Project Abstract
In 2008, the Colorado legislature passed House Bill 08-1364 with the mandate for state agencies, school districts, Head Start, Early Childhood Councils, and additional early childhood partners to create and implement protocols to assign uniquely identifying student numbers. These protocols and practices have not yet been implemented in an ongoing fashion. This project is designed to inform future implementation of these protocols coinciding with the launch of Universal Preschool funded by Proposition EE passed by Colorado voters in 2020 and the new Department of Early Childhood that will be in operation in 2022.
The Colorado Lab will create a new LINC project integrating data from new and existing early childhood partners. The goal is to test how well the state can develop a common identifier across programs to understand early childhood program participation and to provide programs with helpful information to improve the way they collect their data. This work will also include a snapshot brief on early childhood program participation, school enrollment, and school readiness in the Denver area.