The bird-loving nonprofit Denver Audubon is opening a nature-based preschool later this year — becoming one of the first to take advantage of a new state license.
In 2024, Colorado became the second state in the U.S. to approve licenses for outdoor preschools, as more parents look for alternatives to screens and traditional learning environments. While nature-based preschool programs aren’t a new thing, the new law regulates the schools and makes them eligible for Colorado’s universal preschool program.
Denver Audubon will open its own school this fall at the Kingery Nature Center, which it owns and operates at Chatfield State Park in Jefferson County. The Denver Audubon Nature Preschool will accept children ages 3 to 6.
Caroline Pettit, the director of the new preschool, said the educational outcomes won’t look much different from a typical preschool.
“Kids are going to learn everything that they would learn in a traditional school, but they're probably going to be exposed to words like … migration or adaptation,” she said. “They're going to encounter a lot more ecologically relevant vocabulary and concepts.”
Pettit said an average day will see a lot of outdoor activities — and, naturally, talking about birds.
“If it's migration time, we might be talking about the birds that are flying overhead,” Pettit said. “If it's fall going into winter, we might talk about how the animals are preparing themselves to get ready for the cold weather, and we'll do that through play, songs, stories, games, that kind of thing.”
Pettit said the nonprofit expects to complete the licensing process by the start of the new school year in the autumn. Once the preschool has the new state license, it will be eligible to host students in Colorado’s universal preschool program, which provides up to 15 free hours of preschool for all families, and additional hours for low-income families that qualify.
When the state passed the outdoor preschool licensing law, it budgeted for 10 preschools to obtain the license statewide. There are over 40 outdoor preschools in the state, but many operators said the new regulations that came with the license could put them out of business.
The Denver Audubon school will charge tuition of $485 a month for two-day-a-week enrollment, or $728 monthly for three-day-a-week enrollment. Applications are open now. The school lists capacity for 24 students and follows a nine-month year. School hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
