During the pandemic, when the school cafeteria became a potential breeding ground for a deadly disease, I searched for the sanctuary of a pod school, reducing the number of children mine would interact with. I discovered the refuge of Waldkinder through word-of-mouth and pulled my daughter out of her first-grade public school class. This outdoor pod school was the ideal solution to escape an airborne disease. I layered up my 6-year-old in a school uniform of snow pants, a ski pass and a small backpack. Her days included horseback riding, skiing, fishing, hiking and educational adventures in nature. We celebrated her seventh birthday in a horse barn with a piñata using bandanas for masks.
All around us, nature emerged from the recesses of the human footprint. Our world was becoming more contemplative, quiet and natural without the fast pace of modern technology, deadlines and traffic. As the sky brightened, my anxiety lessened. My child was safe, enveloped in the Colorado mountains. I noticed my daughter’s self-confidence and agility blossom. I knew I had this micro-forest school to thank for its idyllic protection. When I asked my daughter about her pandemic year, she said, “It was Amazing. I am going to tell my kids all about it when I grow up.”
The oasis that nurtured my child safely throughout the pandemic now faces licensing challenges. The regulation process has almost shuttered Waldkinder, forcing the closure of its summer camps and several outdoor class offerings, while the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) reviews the case. Currently, it is operating in a limited capacity with six children under a traditional classroom license. Waldkinder has supported hundreds of young families throughout its past 15 years of operation by cobbling together traditional licenses with a single-skill exemption for its outdoor preschool.
Many similar alternative preschools have reported receiving cease-and-desist letters from CDEC. Largely lacking traditional classroom settings, forest schools have struggled to fit within the licensing system, although they uphold the same educational standards as brick-and-mortar schools. The closing of these schools comes when this Valley is suffering an acute child care crisis.
Sarah Schlichter, director of Waldkinder Adventure Preschool, said that the licensing structure is an issue for forest schools throughout Colorado and that directly contributes to the child care crisis.
“It is my perspective that many small programs would solve the child care crisis. I don’t believe in large child storage facilities with hundreds of children inside of a building. I think allowing people to have a choice about who will care for a young child on a personal level is what we need as a community,” Schlichter stated. “The research shows that children who spend long hours in unstructured play in nature are less likely to have injuries, they are more creative problem solvers and they are generally healthier than their same-aged peers who are inside a classroom with many other children.“
Ian McKenzie, public information officer for CDEC, told me, “In Colorado, you cannot operate any child care unlicensed unless it meets these special exemptions, which include single skill programs or religious instruction.” Asked how many other forest schools operate in Colorado under the single-skill exemption, McKenzie said he could not confirm the number because the state does not require exempt child care facilities to provide the state with any documentation. He added that CDEC is not regulating forest schools because they are outside the licensing system.
Camille Driver is the principal owner of 3015 Policy Center, a woman-owned political consulting firm which helps lobby for Colorado-based organizations. She estimates there are over 45 nature-based preschools in Colorado. Driver said she has been seeing the obstacles that Waldkinder is facing for years.
“There are not a ton of options for families, especially working families. I think there is a vagueness on how these schools should be licensed and inspected, and it largely is up to whomever you happen to get into your forest school that day,” Driver said. ”One day, a site specialist might come out and say, ‘This looks great. You meet the exemption qualifications,’ and then the next year, you could get another site specialist that says something completely different. So it is leaving a lot of anxiety and uncertainty for all of these schools that are really good actors in this space.”
Schlichter added, “If we take away these kinds of niche or alternative schooling options, we are setting a precedent that parents don’t have a choice in their children’s education.”
Senate Bill 24-078 was recently passed and signed into Colorado law to make licensing less arbitrary for forest schools. The bill will streamline the licensing process and define what these schools should look like in statute. The license would also expand capacity, allow for full-day child care for working families and provide access to state funding for nature-based preschools.
McKenzie said that although the bill has passed, child care providers must apply for a license prior to operation. The license could take over a year to implement because CDEC has to train its licensing staff to regulate this new license, she said, and many steps have to be taken before schools can legally operate. In the meantime, existing nature-based preschools must close unless they are determined to meet the single-skill exemption.
During this time, many nature-based preschools could go out of business, leaving families scrambling to find quality child care during a child care crisis. Lack of quality child care profoundly impacts our society, communities, families and children. Hopefully, CDEC and the nature-based preschools of Colorado can collaborate to find a short-term option to keep these schools operating until the SB 24-078 license is accessible.