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Colorado’s $344 million universal preschool program is popular among families, but some providers say they’re still wrestling with problems that make it hard for families to secure seats or for preschools to sustain themselves financially.
Some preschool directors want greater access to the state’s preschool sign-up system. Others want to be paid by the state before kids step into their classrooms — not a month later. Some providers also want more leeway on preschool class sizes, which the state will cap at 20 by 2026 for most preschools.
These are a few of the sticking points that remain a year and a half after the rocky launch of universal preschool. State lawmakers proposed a bill meant to address these and other issues, but it was killed Wednesday at the request of one of its sponsors. The bill would have cost more than a million dollars next year and the state is facing a $1 billion budget shortfall.
Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Weld County Republican who sponsored the bill, said she believed the bill would improve customer services in the universal preschool program, but didn’t want to commit the money, called a fiscal note, that the bill would have required.
“I think I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I carried a bill forward that had this kind of fiscal note on it,” she said Wednesday.
The original version of Senate Bill 25-119 echoed some of the asks in a lawsuit over universal preschool brought by several school districts in 2023. A judge dismissed the suit last summer.
Opponents of the bill said any major changes to the universal preschool program are premature since a state-mandated evaluation of the preschool program is underway. Heather Tritten, president and CEO of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, urged lawmakers to wait until the evaluation is released in November before making changes.
Even before lawmakers killed the bill, they had significantly watered it down during a hearing in February, signaling a disagreement over how much to meddle in a new program that state officials are still refining.
Dawn Alexander, who heads the Early Childhood Education Association of Colorado, which supported the bill, said her group will continue advocating for change through the Colorado Department of Early Childhood and may consider pushing for legislation in 2026.
Some preschools want changes to ratios, class size rules
The universal preschool program, one of Gov. Jared Polis’ signature priorities, launched in the fall of 2023 and provides children 10 to 30 tuition-free preschool hours the year before kindergarten. It currently enrolls about 42,000 Colorado 4-year-olds — 65% of that age group in the state.
Debate has raged over what class size and staff-student ratios the universal preschool program should allow since shortly after the program launched.
Currently, all state-licensed preschools are allowed to have classes of up to 24 4-year-olds — as long as they have adequate square footage — and ratios of one staff member for every 12 students. But lower limits will phase in over the next two years for preschools participating in the universal program — a 22-student class size cap and 1-to-11 ratio for the 2025-26 school year and a 20-student cap and 1-to-10 ratio for the 2026-27 school year.
There is one major exception to these eventual limits. Universal preschool providers that have earned one of the highest two ratings — Level 4 or 5 — on the state’s Colorado Shines quality rating system, will be allowed to have classes of 24 4-year-olds and staff-student ratios of 1-to-12. A majority of universal preschool providers have one of the lowest three ratings.
Many experts and observers support the transition to lower class sizes and staff-student ratios, saying the current limits are too high and undermine the state’s promise to provide high-quality classes through the universal program.
But many private preschools have pushed back, saying they’ll lose money if they have to cut class sizes and ratios. State Sen. Scott Bright, a Platteville Republican who owns a chain of child care centers in Weld County, put forth an amendment to the universal preschool bill that would allow preschools with one of the lowest three ratings to have 24-student class sizes and 1-to-12 staff-student ratios.
“We’re just offering that to all centers rather than just ones that have gone through the quality rating process,” he said during a February hearing on the bill.
But early childhood groups, including the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, recommend preschool class size maximums of 20 children and staff-to-student ratios of 1-to-10.
Alexander said one problem with allowing only highly rated preschools to get exemptions is the long wait times for state evaluators to rate providers.
“If you try to rate today, you cannot schedule that until next calendar year already,” she said.
Alexander said Wednesday she spoke to a state official who offered a compromise: that preschools impacted by the evaluation backlog will be able to continue with higher group sizes and ratios while they wait for new ratings.
State officials did not immediately confirm that they will seek rules to that effect.
Some preschools want access to state application system
Another point of contention has been who gets access to Bridge Care, the technology platform the state uses for the universal preschool application and selection process.
Melissa Gibson, deputy executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, which supported the bill, said parents sometimes struggle to pick or change their child’s preschool placement or get them preschool seats at the elementary school that their older siblings attend.
“Unfortunately, the ability for [preschool] providers to offer assistance is very limited because they don’t have the administrative access to Bridge Care,” she said.
But some preschool providers and early childhood advocates said giving preschools access to the state application system could jeopardize families’ data privacy. They also worried that such access would privilege school districts that operate preschools, allowing them to steer families to their preschools to the detriment of small independent preschools that don’t have dedicated administrative staff.
Even without a law change, Colorado’s universal preschool program will see changes in the coming years. That’s because several rules governing how the program operates are set to phase in over time. Besides the class size and ratio caps, that includes rules requiring a certain amount of training for universal preschool teachers on trauma-informed care and practices related to suspension and expulsion, among other topics.
In addition, starting next fall all preschools in the universal program will be required to use curriculum and assessments approved by the state. Approved programs will be listed in the state’s “resource bank,” but the list has not been posted yet.
The state’s preschool application process may also change somewhat as state officials work toward a “one-stop-shop” application that allows families to see their eligibility for a host of early childhood programs, in addition to universal preschool.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
