Board hears preschool update
State extends application deadline to Feb. 24
The Boulder Valley school board heard an update Tuesday on Universal Preschool as the district ramps up hiring and works to help families through a new state application process.
Superintendent Rob Anderson called the implementation challenging, saying the district has needed to make adjustments to its programs as the state figures out how to make the program work under a tight timeline.
“This implementation has gone very fast, from law to action in the course of a year,” he said. “It’s going to come with challenges.”
The voluntary Universal Preschool program, established by a new state law approved in April, provides up to 15 hours of free preschool for 4-year-olds in the fall. Parents who enroll through the program can choose from school-based programs, communitybased programs and home providers. Students must turn 4 by Oct. 1 to qualify.
Three-year-olds with certain qualifying at-risk factors, including those with disabilities and those from low-income families, also can receive up to 10 hours of free preschool in the fall — and that group generally will be served by school districts. To better align with Universal Preschool, Boulder Valley restructured its preschool program and is moving from half-days to full days. The district is offering a full school day of preschool on either Mondays and Thursdays or Tuesdays and Fridays, giving families two days totaling 15 tuitionfree hours a week.
Fifteen schools — up from the five providing extended preschool care this school year — will offer an additional two full days of tuition-based enrichment and an afternoon enrichment class on Wednesdays. Wednesday mornings will be used for staff collaboration.
Ten schools will offer two days of preschool, but no enrichment. Another four Boulder schools won’t have preschool, but will bus preschoolers to Boulder’s Mapleton Early Learning, which will offer regular preschool and enrichment. For a full list of sites, go to bvsd.org/current-topics/colorado-universal-preschool-program.
The regular classrooms and enrichment classrooms will look much the same, using the same state-approved curriculum and providing a similar mix of learning, play, outdoor time and rest time, said Boulder Valley community schools executive director Renee Williams. But core instruction will happen mainly in the regular classrooms, she said.
When asked about adding more enrichment sites to meet the needs of working parents, Anderson responded that the district is looking at a multiyear rollout. The main issue, he said, is finding enough child care workers to staff those enrichment sites.
“We want to scale up, but we don’t want to scale up and not fill the hiring spots,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is make promises to our community we can’t keep.”
Children will continue to qualify for the state’s Child Care Assistance Program, Head Start and local funding sources, which can be stacked on top of the 15 tuition free hours to help families who need
it to afford more care. In Boulder Valley’s model, families can use the additional hours they qualify for to cover enrichment sessions.
Boulder Valley has 17 community liaisons working directly with current and new preschool families to help get them signed up, district officials said.
Universal Preschool enrollment started Jan. 17, with families required to apply through the state’s Bridgecare system. So far, nearly 28,000 families have signed up, according to the Colorado Department of Early Childhood.
Tuesday was the original deadline for families to apply to be included in the first batch of acceptances. But the state announced Tuesday afternoon that it will extend that deadline until Feb. 24. Families that have already applied also may edit their top five provider choices until that date because of errors in provider openings when the application opened.
The state now plans to match families in the first batch with preschool programs around Feb. 27 — instead of Friday as originally planned. The matches then will go out to the school district or private preschool for approval. Once approved, the placement goes to the family for final approval, around March 30.
“We’re really eager to get hold of that data,” said Kimberly Bloemen, Boulder Valley’s early childhood education executive director. “We’re going to spend the whole spring and summer getting prepared for that launch day.”