INTRODUCTION

The Denver Preschool Program is pleased to share our strategic plan for 2023-2025. This plan represents an extensive planning effort by the board, staff, providers, partners, and community members to center in equity and to best serve Denver’s youngest learners and their families. Within this narrative, we share our newly-revised guiding principles and equity commitments and our strategic direction and priorities. Also included are highlights of the stakeholder feedback supporting analysis and insight that helped inform our next steps for the coming years.

Purpose

Strategic planning is a process through which an organization agrees upon and builds commitment to a set of priorities and strategies essential to fulfilling its mission. These priorities are fulfilled by actions that make measurable and meaningful progress on the mission over a defined period of time. DPP has long been committed to being guided by a strategic plan to focus our efforts and resources in mission-aligned ways that are responsive to the needs and changes within the early childhood system, the Denver community, and the larger context of the environment in which we operate. Our previous plan guided our work from 2017 through 2022, with strategic adjustments along the way to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic and the shifting landscape that included the passage of Proposition EE, set to fund universal preschool for the state of Colorado. We look forward to implementing our plan for 2023-2025, a period of time that promises significant change and growth in early childhood education.

How Dpp Uses Its Strategic Plan

This document is used for internal and external purposes—to guide work planning, financial and human capital investments, strategic decision-making, and community and partner engagement and communication. The document is designed to be a polished presentation of strategic planning process results, as well as a living, breathing, changeable document that reflects the organization’s needs over time and in changing conditions.

About Dpp Overview

DPP makes quality preschool possible for Denver families with 4-year-old children through a dedicated sales tax, first approved by voters in 2006 and renewed and extended in 2014. DPP has provided nearly $150 million in tuition support to help more than 65,000 Denver children attend the preschool of their family’s choice, establishing each child’s foundation for lifelong learning and success through the 20212022 program year. Children who attend an early childhood education program are more prepared for kindergarten, leading to stronger early language, literacy, math, and social and emotional skills, and a higher likelihood of graduating high school, attending college, and succeeding in their careers.

To ensure every Denver child can experience the power of preschool, DPP offers tuition credits to every Denver family with a 4-year-old. But that is not enough. DPP also empowers early childhood educators (through professional development, coaching, scholarships, and additional quality improvement resources), engages in extensive community outreach, and advocates at the city, state, and national levels to reimagine the early childhood education ecosystem as a whole. To better support those families with the greatest financial need, we supplement our tuition credit system with scholarships and offer tuition support for 3-year-olds.

In addition, in 2022, DPP was selected as the Local Coordinating Organization (LCO) for Universal Preschool (UPK) Colorado. With both funding streams, Denver families will have more money to offset the cost of care and DPP can think strategically about how we utilize our funding to deepen and expand services.

Dpp History

DPP is entering its 17th year of funding and is currently in its 16th year of program operations. During these years, DPP has continued to evolve, innovating its programming and delivery of services, maturing as an organization, and emerging as a model for funding, access, quality, and choice in early childhood education for Colorado and the nation. The timeline below details significant milestones in DPP’s history.

2004

Mayor Hickenlooper’s Leadership Team on Early Childhood Education convenes summit on early childhood education

2006

Denver City Council places preschool proposal on November ballot

2007

First preschool enrolls

DPP tuition supports helps first child attend preschool

2008

Online “Find a Preschool” tool helps first Denver family find the right preschool for their child

2009

In first full year of operation, enrollment leaps from just 7% to over 60% of Denver’s 4-year-olds

2010

As DPP helps its 10,000th child attend preschool, enrollment grows to exceed 70% of Denver’s 4-year-olds

2011

CLASS™ integration begins, adding a critical focus on quality instruction to DPP’s overall rating and improvement system

2012

For the third straight year, independent evaluation confirms that the vast majority of DPP graduates leave preschool ready for kindergarten

2013

DPP launches inaugural Preschool Showcase for Denver’s families

2014

Successful reauthorization and expansion of DPP, increasing the sales tax from .12 to .15 and expanding our reach to support all Denver preschoolers

2015

Brought back summer funding to support children year-round

2016

DPP celebrated 10 years of programming and supporting the Denver community

2017

82-88% of sampled preschoolers received a score that indicated they were prepared to succeed in kindergarten

2018

DPP expanded our QI program to 3-year-old classrooms beginning with the 2018-2019 school year

2019

DPP welcomes Elsa Holguin as the next President and CEO

2020

DPP provided more than $785,000 in DPP Strengthening Grants funding directly to providers to mitigate the negative financial impacts of the pandemic

2021

DPP launched Preschool for 3s, funding our first pilot cohort of 3-year-olds in 20212022

2022

DPP selected by the Colorado Department of Early Childhood to be Denver’s Local Coordinating Organization for Universal Preschool Colorado

For an expanded list of DPP milestones, see page 28