TO:Colorado Preschool Program Coordinators

TO:Colorado Preschool Program Coordinators

FROM:Lori Goodwin Bowers

(303) 866-6783,

Kelly Bowes

(303) 866-6334,

Colorado Preschool Program

Public School Finance Unit

DATE:August 27, 2008

RE:Colorado Preschool Program Fall Update

Welcome to a new school year! Once again we are sending out a Colorado Preschool Program update letter we hope will be helpful as you begin your new year. If you have any questions about this information or we can help you in anyway, please feel free to contact us.

Your official allocation for the Colorado Preschool Program is posted on the CDE website:

Changes Made to CPP in HB 08-1388:

Full-Day Kindergarten

The Colorado Preschool Program will no longer allocate slots for children to participate in full-day kindergarten.

Instead, this bill provides for “supplemental” full-day kindergarten funding. It allows kindergarten pupils in all districts to be counted as .5 FTE, but a factor of .58 FTE will be used for funding purposes. The additional kindergarten money being provided is to support increased participation in full-day kindergarten programs.

In addition, for those districts that previously had CPKP full-day kindergarten slots, it creates“hold-harmless” full-day kindergarten funding. The districts will receive funding based on the CPKP full-time kindergarten slots each district counted in FY 2007-08 or the number of children enrolled in kindergarten in the applicable budget year, whichever is less. Funding will be provided based on the difference of 1 minus the full-day kindergarten factor of .58, which is equal to .42 for FY 2008-09.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions regarding how these funding changes will impact your individual school district. Also, technical assistance is available from CPP consultants regarding the implementation of a full-day kindergarten program and ongoing training of district personnel.

Program Name Change

Since the program will no longer fund full-day kindergarten children, the name of the program has returned to the Colorado Preschool Program.

Fund 19

School districts are no longer required to allocate the district’s per pupil operating revenues multiplied by the district’s preschool and kindergarten program enrollment to Fund 19, the preschool and kindergarten program fund.

However, all of the spending and tracking requirements related to the instruction of preschool students enrolled in CPP remain. CPP allocations and expenditures will have to be tracked within the General Fund (using Grant Code 3141) if districts choose not to use Fund 19.

4 ½ Month Programs

Because the Colorado Preschool Program expanded by 6,254 slots this year the legislature provided the flexibility to programs to adjust their start date. The programs could receive funding for a nine-month program but use up to half of the moneys to prepare for a program which would start in January.

Districts applied for this flexibility through the expansion application process and were required to submit a narrative budget, which outlined how the funds provided for preparation would be used. Auditors have been notified which districts have requested this flexibility and CPP staff will be following up with school districts to finalize their numbers and budgets.

2008 October Count

• Coding for Kindergarten Children

In the October Count collection there are two different coding options under the grade level element for children attending kindergarten.

006: Half Day Kindergarten (450+ academic instructional hours)

007: Full Day Kindergarten (900+ academic instructional hours) Note: This does not include children that attend a half-day kindergarten program and then attend a child care program in the second half of their day.

It is very important to code children in the correct grade level element in kindergarten. CDE will use this information to calculate both the supplemental full-day kindergarten funding and the hold-harmless kindergarten funding. This information will also be used to determine if school districts can use the supplemental full-day kindergarten funding provided to them, as allowed in HB08-1388.

Since children will no longer be funded to participate in full-day kindergarten through the Colorado Preschool Program, the following code combination is no longer valid: Grade level: 007 (Full-Day Kindergarten) and Public School Finance Funding Status: 83 (Part-time CPP).

• Use of School Codes for Early Childhood Programs in the October Count:

We are asking school districts to identify in the October count submission the schools in which children are being served. Over the summer we compared the data submitted in the October count with the data submitted in the CPP Reapplication and Annual Report. This fall we will be following up with CPP coordinators and pupil count coordinators when it appears children were not correctly coded to the school they attended.

If you have added additional programs since the last October count, will you let us know right away? The information we would like to have for each of those programs is as follows:

• Name of Program:
• Contact Name:
• Address:
• Phone Number:
• CDHS License Number:
• GradeRange Served:
• Type of Program (Head Start, Public For Profit, :

• Temporary Reallocation of CPP Slots:

We may be able to temporarily reallocate CPP slots during the count period. If you anticipate not being able to use all of your slots, whether it is because children have been identified to be served under special education or children are not present during the count period, please let me know.

Also, if your district is serving more CPP eligible children than their slot allocation this should be noted in the October count. To do this in the ADE system, under Public School Finance Funding Status, code those children as 89 (Not eligible, CPP Allotment Met).

Serving one child with two “slots” to fund a full-day of preschool:

As I e-mailed you in August, the CPP Act (22-28-104 (4) (a))allows all school districts to apply to CDE for authorization to serve a single child in preschool using two "slots" to fund a full-day program. The statute specifies that only 5% of the preschool children that CPP is authorized to servemay befunded in this way.

If a school district determines that a child has a significant need for full-day services and there is no other funding available (Child Care Assistance Program, tuition, private grants or scholarships, etc.) that district may use the attached form to apply to CDE for the flexibility to serve a child/children in a full-day program. Each child that is approved to be served in a full-day preschool program will use 2 CPP preschool "slots" out of the school district's total preschool allocation. Under no circumstances will a school district be allowed to exceed their preschool allocation, and CDE will not authorize more than 695 children to be served using double slots.

A form for requesting the flexibility to serve children in a full-day program using two CPP slots is attached. Your request will be evaluated based on the need of the children you wish to serve in a full-day program, the quality of the full-day services you will provide, and your plan to track the effectiveness of full-day programming.

We will begin allocating full-day preschool slots on Friday,August 29, 2008.Please submit your requests as soon as possible. Authorization to serve children in a full-day preschool program using two slots will be provided to you either by e-mail or FAX.

Finally…

If you have any questions or we can help you in anyway please feel free to contact us. We are looking forward to working with you this year.