Several questions still need to be answered before Boulder County knows what universal preschool will look like when it is rolled out in less than a year.
The Early Childhood Council of Boulder County is the local coordinating organization for the state run program that will offer families of 4 year olds 10 hours a week of preschool in the year before they enter kindergarten. The program is voluntary and will be available during the school year beginning in 2023.
Executive Director Danielle Butler said Boulder County’s Early Childhood Council is in the same place as the 34 other local coordinating organizations, meeting weekly with the state, which is designing and developing the system.
“There’s a lot that needs to be done,” Butler said. “Rates need to be set. Rules need to be written. Systems technology needs to be put into place. Then it needs to all come together in the fall of 2023 to actually serve 4 year olds taking preschool slots in licensed preschool programs in the county.”
While there are still a lot of question marks, there are a few certainties about how universal preschool will look. The 10 hours offered weekly will only be available during the school year and working families who need more than that will still need to work with their providers to get additional childcare.
Butler emphasized parent choice as central to this program. A 4-year-old has four different options for paid childcare in Colorado, which all come with their unique regulations, known as a mixed delivery system.
The child may be in a school district-based preschool program, a private preschool half-day program, child care center or a licensed family childcare home. Universal preschool recognizes that parents may want to utilize any one of these options, but it adds another layer of complexity to implementing the program.
“People really don't understand how complex early childhood systems are,” Butler said. “There’s layers of multiple perspectives that have to be understood and really thought carefully about before just providing a service and assuming it’s going to work out. It’s a different culture between a K-12 system and your community’s child care system.”
The job of the Early Childhood Council is to help connect parents to the preschool services they want at the local level.
“As the local coordinating organization, we have to figure out how to be responsive and get parents and providers connected throughout 2023 in order to take part in this program in the fall of 2023,” Butler said.
Butler said her program’s been utilizing their monthly advisory council meetings to discuss what they know and what’s happening with the universal preschool program. Even the funding to help local coordinating organizations do this work is still being developed.
“Bottom line is, there’s a lot of support needed,” Butler said. “Supports needed for parents to understand and to feel comfortable with their choice and not feel stigmatized. There’s a lot of support needed for providers to participate and to make ends meet financially as a part of participating.”
Butler added that she doesn’t want families to get the idea that universal preschool will be hard to access or that they won’t get a place in line.
“Parents and providers have been through a lot and the system is working towards alleviating and helping, so I hope folks can be interested and want to participate, understanding that it might take a little bit of patience,” Butler said. “But everyone is working to make this work.”
A universal preschool application will be available online and in print beginning January and remain open throughout the year, according to the state. The application will allow families to be matched with a preschool provider with slots available in the geographic region of their choice.
