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Eagle County providers, leaders say benefits outweigh few challenges in first 6 months of universal preschool

Enrollment for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year begins Feb. 29

Colorado rolled out Universal Preschool in the fall of 2023. Six months in private providers and the school district say it brought few changes to operations.
Aspen Prep Preschool/Courtesy Photo

Nearly six months into Colorado’s rollout of universal preschool, Eagle County is looking back at a good start to the program with hope for the future.

“The first year went pretty smooth,” said Shelley Smith, the director of early childhood programs with the Eagle County School District.

The school district and Early Childhood Partners form the Local Coordinating Organization in Eagle County, which helps families and providers with enrollment and implementation of the program. This partnership has allowed Eagle County to avoid a lot of the challenges seen with universal preschool across the state, according to Smith and Liz Costaldo, the co-executive director of Early Childhood Partners.



“If you look at how our LCO is formed, we already had existing relationships with all of the providers and also multiple touch points with families in all the early childhood programming between the school district and Early Childhood Partners. So it was just a really natural partnership,” Costaldo said.

In Eagle County, there are 438 four-year-olds currently enrolled in universal preschool — 186 in 21 private community sites and 252 in the school district.

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Universal preschool provides a monthly tuition credit to families with kids turning four 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. 

Maggie Swonger, director of operations at the Children’s Garden of Learning in Vail, said that while there were some “expected kinks” in the first year, it’s overall been an “amazing program.”

“There have been some issues with initial funding expectations of additional hours for families that met specific criteria that didn’t come to fruition. Still, families are overjoyed to receive $606 a month to help offset the cost of preschool education,” Swonger said.

Children’s Garden of Learning serves 61 children daily — from toddlers to preschool — 27 of which receive universal preschool funding.

“UPK did not impact our approach to education,” Swonger said.

“However, we have 27 children receiving financial support, creating less stress on families, giving them the ability to have the preschool schedule needed to balance work and home, and allowing our program to focus our financial aid funds on toddlers and three-year-olds,” Swonger added.

Similarly, Melissa Reed, who owns and runs Aspen Prep Preschool in Eagle, said the rollout of universal preschool didn’t bring about any day-to-day changes for the school. The school had 15 universal preschool spots and will have 19 in the fall.

Neither provider has heard concerns from parents over the program; however, both added that they hope the state continues to bring funding to early child care.

UPK funding is for families with some optional grants for supplies, but there aren’t additional funds for administrative expenses,” Swonger said.

“I hope there’s more grant money; I think that’ll be the biggest thing to keep us involved in UPK and to help the programs grow,” Reed added.

And with six months under their belt, Eagle County’s early childhood community is already looking ahead to the next school year. Enrollment for all families begins Feb. 29. Already, 100% of the Eagle County providers are already signed up for the second year, Smith said.

Through Colorado’s universal preschool program, families of 4-year-olds can get tuition assistance for 15 hours of care.
Maggie Swonger/Courtesy Photo, Vail Daily archive

The 3-year-old question

The introduction of universal preschool also brought changes to how the state provides support for 3-year-olds.

Previously, Colorado school districts received funding through the Colorado Preschool Program to provide care for 3-year-olds who qualified. However, universal preschool replaced this program. With universal preschool, the Eagle County School District was given a set amount of money to serve 3-year-olds based on last year’s enrollment, rather than the number of kids it needs to serve.

This year, there has been a delay in the district receiving this funding as the state builds out how it will document and track this funding, Smith said.

“For the first year, I’m not surprised there was one thing that got delayed, but we feel confident that we’re going to be fully funded for the children we’re serving,” Smith said, adding that the funding is on its way.  

For the upcoming 2024-25 school year, the school district is receiving state funding for 44 three-year-old spots even though it serves many more students in the age group.

For the fall, the application process is changing slightly for this age group. Rather than apply through the state system, families with 3-year-olds who have risk factors are being asked to apply with their local school districts instead. Smith said this is a positive change.

There are additional tuition assistance programs for families of 3-year-olds, she added.

This includes funding through Head Start, which is offered locally through the school district; the Colorado Childcare Assistance Program (or CCAP), which applies to students of all ages and is accepted by both private providers and the school district and based on income; and additional support through Eagle County Health and Human Services.

Still, the 3-year-old funding remains an area of concern, Smith said.

Families can access more information about the process for 3-year-olds by contacting the Eagle County School District’s early childhood education department.

Changes for next year

In addition to this change, a few others are coming for both providers and families.

The “most exciting change,” is in how current families will be enrolled, Costaldo said.

“Anybody who’s currently enrolled in a program will get placed first,” Smith said, adding that this addressed “a pretty significant continuity of care concern” providers had during the program’s first year.

This means that from Feb. 29 to March 28, only families that meet the state’s continuity of care, employee, or sibling priority criteria will be matched to providers. Other families can still apply in this time frame but will be placed later. The first general matching round for families will take place in April, and the following matching round in July. 

Additionally, the state is looking to change some new rules and regulations for universal preschool. Specifically, the program’s rules advisory committee is looking at revisions to UPK qualifying factors and quality standards (including staffing ratios, curriculum requirements and more). The rules are expected to be finalized in March.  

In Eagle County, these changes aren’t expected to have a big impact on providers, Costaldo and Smith agreed.

For the school district, their early childhood programs already follow existing quality standards, primarily because the district is the local Head Start provider: “All the things that are being suggested are already expectations,” Smith said.

“Initially, looking at (what’s proposed) with our community-based private providers, there’s nothing in there that’s really alarming to anybody,” Costaldo said. “We do know that there will be support needed to make sure everything goes smoothly in terms of timelines and any documentation that needs to be required.”

While these changes are still tracking toward approval, the local coordinating organization has one other area it plans to keep an eye on.

“Everybody gets a half-day if you’re four. But you could qualify and get a higher tuition credit if you’re eligible for 30 hours. The number of families we have that are eligible for 30 hours and that received 30 hours, we feel is underrepresented based on other qualifying factors,” Smith said.

It’s something that, amid all the changes in the fall, the coordinating organization couldn’t fully pay attention to.

“That will be an area of heightened focus for our LCO work next year to make sure every family that possibly can get those 30 hours is getting them,” Smith added.


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