Funded Projects

Assessing Barriers to Accessing Universal Preschool

Project Year

2024

City & State

Golden, Colorado

Program Name

CATCH Planning

Topic

School Readiness/Head Start

Program Description

Background: In 2020, Colorado voters approved Proposition EE, an expansion of publicly funded preschool. In July of 2022, the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) was created to start universal Pre-K (UPK) for all Colorado 4 year-olds. As such, Colorado joined a minority of states in the country that aim to provide universal preschool, defined as greater than 70% of the state’s 4-year-olds participating. In Colorado, the program allows for 15 hours of fully funded preschool each week.  Children who attend high quality preschool are more prepared for school and experience substantial learning gains in comparison to children who do not attend preschool. There has also been a significant decrease in preschool attendance since the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping from 50% to 40% nationwide from 2019-2021 (Ed week 2021, US Census 2023), although there are signs of a rebound in 2022.  Children impacted: The CDEC reports that in its first year of UPK (2023-2024) that more than 38,000 four-year-olds enrolled across the state, amounting to approximately 60% of the children of that age in the state. This is an increase in enrollment of about 15% year-over-year. In the first year of UPK, there have been concerns about implementation, including the application and online matching process, children accessing IEPs, provider reimbursement, and missing families who are non-English speaking and low-income.   Problem/Project goal: In my pediatric practice, I am hearing that many families I care for did not know about UPK, did not understand how to use the online application, and ultimately did not enroll in preschool this past year. CDEC has thus far not shared data to evaluate demographics of UPK attendees. I am interested in understanding what barriers exist for lower-income, non-English-speaking families, such as the ones I care for, and how these could be addressed through potential partnerships.  Proposed intervention: I would like to run several focus groups of Denver County families who have preschool-aged children and are at risk or marginalized, in order to better understand their experience with UPK last year. I would like to partner with CDEC and a health service and implementation scientist at the School of Medicine to create questions that might help understand that experience through the lens of modifications that could encourage participation. I would like to conduct these groups with parents and, ideally, would have four groups, 2 English-speaking and 2 Spanish-speaking. I plan to recruit families from Denver Health’s community pediatric clinics, from Motherwise, a mothering support program for at-risk families, and from Mile High Early Learning, a Montessori-inspired Head Start program in Denver that participated in UPK.  I also plan to reach out to local WIC clinics, local public preschool programs enrolling UPK clients and potentially to other community-based organizations in Denver County that serve at-risk and vulnerable mothers and their children.   Anticipated outcomes: The focus groups would ideally target at least 20 families, over one or two separate sessions, and families will be provided with gift card compensation, food and childcare in order to make the focus groups more feasible. These groups will then lead to a broader picture of how and if families were able to enroll in UPK, if they were able to access the full amount of hours they qualified for, if they were able to access an IEP, if indicated, if they were able to navigate a second or third choice and significantly, if they experienced barriers. After this year, I hope to be able to take that data to CDEC and other partners (Bright By Text, AAP-Colorado, individual pediatric providers) in order to come up with solutions and changes to the process, if indicated

Project Goal

This 12 month project intends to partner with community organizations to recruit up to 20 parents/families of 3-4 year old children in Denver County for participation in a focus group to understand the facilitators and barriers associated with participation in Colorado’s new Universal Pre K programming. Ultimately, the project aims to explore ways to improve UPK access by low-income and/or non-English speaking families.   Specifically, I will aim to measure how families became aware of UPK and how they engaged, if they did, with the program and if they were able to ultimately find a program and access the full number of hours of UPK for which they qualified. I hope to use this information to inform the application and program-matching process, understand if and how language and technology barriers contributed to uptake, whether CDEC communication and outreach is reaching all families equally and whether children are accessing all the UPK hours for which they qualify. 

Project Objective 1

Create partnerships with Colorado Department of Early Childhood and community organizations that support families of young children in Denver County. Aim for 3-6 organizations with which to establish a relationship and recruit families. 

Project Objective 2

Create questions for a focus group format that will allow for meaningful understanding and analysis of facilitators and barriers to UPK. Use data and research staff at CDEC and help from health services and implementation researcher at University of Colorado School of Medicine. Collect information from enrollment staff at organizations currently participating in UPK for their perspective as well. 

Project Objective 3

Identify and recruit families for focus groups. 20 families in total, 10 Spanish-speaking and 10 English-speaking from community organizations and Denver Health clinics. Conduct focus groups and potentially follow up groups to get a sense of the barriers and facilitators families face in learning about, applying for and attending preschool programs in Denver County. 

AAP District

District VIII

Institutional Name

N/A

Contact 1

Jerusha Lev, MD