Colorado's universal preschool seeks supplemental funding as committee questions reserve and sustainability

Donna Dean, director of the Colorado Universal Preschool Program, told the Joint Budget Committee that the program served 43,398 four‑year‑olds in 2024‑25, about 68% of the state's eligible 4‑year‑old population, and that 9,789 children accessed the full‑day (30‑hour) award in the same year. Dean said the program continued to expand mixed delivery and retained roughly 92% of participating providers.

CFO Jeanne Stefanik detailed the program's fund balances and the department's supplemental request. Stefanik said the preschool program cash fund ending balance for 24‑25 was $58,000,000; the department's supplemental S‑3 would use about $10,000,000 of unappropriated cash‑funds to meet increased full‑day demand in 25‑26, leaving a projected ending fund balance of roughly $42,200,000 if approved. The department also proposed lowering the reserve target to 10% in the following fiscal year while requesting an inflationary general‑fund increase in later years to support enrollment growth.

Legislators raised concerns about the fiscal sustainability of using the cash fund to support ongoing increases. Representative Taggart and Senator Kirk Meyer pressed the department to explain the relationship between projected revenue declines (including possible local policy changes that could affect nicotine‑tax receipts) and the request to lower the reserve target. Some committee members asked for clearer tables reconciling participation and cost under the 10‑, 15‑ and 30‑hour awards and asked for historical comparisons of children served and program costs across prior years.

Department officials said they will provide more detailed tables and an enrollment/cost comparison across multiple years. Dean emphasized that program rules allow 10 hours as the statutory minimum but that families and providers often choose 15 hours; the department is phasing stacking of UPK and CCAP to reduce duplicative state spending where appropriate and has estimated annual CCAP savings of roughly $6 million from stacking for families receiving 30‑hour awards.

What happens next: the committee asked the department to provide (1) a detailed table breaking down 4‑year‑old participation by hour tier (10/15/30) and full‑day slots by year, (2) reconciled cost per child across program types and years, and (3) clarified forecasts for cash‑fund revenue and the impacts of any local policy changes that could affect Prop EE receipts.

Provenance: program enrollment and fund balance figures quoted from department testimony (Donna Dean and Jeanne Stefanik).