AURORA | On the eve of the upcoming school year health guidelines are once again changing as the pandemic continues to evolve, and local school districts are taking different tacks with how they respond.

Masks, vaccines and worries about the pandemic are just a few of the obstacles schools, parents and students face this year as the consensus to ensure students attend school in person gets rolled out for 2021 school year.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new recommendations that people in areas of the country where there is significant transmission of the Delta variant resume wearing masks inside, regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not.

The Tri-County Health Department followed up by recommending on Friday that residents wear masks in indoor public places, especially schools, until the spread of the Delta variant through the region slows.

Denver Public Schools will require all students and employees to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. So far, Aurora Public Schools and the Cherry Creek School District are not following suit.

APS is requiring unvaccinated employees to wear masks but is not requiring masks for any students, though in a message from Superintendent Rico Munn releasing its health guidelines it said that it strongly recommends unvaccinated students do so.

Cherry Creek has yet to release its health plan for the upcoming school year as of Tuesday, though it previously said it would be released last week.

In a message to district families on Friday, Superintendent Scott Smith said that the district now expects to finalize plans this week.

“We are working with our partners at Tri-County Health Department and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to determine how the newest CDC recommendation may affect Cherry Creek Schools,” Smith said. “We will then inform our community about mask guidance or requirements, along with other health protocols that will be in place as school begins for students the week of August 16. As always, we will continue to align with changing guidance from the state or county throughout the school year.”

Aurora Public Schools will require teachers to be vaccinated for the fall school year and “strongly recommends” that all students who are eligible do the same, according to new guidelines for the upcoming year. As of now Cherry Creek has not announced any plans for a vaccine requirement.

APS will use a “layered approach” to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in schools, according to the guidelines, but will not have all the same requirements in place as it did last year.

The district put together its plan in accordance with guidance from the Tri-County Health Department, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the message said.

Samantha Decker, a member of Tri-County’s school support team, told the Sentinel that the district sent over its message to TCHD and the department provided feedback.

Once the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to the COVID-19 vaccines, which are currently under an emergency use authorization, all staff will be required to be vaccinated unless they have medical exemptions.

All students and staff will be required to wear masks on school buses regardless of vaccination status.

The CDC recommends that all unvaccinated individuals over the age of two wear a mask in school settings, according to guidelines for K-12 schools on its website. District spokesperson Corey Christiansen told the Sentinel APS does not plan to make any changes to its health plan at this time.

“Our health measures are in accordance with guidance from the Tri-County Health Department,” he said in an email.

APS will screen students and staff for COVID-19 symptoms at the beginning of each day. Students with specific COVID-like symptoms will be referred to the school’s healthcare staff for further assessment, the message said.

Any student or staff member who tests positive for the virus will be required to isolate for 10 days before returning to school. Unlike last year, APS will not require those who were around an infected individual to quarantine, and will not be notifying school communities about positive cases. The district will have a COVID-19 tracker on its website.

The message notes that guidelines could change throughout the school year.

“As we monitor evolving guidance from our public health partners, we may need to update or change these plans to increase mitigation measures,” Munn said. “For example, there may be the need to add a student mask mandate at some point during the year.”

Aurora Education Association President Linnaea Reed-Ellis said that the union supports the district’s layered approach and is excited to being back in person with students.

“We support the safest and healthiest in-person learning environment,” she said.

The Tri-County Health Department’s recommendation said that wearing masks in schools is “particularly important because there are so many interactions in schools between vaccinated and unvaccinated people,” but that “universal masking should be understood not as a requirement but as a strong science-based recommendation.”

The Delta variant is about twice as transmissible as previous strains of COVID-19. Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties are all in the “substantial transmission” range for the variant, the release said, meaning that seven-day incidence rates are above 50 infections per 100,000 people. The rolling average over the past two weeks indicates Adams County is at about 176 cases per 100,000 people; Arapahoe County is at about 156 cases per 100,000 people; and Douglas County is at about 158 cases per 100,000 people.

The region is recording less than a death a day, according to Tri-county records.

