COMMERCE CITY —Commerce City is working to provide more support and opportunities to its youngest citizens after research shows that resources for early childhood education in the city are lacking.
The needs for preschoolers primarily arise from a general shortage of daylong, licensed day care programs, according to focus groups and data from regional education statistic generators like the Adams County Youth Initiative and the Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County.
The Adams 14 School District and the city have had preschool and afterschool programs for years, but often those programs hit an attendance cap and some families are left to juggle options.
Brandi Sinclair, 27, said she takes her 4-year-old son to the city’s accredited Kinder Kids half-day program at the Commerce City Recreation Center Mondays through Thursdays. She said she looked for full day options but came up short.
“I bring him here because the public school’s preschool program is capped, and he didn’t get in,” Sinclair said. “This is a less expansive choice than (private daycare), and I like the teachers here.”
In its research, Commerce City officials found that about half of kids are not ready for kindergarten because they lack the preschool education needed to be successful before entering school.
“There are not a lot of licensed, preschool-age day cares that are full day — maybe two, but there’s a lot of in-home care from family members,” said Julia Emko, city spokeswoman and Commerce City Youth Commission coordinator. “I think that’s also indicative of our demographics here.”
Adams County has the highest proportion of children to adults in the state. About 9 percent of all county residents are under 5 years old, and about half the entire population of students are on free and reduced lunches.
The average income of Adams County households is up to 25 percent lower than the rest of the state, according to 2009 data from the Adams County Youth Initiative.
Officials in Commerce City say those numbers are likely higher for their residents.
Lisa Jansen Thompson, director of the Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County said there are many risk factors, including living in poverty, being born to a teenage mother, having a mother with less than a high school education and being abused or neglected.
Not having access to available, high-quality preschools puts children even further at risk, she said.
“Of the families of kindergartners in Commerce City, 25 percent noted that they wanted to send their child to preschool but were unable to due to it not being available in their area, not being able to transport their child, having a conflicting work schedule, and the high costs,” Jansen Thompson said.
Institutional attempts to alleviate some of the pressures came last fall from Adams 14 and School District 27J, which collectively had three ballot measures that related to funding and facility improvements for schools and early childhood development programs. All three measures were shot down by voters.
City Council adopted its first ever Youth Master Plan last week, and it includes a targeted strategy like supporting the increase of affordable and quality child care facilities and implementing ways city services can promote early childhood resources.
“The city identified our youth’s success as a top priority,” Emko said.
Brandy Monarrez is a preschool teacher at the Kinder Kids program, and she also works as a site coordinator for some of the afterschool programs in the Adams 14 School District.
“Early childhood education is a priority because this is where these kids learn the basics,” she said. “They learn their social skills, the basics of sensory processing, vocabulary, imagination and basic learning tools. Those are essential to build self-esteem.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, mmitchell@denverpost.com or
