The Buell Foundation has partnered with Colorado Education Initiative (CEI) as Colorado’s PK-12 intermediary to take a comprehensive look at how ECE career pathways are designed, delivered, and connected across Colorado—identifying the gaps, highlighting what’s working, and offering actionable opportunities to build and sustain a high-quality early childhood workforce.
This new report: Designing a Stronger Early Childhood Workforce Pipeline: Aligning Access, Pathways, and Investment Across Colorado’s Education Systems is informed by insights from nearly 70 stakeholders—including state agency leaders, early childhood providers, school district administrators, higher education faculty, and educators. It reflects a shared commitment to creating a more connected and equitable workforce across the state.
This work builds upon and complements recent state-level and philanthropic investments in ECE workforce development—many of which focused on compensation, credentialing, and local implementation strategies. The issues named are not new, but with renewed momentum in ECE, the time is right to address a critical and underexplored area: the role of ECE career pathways in preparing future early childhood educators. By exploring both where these efforts exist and the conditions that enable or constrain them, this report offers actionable guidance for scaling and sustaining more integrated approaches.
The Buell Foundation does not intend for this report to be just words on paper. It is already driving our investments. Below are examples of recent grantmaking that are purposefully aligned with the 10 recommendations found in the report:
- Funding St. Vrain School District and Colorado Education Initiative to replicate the successful P-TEACH program with school districts in La Plata, Greeley, Fremont and Mesa counties.
- Supporting a position at Denver’s Office of Economic Development and Opportunity acting as a regional hub working with workforce centers across the region to support the current and future early childhood workforce. A role that is even more important given Mayor Johnston’s desire to provide universal childcare in Denver.
- Partnering with Colorado’s Evaluation and Action Lab to support a community of practice for local leaders implementing early childhood workforce salary supplements/stipends to support shared learning, improved evaluative practices and inform future policy choices.
TEACH Colorado has produced these inspiring videos worth watching: Should I Become and Early Childhood Educator and Become and Early Childhood Educator in Colorado. Also and check out their ECE career advising guides, which are available in six languages.
The Buell Foundation and CEI will be joining district and higher education leaders next week at the 2026 Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE) Convention to share more about this report. This session, “Where It All Begins: Aligning Early Childhood and K–12 Through Workforce Development,” will take place on Wednesday, July 29, at 1:30 p.m.
If funders in your communities want to work collaboratively to move this work forward, please reach out to Jason Callegari, Director of Initiatives at jcallegari@buellfoundation.org.
