Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.As the school year begins, leaders at Denver’s Bluff Lake Nature Center are searching for a way to keep offering publicly funded enrichment classes that teach homeschooled students about water quality, wildlife tracking, shelter building, and foraging. Space Academy, a Colorado Springs program that teaches homeschoolers about rocketry, is pausing its once-a-week classes this school year. The contrasting decisions show how different homeschool enrichment providers are reacting to the sudden demise of the controversial group that had authorized their programs. That group — Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES — is dissolving after a recent crackdown by the state.The dissolution affects 44 state-funded homeschool enrichment programs and comes after a roller coaster year that brought intense scrutiny and strict rules to public homeschool enrichment offerings. If all 44 programs retained an authorizer and received approval, they could have served more than 6,000 Colorado homeschoolers this year at a cost of more than $35 million in state dollars.But in all likelihood, the numbers will be much lower. That’s because some homeschool programs authorized by ERBOCES have already closed, and others, including Space Academy, are pausing in the hopes of relaunching under a new authorizer in fall 2027. Authorizers handle certain administrative tasks and serve as a conduit for state funding. Some homeschool enrichment programs previously authorized by ERBOCES are scrambling to find a school district or charter school willing to authorize them so they can continue providing tuition-free classes this year.Controversial group that opened ‘Colorado’s first public Christian school’ will close after 13 yearsIt’s unclear how many of the 44 programs are seeking new authorizers and how many have closed their doors temporarily or permanently. Programs have until Sept. 4 to find new authorizers and inform the state.“We are in conversations with numerous people about alternate paths to authorization for this school year prior to (the Colorado Department of Education’s) deadline in September,” Rachel Hutchens, executive director of Bluff Lake Nature Center, said in an email.Last year, Bluff Lake’s program served about 35 homeschoolers. Verónica Corral Flores, Space Academy’s program director, said in an email that her program won’t hold its usual weekly classes this year but will offer free monthly sessions where homeschooling families can build and launch their own rockets. Grant money will cover the cost of the rocket kits, she said. New rules, more oversight for homeschool enrichmentA state law passed last spring put new guardrails on public education co-ops like ERBOCES, which had long been lightly regulated.Since the pandemic, the Monument-based group had authorized a flood of homeschool enrichment programs across the state. Lawmakers grew alarmed over mounting state spending on homeschool enrichment and news that some programs subsidized private schools while others offered activities that public school families had to pay for, including horseback riding, skiing, and jiu-jitsu lessons. The new guardrails include strict criteria for receiving state funding and a new layer of review for homeschool enrichment programs that operate outside the boundaries of the school district or BOCES that authorizes them.ERBOCES authorized more than 50 homeschool enrichment programs last school year. Earlier this summer, it submitted applications on behalf of 44 of them to state reviewers. A few other authorizers — Aurora Public Schools and some charter schools — also submitted applications to the state for a handful of out-of-boundary homeschool programs.By August, ERBOCES was on the brink of collapse because of defections by member institutions and a state crackdown over an improperly constituted board and misspent state money. Then, on Aug 17, its most critical member, School District 49, voted to dissolve the co-op.That left the 44 homeschool enrichment programs in limbo. Complicating matters, the state had reviewed only half the applications submitted by ERBOCES, approving three, including Space Academy and Bluff Lake. The state denied 18, several because homeschool enrichment funding would subsidize students attending private schools, reviewers said. A state spokesperson said denied programs could submit clarifying information and ask for a second review. Only a few have done that so far, they said. A waiting game for familiesGran Via, a bilingual outdoor education program in metro Denver, is one former ERBOCES program that found a home with a new authorizer: an Aurora charter school called Wildflower Montessori. Bill Knous, executive director of Gran Via, said his group switched authorizers before ERBOCES was dissolved. Gran Via had long been in talks with Wildflower because both take a Montessori approach and have similar missions, Knous said. But finding a new authorizer is only half the battle. Gran Via is still waiting for the state to decide on its application to operate at a park and library outside Aurora one day a week. Without state approval, Knous can’t officially enroll homeschool students or get state funding. With the school year underway, that puts Gran Via families, including some with neurodivergent children who’ve struggled at traditional schools, in a bind, Knous said.“They’re not focused on all the politics,” he said. ”They’re simply thinking about, ‘Is my kid going to be seen, valued, and known at school?’”For now, Knous said Gran Via is visiting with families one on one to keep them connected to the program while it awaits a decision. He choked up as he shared some of the worries parents have about losing the program. “It’s very hard for them, right?” Knous said. “Because they’re like, ‘What if this doesn’t happen? What do we do?’”Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
