With the new school year about to begin, Colorado’s new Universal Preschool program (UPK) is about to launch. The statewide program is designed to help families afford child care for their 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds. And it’s intended to give these young children an educational and social head start.
In Colorado, the rollout of the program has hit a few snags, but there are also many reasons to be optimistic about it in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Caroline Llanes spoke with Aspen Public Radio’s education reporter Halle Zander, to learn more about the UPK program.
Caroline Llanes: So first of all, families started applying earlier this year to receive a number of free hours at a nearby preschool or child care center. But they don’t get to choose which facility, do they?
Halle Zander: Not exactly, families with 4-year-olds choose their top five schools and the state uses an algorithm to place children at different facilities.
Children who have been enrolled at the preschool before, who have a sibling at the school, or who are a child of an employee get first priority.
And then it’s like a lottery, and the state tries to match as many kids with their top choices as possible.
Once placed, families receive 15 hours of free child care every week.
They could opt to send their kids for additional hours, but they would have to pay for those.
So it essentially subsidizes preschool, making it more affordable for parents.
Llanes: Got it, but not every child care center is required to participate in the program, are they?
Zander: No, it’s totally voluntary. Child care centers can opt out if they don’t want to participate, and they might do so for a number of reasons.
Stacy Petty is the director of the Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Council, and she helps the state coordinate with child care centers in the Roaring Fork Valley and Lake County.
She says the state pays a child care facility in our region about $6,000 for a student to attend 15 hours of preschool a week for 36 weeks.
So that’s about $166 per week, and many child care centers in our region charge more than that, and they aren’t allowed to charge families the difference.
So she was pretty pleased that about 65% of qualifying facilities decided to participate this year in our region.
Llanes: That sounds promising. So can families receive additional subsidized hours if they need it?
Zander: Well, some families are eligible for additional hours through UPK under certain circumstances.
If the student comes from a low income family and has another qualifying factor, they can receive up to 30 hours of free preschool a week.
Stacy Petty talks about those different factors.
“They’re a dual language learner. They have an individualized education plan, which is an IEP, is how it's often referred to, which means they need some special services. If the child is in foster or kinship care or if they're experiencing homelessness.”
Three-year-olds with the same criteria can also receive some funding, but just because your family is eligible for additional hours does not mean you’ll receive them.
It’s a question of whether or not the state has enough funding, and right now, the state doesn’t have enough to meet the needs of all eligible families.
Chalkbeat reported last week that 11,000 families thought they’d be eligible for additional hours, but were told there wasn’t enough funding, just weeks before the school year was scheduled to start.
That left many families in the lurch with little time to find alternative care, and Petty says she’s working with the state to make sure communication is more clear on the limitations of the program for next year.
Llanes: OK, but when it comes to the Roaring Fork Valley, are there any challenges to launching UPK that are specific to our region?Zander: Yes, Petty says one of the biggest issues here is having enough spaces for all the families who need child care — not just the 3- and 4-year-olds.
For example, many facilities are often limited in how many kids they can take by their licenses.
So Petty is working to expand childcare in the region and hopes to have 200 new openings for children from birth to 5 years old by the beginning of 2024.
But to really meet all the childcare needs of the community, she says they’d have to double or triple that expansion.
Llanes: And it may seem like stating the obvious, but why is child care and preschool so valuable to kids?
Zander: Well, I’ll try to keep it brief, but there are a lot of benefits.
Kids are gaining prereading and pre-math skills through learning about colors and patterns.
They’re gaining physical dexterity by learning how to put on their own snow gear, which Petty says Kindergarten teachers in our region really appreciate.
And kids also learn in day care some social emotional skills as they make friends in their age group and learn how to deal with conflict.
Here’s Petty again.
“We know kids learn how to be empathetic and learn what it means that if you throw something, and it hits somebody, and it hurts them, that they learn how to have empathy and understand the impact of their actions.”
She also said that most of the time, teachers are the ones who identify kids with learning disabilities, and preschool allows kids to get intervention and help with these issues earlier on.
Llanes: Well what should interested parents do who are just finding out about this program now?
Zander: Yes, it’s not too late. Applications are open anytime on the Colorado Department of Early Childhood’s website, so families can continue to get placed in preschool throughout the school year.
They review applications on a weekly basis.
