates. However, if a program’s tuition rates are lower than the highest offered Colorado Child Care Assistance Program amount, the program will not receive the total amount of funds available.

To receive the full amount of Colorado Child Care Assistance Program dollars available, an early child care center has to charge tuition equivalent to or higher than the program’s upper limit. The district’s current tuition rates do not allow its programs to capture the full amount of the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program funding because its tuition is not high enough.

Broken down by age group, the district currently charges the following daily amounts: Infants in eight hours of care per day cost $70.40; toddlers in eight hours of care cost $64.40; preschoolers cost $51; and preschoolers in nine hours of care plus extended day cost $65.

What are the new rates?

The adjustment to meet the higher Colorado Child Care Assistance Program limits raises the daily rates by an average of $5-6 dollars in each category.

The full Colorado Child Care Assistance Program rates are as follows: Infants in eight hours of care per day cost $95.56; toddlers in eight hours of care cost $86.98; preschoolers in nine hours of care cost $67.32; and preschoolers in nine hours of care plus extended da cost $86.05.

Not every family will have to pay the full increased tuition rate.

The district plans to use a sliding scale for tuition based on family income. The sliding scale has four tiers, based on the gross income for a family of three, with additional considerations possible for families of five or more. Level one is for families earning up to $69,700 per year, level two is up to $81,000, level three is up to $94,500 in income and level four is up to $135,000. 

For 2025, the district will charge preschool program families up to 100% of the maximum Colorado Child Care Assistance Program tuition rate, while infant and toddler program families will pay up to 80% of the maximum Colorado Child Care Assistance Program tuition rate.

“That balances capturing every Colorado Child Care Assistance Program dollar that we can and not having, after the sliding scale is applied, having families have to pay more than 10% of their income for early care and education,” Smith said.

For preschool families, those in level one will pay 75% of the full Colorado Child Care Assistance Program rate, level two will pay 80% of the rate, level three will pay 85% and level four families will pay 90%. Families of three earning more than $135,000 per year will be expected to pay the full tuition rate.

With these rate increases, the district expects to capture an additional nearly $200,000 in Colorado Child Care Assistance Program revenue. Colorado Child Care Assistance Program rates will continue to increase over the next three years, in accordance with federal law, and the district’s rates will increase in kind.

Starting next year, the district will also be able to keep 15% of the universal pre-k funds from the state government to cover some of the costs of administering its early childhood programming, totaling about $270,000.

The updated rates will go into place on Jan. 1 for new enrollees in the district’s preschool, toddler and infant care programs. Families already enrolled this year will continue to pay their current rates, and the rate increases will apply beginning next school year.