Taxpayer-funded program will offer preschool hours for free to all 4-year-olds starting next school year.
that offers preschool hours for free to all 4-year-olds and some younger children, officials have given priority to children who don’t speak English at home. The state will offer those children more hours of tuition-free preschool and is promising — for the first time — that programs will need to use teaching strategies proven to help multilingual learners.
“For a level 5 in the heart of Denver, we were hoping to at least have 10 new students,” Rodriguez-Luke said. But in the current school year, only 29 preschool students statewide are currently identified as English language learners, according to data provided by the Colorado Department of Education. The state’s new department overseeing the rollout of universal preschool has not been able to provide numbers on how many children so far enrolled for the fall checked the box indicating limited English proficiency. Officials say they are asking each provider to speak to families to verify that parents correctly checked those boxes.
State leaders say preschool providers will not be allowed to deny a child a spot because of language proficiency, but recognize that some won’t be prepared right away. “We can make it an act of compliance but that’s not what’s going to serve students well,” Odean said.Ana Paola Burrola Bustillos has two kids in Jeffco, including a 4-year-old enrolled in preschool at Foster Dual Language PK-8. She said she didn’t know the state was rolling out free universal preschool, and thinks it’s a good thing even though her daughter, who is moving on to kindergarten this fall, won’t benefit.
Genesis Estudillo Perez, 5, puts on the safety vest before playing as a construction worker during her preschool class at Early Excellence Program of Denver in Denver on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. In California, many of the families Díaz Lara works with mistakenly think that putting their children into bilingual programs might confuse them and lead to developmental delays. But home language support can benefit students, she said, and preschool staff just need to know how to support that development.
Andrea Gonzalez Robles, 5, center, and her classmates prepare to sing a song in front of teacher Casey Holguin, left, at Early Excellence of Denver on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. to teach multilingual preschool students, researchers say, but some things are clear. When the program first started, he said, the school often had to rely on older siblings to help staff communicate with families. They’ve since been able to move away from that by hiring more bilingual staff, and now the focus is on making sure all staff understand inclusive best practices.
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