Though it recommends mask wearing as a preventative measure, Tri-County emphasized that getting vaccinated is the key to ending the spread of the virus for good.

“We are in a race against time to get more people vaccinated before Delta spreads even further or new even more contagious variants emerge,” Tri-County director Dr. John Douglas said in the release.

Currently, 71.8% of Tri-County residents have received at least one vaccine dose, and 61.5% are fully vaccinated, according to TCHD’s online dashboard.

APS students in grades 1-12 will return to school on Thursday, Aug. 12, with preschool and kindergarten students returning Aug. 18. Cherry Creek students will start school the week of Aug. 16.

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APS 2021 School Year Calendar

First day of school: Aug. 12

Fall break: Oct. 13-15

Thanksgiving break: Nov. 22-26

Winter break: Dec. 17-Jan. 3

Spring break: March 11-18

Cherry Creek Schools District 2021 School Year Calendar

First day of school: Aug. 16

Fall break: Oct. 18-22

Thanksgiving break: Nov. 24-26

Winter break: Dec. 18-Jan. 3

Spring break: March: 14-18

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Other subjects on the 2021 school year radar

Learning loss

APS released a “lessons learned” document over the summer detailing some of its takeaways from how it handled the pandemic. The report paints a picture of an organization that proved to be flexible and resilient in the midst of chaotic circumstances. But it’s also blunt about the difficulties that students experienced during the pandemic and the work it will take to get a generation of children back on track.

One of the report’s most striking findings was how many students were severely chronically absent over the last school year. According to the district, which defines severe chronic absence as being absent more than 20% of the time or one day a week on average, the rate among all students increased from 10.3% in the 2019-2020 school year to 23.8% over the 2020-2021 school year.

There’s a significant gap, however, between students of different races. White students had a chronic absence rate of 12.5%, while Hispanic and Native American students were more than double that at 29.4% and 29.7%. Black students were chronically absent at a rate of 23%, and Asians at 13.6%.

That could create a troubling ripple effect for students already on the edge. In an interview with the Sentinel, Munn said he is “incredibly concerned” that this could lead to a spike in dropout rates over the next few years.

Overall, the district estimates that it lost about a year of reading and writing improvement during the pandemic and about four years of math, Munn said. The district’s long-term plan is to try and catch students up with five years worth of material in three year’s time. What types of interventions will be offered — summer school, night or weekend school, special instruction during the school day — will depend on each student and their needs.

— Carina Julig, Sentinel, Staff Writer

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Enrollment

APS and Cherry Creek both saw dips in enrollment during the pandemic, as some families removed their children from the public school system or decided to hold kindergarten-aged children back a year.

“We’ve all been calling it the redshirt year,” Munn previously told the Sentinel.

APS and Cherry Creek respectively had the fourth and seventh largest declines in enrollment this school year, according to data released in December by the Colorado Department of Education. Now, the districts are trying to get students back. Cherry Creek has been reaching out to families that left the district to encourage them to re-enroll, and APS is preparing for the possibility of a particularly large kindergarten class.

“I do think people found it very hard to teach their kids at home and they want their kids in schools with teachers, so I think we’re going to see an uptick in enrollment,” Smith told the Sentinel.

— Carina Julig, Sentinel Staff Writer

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Critical race theory

The issue of “critical race theory” in schools became a flashpoint across the nation this year, and Aurora was no exception.

That was especially true at Cherry Creek, where almost 100 people lined up to speak for public comment on the topic during the district’s last school board meeting of the year.

Critical race theory is a complex catalogue of ideas that expand on the foundation that racism is a systemic cultural construct rather than a personal foible. Education experts say it’s a high-level legal framework not taught at the K-12 level, but for many the phrase has become a catch-all term for education about race and racism.

At the meeting, some parents spoke out against critical race theory, while many others voiced frustration with the way the topic was being perceived and called on the district to do better for students of color.

“The only reason they’re talking about critical race theory is to stop all equity work in this district,” parent Brian McKinney said at the meeting.

Both APS and Cherry Creek have named equity a top priority. The Sentinel will continue to watch what policies the districts implement to promote it and whether critical race theory becomes a topic in school board elections this fall.

