As you may know, the Colorado Department of Early Childhood Education (CDECE) and Governor, Jared Polis, created a Universal Preschool Program that started operating August 2023. All children in Colorado can register for up to 15 hours per week of free, high-quality preschool in their year before kindergarten through Colorado’s Universal Pre-K (UPK) Program. Families may qualify for more hours based on a number of qualifying factors.

Preschool Programs have the option to participate in this government funded program. American Academy KindiePrep is not currently, nor has it in the past, participated in UPK. There were many factors that led to the decision to not participate these first two years, such as non-specific guidelines on which curriculums should be utilized, and more importantly, their inability to honor our lottery system. The CDECE has worked diligently over the past year to fix the lottery system issue for charter schools around the state.  

In October, our American Academy Board of Directors were presented with all the UPK information and how it would work at American Academy KindiePrep. At the November meeting the Board of Directors made the decision to move forward with UPK for the 2025-26 school year. 

What does that mean? UPK is only for 4 year old preschool students the year before they enter Kindergarten. Therefore, starting in the 2025-26 school year, students that are 4 years old and in the 4 year old program will receive tuition funding assistance if they sign up for it through the state. See below for the funding amounts.

• 10 hours a week- $4,739.12
• 15 hours a week - $5,975.42

American Academy KindiePrep offers 3 class options…

• 2 Full days a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30am - 3:00pm 
• That equals 13 hours per week, so these students would receive the 10 hours a week of funding. These families will be responsible for the remaining balance of the extra 3 hours a week.

• 3 Full days a week - Monday, Wednesday, & Friday from 8:30am - 3:00pm
• That equals 19.5 hours per week, so these students would receive the 15 hours a week of funding. These families will be responsible for the remaining balance of the extra 4.5 hours a week.
  
  
• 5 Full days a week - Monday - Friday from 8:30am - 3:00pm
• That equals 32.5 hours per week, so these students would receive the 15  hours a week of funding. These families will be responsible for the remaining balance of the extra 17.5 hours a week.

Families do not automatically receive the funding, nor are they required to apply for it. We will send families a link (when it’s available to us), and those who choose to utilize the funds will be prompted to log in and set up an account with the State of Colorado. Please wait for the link we send so that your child does not get assigned to a different school.

Unfortunately, families that have 3 year old students or students repeating KindiePrep, even though they are eligible for Kindergarten, do not qualify for UPK funding assistance.  These families will be responsible for the full KindiePrep tuition.

UPK Family Handbook - Tons of information about the program.