Children enrolled in Colorado’s Universal Preschool program are demonstrating accelerated growth, according to a recent study between the Colorado Department of Early Childhood and Kidsights Data at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

By the time these children enter kindergarten, they’re demonstrating more skills than their peers in other states in terms of academic and social capabilities, according to a news release. 

“We refer to development in a holistic sense. So our measurement tool includes items that are focused on children’s social and emotional development, language development, motor development, and cognitive development,” said Abbie Raikes, associate professor at UNMC’s College of Public Health and founder of Kidsights Data, in an interview with The Denver Gazette.

Development metrics include milestones like a baby crawling, a two year old using a sentence with two words, a preschooler knowing numbers, or a child recognizing colors. 

Colorado is the first state to use the Kidsights Measurement Tool, a questionnaire developed by UNMC’s College of Public Health. The tool is a population-based system which tracks development in children from birth to age five. 

The Universal Preschool program was established in 2022 to offer voluntary, high quality preschool to every child in the state for a year before kindergarten, according to the release. To assess the efficacy of the program, the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) partnered with UNMC to use their Kidsights Data tool and evaluate early childhood development. 

“States like Colorado are taking really innovative approaches to ensuring that children have all of the support and quality early childhood experiences they need to succeed,” Raikes said.

More than 1,300 parents completed the Kidsights Measurement survey, which asked questions about children’s behavior in the home environment.

The CDEC compared the results of the survey with the overall population of children in Nebraska of the same age, where they don’t have a Universal Preschool program. Findings revealed that although the average Colorado four year old started three months behind their Nebraskan peers, they were estimated to be up to nine months ahead by the time they entered kindergarten.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to utilize this survey not only for Universal Preschool, but also for other programs to figure out what the needs of families are in supporting their children towards school readiness,” said Lisa Roy, the executive director of CDEC.