Author: ANN SCHIMKE Chalkbeat Colorado
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Despite predictions, fewer Colorado child care providers closed permanently during the pandemic — but the struggle continues
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Soon after the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, advocates feared the child care industry would be decimated, with providers shuttering their businesses in record numbers. But in Colorado, that worst case scenario did not come to pass. Only about 7% of licensed providers serving young children closed permanently from April 2020 through March…
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Jeffco to adopt new reading curriculum, push more uniform approach
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It’s almost budget season and for many Colorado school districts out of compliance with state rules on reading, that means it’s time to talk about purchasing new curriculum. That’s what happened Thursday in Colorado’s second-largest school district, the 80,000-student Jeffco Public Schools. District leaders presented three options to replace the current mish-mash of programs used…
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Colorado joins multistate effort to improve how teacher prep programs cover reading
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Colorado is one of six states selected for a yearlong effort focused on strengthening how the state’s teacher preparation programs train future educators to teach reading. The project is the latest in a series of steps by state education officials meant to get more Colorado children reading at grade level after years of stagnant scores.…
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Here’s how Colorado’s special legislative session could help child care providers and remote learners
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With no federal stimulus in sight, Colorado lawmakers will look to provide much needed relief to ease the effects of the coronavirus pandemic during a special session that starts Monday. Lawmakers are expected to provide relief for at least two education topics. The unexpected special session, which was announced by Gov. Jared Polis on Nov.…
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Advocates push Colorado to extend emergency child care to grocery workers
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Advocates are calling for grocery store and food processing workers to be eligible for the same emergency child care available to front-line medical workers. As schools and child care centers closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, state officials and early childhood groups launched an emergency child care system for essential workers. They included medical workers,…
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Colorado launches emergency child care for those on the front lines of coronavirus — and it’s free for now
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A new effort to provide care for the children of thousands of hospital staff and emergency responders in Colorado kicked off Monday with around 900 children linked up with nearby child care providers. The initiative covers a small slice of the tens of thousands of young children estimated to need care so their parents can…
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Some Colorado child care centers followed districts in closing. Now the state wants them to stay open.
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Citing the needs of working parents, especially frontline health care workers, state agencies called on Colorado child care centers to stay open even after dozens of Colorado school districts announced closures to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. In a letter sent Saturday afternoon, after a number of child care providers in Denver already announced they…
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Colorado has spent hundreds of millions to help kids read. Now, it will spend up to $5.2 million to find out why it’s not working.
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Colorado’s education department will spend up to $5.2 million over six years on a consultant charged with determining why the state’s 2012 landmark reading law failed to produce significant gains for struggling readers. The unusual external audit, to be conducted by the nonprofit WestEd, will dig into how the state’s schools are using about $40…
