Colorado Preschool Program News
- Please see our new Early Childhood Guide to the Fall Pupil Count
- Check out your district's new CPP Regional Support Specialist assignment!
- An updated version of CPP 101 for New Coordinators, an online module, is now available
- View the June 26th Early Learning and Development Guidelines webinar
The Colorado Preschool Program (CPP) is a state-funded early childhood education program administered by the Colorado Department of Education. CPP provides the opportunity for eligible children to attend half-day or full-day preschool or full-day kindergarten.
Children who are eligible for CPP attend high quality early childhood programs. These may be located in school district settings, local child care centers, community preschools or Head Start programs.
CPP is managed by local school districts and their preschool advisory councils. Each participating school district is given a predetermined number of half-day slots to serve eligible children. Two types of slots can be allocated to districts: CPP slots which can be used to serve eligible preschoolers and ECARE slots which can be used to serve preschoolers or to provide full-day opportunities for eligible kindergarteners. Two half-day slots can be combined to create full-day opportunities for preschool children with very high needs.
Children are determined eligible for CPP based on certain risk factors present in their lives. These risk factors have been shown to be associated with later challenges in school. School district staff members work with families to gather information about their child’s development and learning. They also ask families questions about challenges they and their child may have experienced. If a child is found eligible and the school district program has space available, the staff will work with the family to arrange a program location and start date.
