2016 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 22 - Education
Compensatory Education
Article 28 - Colorado Preschool Program Act
§ 22-28-104.3. Early childhood at-risk enhancement (ECARE)

(1) (a) Notwithstanding the number of children who may annually participate in the Colorado preschool program pursuant to section 22-28-104 (2) (a):

(I) For the 2013-14 budget year, an additional three thousand two hundred children may participate in the Colorado preschool program, for a total of twenty-three thousand three hundred sixty children who may participate in the Colorado preschool program for the 2013-14 budget year.

(II) For the 2014-15 budget year, and each budget year thereafter, an additional five thousand children may annually participate in the Colorado preschool program, for a total of twenty-eight thousand three hundred sixty children who may annually participate in the Colorado preschool program.

(b) The department shall allocate the authority to enroll the additional children in the same manner provided in section 22-28-104; except that the provisions of section 22-28-104 (2) (b) do not apply.

(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 22-28-104 (2) (b), in allocating the authority to enroll children in the Colorado preschool program pursuant to this section, the department shall allow a school district to enroll a child in the program using two positions so that the child may attend a full-day preschool portion of the district's preschool program or to use a preschool program position to enroll a child in a full day of the district's existing full-day kindergarten program.

(3) The Colorado preschool program positions that the department allocates to a school district pursuant to subsection (1) of this section and that are used to allow a child to attend a half day or full day of preschool through a district's preschool program are subject to all of the requirements of this article; except that the provisions of section 22-28-104 (4) (b) do not apply to positions allocated pursuant to subsection (1) of this section.

(4) If, pursuant to a district's authority to enroll children in the Colorado preschool program pursuant to this section, the district chooses to use a preschool program position to enroll a child in a full day of the district's existing full-day kindergarten program, the district shall retain the supplemental kindergarten enrollment attributable to the child enrolled in a full day of kindergarten using a preschool program position and may expend the supplemental kindergarten enrollment attributable to the child in furtherance of the district's preschool program or the district's full-day kindergarten program.