The ECE Educator Stipends program is geared for individuals who are not already qualified to teach in ECE programs in the state of Colorado. If you are already a lead teacher, please contact the ECE department at the college/university you are interested in attending and ask for guidance on the best classes to take to achieve your ECE professional goals. There may be scholarship funds available through the school for students who have declared ECE certificate or degree paths.
Process
Institutes of Higher Education (IHE) send their rosters of qualifying students (with in-state tuition status) after census day to CDHE, and CDHE sends payment directly to the IHE. Then the IHE credits the student accounts.
Individuals who do not qualify for in-state tuition but who work full time in a Colorado early childhood education program can submit an appeal to receive funds if they qualify. Your employer is required to fill out this Employee Verification Form. Submit this completed letter of appeal to your institution within 6 weeks of the last day to drop the course(s). *For students on immigrant/refugee visas, please contact CDHE for more information
Requirements
As part of the ECE Stipend program, all students who apply for stipend funds are required to first provide their PDIS username to their institution of higher education.
This information will be received from the IHEs in their reporting of allocation of the stipends before the end of the school's term.
PDIS is a professional tracking system for ECE educators. It will give registrants access to professional development and networking opportunities and allow us to collect important data about the possible impact of the scholarship dollars on the ECE Workforce in Colorado.
The PDIS username will always be in the format of email, but it is not necessarily a valid email address. For example, erikatest@test.com or erika123@test.org. Please note:
The username is what students use to log into the PDIS system. If the student is setting up an account in PDIS for the first time, they will receive a registration confirmation email that includes their username. If a student has an existing account but doesn’t remember their sign in details, they can request a password reset and the username will be listed in the auto-generated email they receive. For questions go to the PDIS helpdesk.
Contact
Contact your school's Early Childhood Education department or financial aid office for more information and to find out if you qualify.
