Colorado Revised Statutes Title 22. Education § 22-32-119. Kindergartens--definition

(1)(a) A board of education shall establish and maintain full-day or half-day kindergarten educational programs in connection with the schools of its district for the instruction of children one year prior to the year in which the children would be eligible for admission to the first grade. A board may prescribe courses of training, study, and discipline and rules governing the kindergarten educational programs. The kindergarten educational programs must be a part of the public school system, and the school district must pay the cost of establishing and maintaining the kindergarten educational programs from the general school fund. A school district shall not charge the parent of a child enrolled in a kindergarten educational program tuition to attend any portion of the program, except as provided pursuant to section 22-32-115(2)(b)(I), and shall not charge the parent fees for the child to attend the program other than fees that are routinely charged to the parents of students enrolled in other grades and are applicable to the kindergarten educational program.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1)(a) of this section to the contrary, if the general assembly amends the “Public School Finance Act of 2025”, article 54 of this title 22, to count a student enrolled in kindergarten only as a half-day pupil, with or without the addition of supplemental kindergarten enrollment as defined in section 22-54-103(15) for purposes of calculating the funded pupil count as determined pursuant to article 54 of this title 22, a school district may charge the student's parents tuition or a fee for the portion of the school day for which it does not receive funding for the student pursuant to the “Public School Finance Act of 2025”; except that the amount of tuition or fee charged must not exceed the amount of tuition or fee that the school district charged to attend a full-day kindergarten educational program for the 2018-19 budget year, adjusted for inflation and prorated by the percentage of the school day for which the student is no longer funded by the “Public School Finance Act of 2025”. As used in this subsection (1)(b), “inflation” means the annual percentage change in the United States department of labor bureau of labor statistics consumer price index for Denver-Aurora-Lakewood for all items paid by all urban consumers, or its applicable successor index.