Limited funding means full time Universal Preschool not available to all Colorado families who qualified initially

Thousands of Colorado families are learning that they may not get the hours they expected with the state's new Universal Preschool program. The program is set to launch in a few weeks.

Jocelyn Barrientos of Aurora applied months ago.

"Her going to school -- it was planned. Me and my husband thought 'Okay, full day. I thought I could start going back to work after I had the baby all that changed," she said.

They were told they qualified for free full time care for her 4-year-old Alia based on the family's needs. A few weeks ago, she got an email from the state saying due to limited funding not everyone who wants full time care can get it.

"That email ... was difficult," she said. "My husband asked me 'What we do?' and I don't know."

The email goes on to say families waiting to remain in full time care will have to pay the remainder of the costs.

Michelle Dalbotten, the director of Step by Step Child Development Center in Northglenn, says it is creating a hardship for many families.

"We are trying to be proactive and contact everyone. Email, call us -- we just want to see: do you know that you're on this?" she said.

Dalbotten says it only adds to the confusion around the program that has been mounting since enrollment started.

"School starts for us in 2 weeks and I am trying to determine if I need 2 staff or 4 and I can't because we don't know who's actually going to be with us," she said.

While the state says the full time hours were never guaranteed and instead tied directly to available funding, families and providers feel that messaging was less than clear and many of them are left scrambling.

"Families and providers are all stuck in the middle and trying to get answers," Barrientos said.

The governor's office sent the below statement in response to concerns:

The funding guarantees 15 hours of free preschool each week for every child, saving every family an average of $6,000/year. The Governor announced that he wants to expand this to 18 hours by the end of his second term. With the additional resources after the core 15 hours are funded for every child, there are additional free preschool hours for low-income families that meet at-risk criteria. This had always been the plan and is what voters approved in Proposition EE. The amount of funding for extra hours depends on the participation rate in the free universal preschool program. The law requires that if there are more children with qualifying factors than eligible funding, the state must prioritize low-income plus one qualifying factor for additional hours. The good news is that more families are enrolling in universal preschool, nearly 36,000 families (more than half of the eligible population) have signed up to date. To maximize all potential funding the legislature approved, the Governor signed a new ballot measure Proposition II, which is required under TABOR to apply and retain more funding for universal preschool after receiving a significant increase in enrollment.

To date, nearly 36,000 families are participating in Universal Preschool Colorado, of which 50 percent have at least one qualifying factor. While all participating students are guaranteed up to 15 hours of funding, due to a large number of enrollees, CDEC does not have enough funding to provide families with only one qualifying factor full-day preschool funding in the 2023-24 school year. We prioritized funding in accordance with statute, which mandates that if there are more families with qualifying factors than available funding, CDEC must first fund additional hours for families who indicated low income plus one additional qualifying factor. CDEC also plans to offer full-day funding of up to 30 hours to families who enroll on a rolling basis and meet those criteria, although we will regularly assess our financial performance to ensure we do not overdraw from our appropriation. Outside of the state preschool dollars, many low-income families will also be receiving additional funds like CCCAP and Head Start funding to help get them to full-day funding.

The State has also budgeted to guarantee up to 30 hours of funding for families that meet the low-income factor and have an IEP, regardless of when they enroll during the year. If a student does not meet the low-income factor but has an IEP, the student is eligible for part-time (10 hours) or half-day (15 hours) funding. However, if the student's IEP requires more than 15 hours to ensure a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), the state will fund the student up to 30 hours a week.