Preschoolers in Vail and Edwards get a visit from Colorado’s governor
Jared Polis visits early childhood education providers while touting success of state program
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Lisa Roy, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, stopped by two Eagle County preschools on Wednesday as the state prepares for the second year of its universal preschool program.
Polis and Roy spent the morning meeting with administrators, educators and preschoolers at both the Children’s Garden of Learning in Vail and the Edwards Early Learning Center. Eagle County Commissioner Jeanne McQueeney joined both visits.
“It’s my favorite part of the job,” Roy said of the classroom visits.
At Edwards Early Learning Center, Polis and Roy stopped into a preschool classroom of 4- and 5-year-olds learning about technology. Looking around the classroom, which was filled with spaceship and astronaut toys and robot models the students had just made, Polis referred to the young students as possible “future engineers.”
The group also stopped into infant and toddler classrooms, getting a sense of all the age groups the school serves.
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Shelley Smith, the director of early childhood education for the Eagle County School District, also shared with the visiting group the district’s early childhood plans, which were bolstered by a recent grant award and the bond passed by Eagle County voters.
The district received $850,000 from federal government funding to support the expansion of the Edwards Early Learning Center, which will nearly double the school’s capacity. It also will be using some of the funds from the bond passed by voters in November 2023 to build a new Early Learning Center and workforce housing development in Gypsum.
“A lot is happening here in the valley. It’s great,” Polis remarked as he asked questions of the school and district staff.
“Universal, free preschool just kind of fits right in as one of the pieces,” he later added.
Children’s Garden of Learning is a private facility while the Edwards Early Learning Center is part of the school district.
“Our (UPK) enrollment this year was pretty much equal between public and private,” Smith said to the governor.
Children’s Garden of Learning serves up to 61 children— 16 toddlers and 45 preschoolers — each day. Twenty-seven of its students are enrolled in universal preschool. The Edwards Early Learning Center has 150 spots — split between 10 infant, toddler and preschool classrooms. Eighty-four of those spots are universal preschool students.
The stops were part of preschool visits Polis has been making around Colorado to celebrate the first year of universal preschool and encourage parents to sign up for the second year.
The state’s universal preschool program started in August 2023. The program provides a monthly tuition credit to families with kids turning 4 by Oct. 1 to attend preschool. The tuition credits are for up to 15 hours of care a week; families still have to pay the remaining tuition balance. Some families qualify for additional hours (up to full-day care of 30 hours a week) based on high-risk factors. The funding is provided only from August to May.
Additional tuition credits are provided to some 3-year-olds based on certain qualifications and high-risk factors.
In Eagle County, there are 438 4-year-olds currently enrolled in universal preschool — 186 in 21 private community sites and 252 in the school district. In year two, the state has more than 2,000 providers that have applied to participate, nearly 150 more than in the current school year. One hundred percent of the Eagle County providers that participated in the first year are signed up for the second.
“The first year, Colorado went from 26th in the country in preschool enrollment to 8th in the country in preschool enrollment. We’re hoping to hit the top five next year,” Polis said. “So that’s just the difference that universal preschool made.”
Open enrollment for universal preschool began on Feb. 29. On Wednesday, Polis plugged that parents can still sign up for the 2024-2025 school year at UPK.Colorado.Gov.
Roy shared that to date the department has had 23,893 applications submitted. Currently, there are nearly 40,000 children enrolled across Colorado in the program.
While the program will run fairly similarly in its second year, there are a few changes. The first, which impacts enrollment, was that families currently enrolled in early childhood programs were given first placement to better ensure continuity of care. The state also will have requirements around quality standards such as staffing ratios and curriculum requirements.
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Additionally, for families that qualify as 100% of the poverty level will be automatically qualified to receive reimbursement for 30 hours of care. This, Smith told the governor will be “super helpful” in ensuring care for kids.
“We’re excited getting ready now for the second year of universal preschool,” Polis said.
