Colorado launched its Department of Early Childhood on July 1, 2022, after a year of transitioning when HB21-1304 was passed in June 2021. The transition to this new department was made possible by many Transition Advisory Group (TAG) members, Transition Working Group (TWG) members, key subgroups, and representatives from partners and departments across the state.
Marzano Research was instrumental in leading the work of the subgroups, in collaboration with Early Milestones Colorado and the Colorado Education Initiative. The subgroups were meant to offer insight into the following areas:
- Transformative Governance, Operations, and Funding: focused on the opportunities to align the governance, funding, and operations of the new department
- Universal Preschool Implementation: identified strategies and recommendations to align the state’s preschool programs into a new statewide, universal, high-quality, voluntary preschool program in a mixed-delivery system
- Innovative Data, Technology, Evaluation, and Accountability: focused on the opportunities to enhance the data and technology needed to support a fully aligned early childhood system
Out of these sessions, several themes and concerns arose, which Marzano Research and partners helped to elevate to the TAG.
The team here at Marzano Research is excited to see the tremendous impacts this new department will have for the benefit of early childhood across the state of Colorado. Under the leadership of Dr. Lisa Roy, who was appointed as the Executive Director of the department by Governor Polis, the department will work to “unify Colorado’s early childhood system, both at the state-level and local-level, ensuring the seamless and coherent delivery of services to children and families across the state.”
