DENVER —
Nearly 12,000 additional children enrolled in full-day kindergarten in Colorado in the first year it was paid for in full by the state, according to new data released from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE).
For the 2019-20 school year, 61,989 kindergartners enrolled in full-day classes, which is 11,913 more than the previous year.
The increase can be attributed to House Bill 19-1262 which passed last year, the CDE said. It provided money for free for full-day kindergarten every student in Colorado.
In previous years, the state only paid 58% funding for full-day kindergarten.
Overall, the total increase in preschool through 12th grade enrollment for Colorado’s public schools grew by only 0.2% from the previous year with 913,223 students being counted in the fall of 2019. That was 1,687 more than in 2018-19.
Colorado’s student population has continued to grow in each of the past 30 years. The last time the state saw a decrease in pupil enrollment was the fall of 1988.
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