DENVER — A shortfall in funding has forced changes to Colorado's Universal Preschool (UPK) program, impacting thousands of children across the state.
Denver7 is hearing from frustrated parents who are either struggling to get into the program or are not receiving the number of free hours they were expecting.
“You’re learning a lot more than A,B,Cs and 1,2,3s,” said Jean Doolittle, owner of Southglenn Montessori Preschool in Centennial. “It really sets them up to be successful the whole rest of their academic career."
Some of Doolittle’s students are enrolled in Colorado’s UPK program, which offers up to 30 free hours of preschool to 4-year-olds and qualifying 3-year-olds. However, the state is backtracking on some of those plans because of the high demand.
“I said all along, ‘This is starting to be a disaster. This is going to be a disaster.’ And it has been,” Doolittle said.
Some parents recently received a letter that stated not everyone will be able to receive free, full-day classes due to a lack of funding.
“The biggest last minute change they made, they’re telling them that when they had one qualifying factor, they were going to get the 30 hours. And now, they’re saying they would need two qualifying factors, so they decreased the amount of children that would qualify for that 30 drastically,” Doolittle added.
Some of those qualifying factors include income, students who are learning English, who need additional special support or are experiencing homelessness.
"Instead of them reshuffling and taking a few hours from all the children, they took 15 hours from the children that really needed the most help. They took it away from the children that needed the most assistance," Doolittle said.
According to our partners at Chalkbeat Colorado, of the 30,000 of UPK participants, roughly half have at least one qualifying risk factor. However, only about 13% are being offered free, full-day classes.
“The frustration is real,” said parent Heather Lucius.
Lucius' son was among the 3-year-olds who originally qualified for free, part-time preschool.
“As a single mom, I got approved for 10 hours. And I was also told that I could possibly get more hours, which was the path I was gonna take," Lucius said. "However, I can’t even get him in the 10 hours right now."
Lucius said the benefit of UPK is being burdened by the roadblocks.
“Unfortunately, it’s just a lot of time. It’s a lot of energy. And now I have to look at different resources to take care of my kid,” she said.
In February, lawmakers were warned that the program would cost $30 million more than the $322 million preschool budget allotted. But no action was taken during the legislative session.
The move to omit some at-risk students from the UPK program is just the latest setback to Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ plan to expand early childhood education. In July, the Polis administration changed the payment structure for providers from classroom capacity-based to enrollment-based. That change forced providers to recalculate how they could afford to operate.
Earlier this year, the state rolled back requirements for quality standards for the first year, meaning the programs children attend can vary wildly in terms of their learning environments. Those will take effect for the 2024-2025 school year.
