State preschool program leaves some unsure

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vember, she added, the department would reassess how many kids had actually enrolled in provider programs and adjust payments based on those numbers.

BY ERICA BREUNLIN THE COLORADO SUN

A preschool in Greeley that has shepherded countless kids through the rst years of their education over the past 21 years may welcome its last class of 4-year-olds next month, eyeing an uncertain future as it dives into the state’s newly expanded preschool program.

Nearby, a di erent preschool that caters to mostly children of lowincome families has only been able to ll a quarter of its classrooms for the start of the school year and is weighing its options — which could include closing its doors.

Preschools across Colorado are sprinting to make nal preparations for the start of the state’s expanded preschool program, known as universal preschool. And with less than a month until the rst day of school, many question whether they’ll have enough state funding to stay open. at question has bubbled up in the past month, after Colorado’s new Department of Early Childhood changed the way it will calculate how much funding preschool providers will receive during their rst few months of the program.

Instead of paying a provider for the number of students it has the capacity to educate, as originally promised, the department will now dole out funding based on the number of students enrolled. It might seem like a subtle shift, but to preschool providers who already run their programs on thin margins, it could mean the di erence between continuing their classes and closing them down for good. e new approach “de nitely cuts providers o at the knees with their ability to step into this rst year of (universal preschool) and have adequate facilities and adequate sta ready to go, trained,” said Scott Bright, owner of ABC Child Development Centers, which has 25 preschool sites across Weld County, six of which will participate in Colorado’s expanded preschool program. “ is is a system that providers have been hesitant to jump into because they haven’t gotten clear answers from the departments on how this is all going to go down.” e Early Childhood department, which has a $322 million budget for its inaugural year of the expanded preschool program, previously pledged to compensate preschools participating in universal preschool based on the number of 4-year-olds they had room to educate, regardless of whether they lled all their seats. at’s a much more predictable and reliable method of funding, providers say.

During a Jan. 12 meeting among members of the department’s Rules Advisory Council, M. Michael Cooke — then a universal preschool representative from Gov. Jared Polis’ o ce — said that through monthly state payment to providers from August through October, those providers would receive a dollar amount based on their capacity, regardless of whether providers could ll all their seats. en in No-

“We want to be helpful,” Cooke added. “We don’t want to create a situation where we’re creating a budget shortfall for community partners. We don’t want to create a situation where there has to be a layo of sta .”

However, as the state tried to balance the number of preschool slots available with the number of kids actually being enrolled, it became clear that the scale tipped too far. Data “showed a signi cantly higher number of available seats in the universal preschool system than participating families,” Early Childhood department spokesperson Hope Shuler wrote in an email to e Colorado Sun, noting that there were about two seats open for every child whose family applied.

Bright, who also serves as board president of the Early Childhood Education Association of Colorado, sees the decision to change funding as something of a bait-and-switch after the Early Childhood department simply couldn’t a ord to pay all participating providers for the surplus of preschool slots.

“ ey realized they ran out of money based on the promise they made, and now providers are left carrying the load,” said Bright, who typically keeps his business a oat with no more than two weeks of operating cash in the bank at any one time.

Without upfront payment from the state for all kids who enroll in universal preschool at his centers, Bright said he won’t have the funds to pay his sta .