— Carina Julig, Sentinel Staff Writer

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School spending

When Colorado schools reopen in the fall, most of them will have a lot more money to work with — between 10% and 12% more per student for the typical district — and schools that serve large numbers of students who live in poverty and English learners will be the biggest beneficiaries.

Aurora Public Schools is among the winners in that category, and to a lesser extent, Cherry Creek Schools, according to state education department records.

The pandemic forced lawmakers to reexamine which students need the most help. With the economy doing better than expected and lawmakers using a new legal interpretation to raise local taxes, Colorado is investing nearly $500 million more in K-12 education, with $91 million alone from mill changes in 2021-22.

“In a nutshell, it’s a huge step forward for kids,” said Leslie Colwell of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, which has called for sweeping changes to school funding. “We saw the biggest movement for school finance on both the revenue and the formula side in 25 years.”

This year’s legislative session saw a series of key changes to how Colorado funds its schools, just one year after lawmakers made deep cuts to all areas of state government. As painful as it was, the pandemic paved the way for major changes, some of which advocates have sought for years.

Taxpayers in school districts with low property tax rates will start paying more, thanks to a Colorado Supreme Court decision that lets the state undo past tax cuts.

Lawmakers restored past funding cuts to K-12 education and added even more money into the system, partly on the basis of this new local revenue. The state’s base education budget now approaches $8 billion.

Instead of putting that new money into the previous school finance formula, lawmakers increased the number of students considered at-risk and, for the first time, promised extra money for every student learning English.

These changes are significant because Colorado has constitutional restrictions on raising and spending money. With limited money in the system, past efforts to change how Colorado funds schools have foundered on rocky political shores.

This year, lawmakers found a way past one constitutional barrier — the requirement that voters approve any new tax increase — to bring in more money. Then they agreed to share that money differently with school districts to help students with greater needs.

“We always get stuck in ‘we can’t change the formula unless we have new revenue’ and ‘we don’t want to put more money into the same broken formula,’” Colwell said. While a significantly improved budget outlook helped move the conversation forward, “the pandemic forced a look at the inequities in our system, and legislators seemed motivated to think differently.”

There’s still a lot to do, though. Colorado’s school funding distribution formula changes were limited to areas of broad agreement, and several thornier topics were kicked to a special committee that will meet over the next two years to recommend more changes.

Increasing funding for students in poverty and those learning English “were the low-hanging fruit of all the changes we were planning to make,” said state Rep. Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat who serves on the Joint Budget Committee and headed up a previous effort to rework the school finance formula. What’s left will be more challenging, she said.

There are also the critical questions of whether Colorado can sustain its new investment in students and whether the new money will lead to better student outcomes.

“Money that is not focused on student achievement is not money well-spent,” said state Sen. Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican active in school funding debates.

Here’s a closer look at what changed this year and the work that remains.

— Chalkbeat

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Cherry Creek’s 2021-22 budget to include 4% raise, $1,000 bonuses for teachers and staff

Cherry Creek School District employees will receive a $1,000 bonus as a cost of living increase, along with 4% raises as part of the district’s budget for the next school year.

The board unanimously approved the 2021-2022 budget during its final meeting of the school year, which was dominated by hours of public comment on the topic of critical race theory and diversity in school.

Chief financial officer Scott Smith presented the budget details to the board. He said jokingly that since there were so many people in the audience to speak for public comment he was tempted “to go down the rabbit hole of school finance,” but would try to rein himself in.

The district was initially bracing for a significant reduction in funds but the economic recovery from the pandemic has been much faster than expected, Smith said, due in large part to federal stimulus money. Another boon is a recent change in how the state funds schools, helping to boost school revenues in Cherry Creek and across the state.

From a budget perspective this is a good year, Smith said, but the district has to make sure it doesn’t overextend itself since they expect federal revenue additions will eventually end.

“We have to be very careful that we don’t set ourselves up to go over the fiscal cliff in two or three years when federal stimulus money runs out,” he said.

The district’s per-pupil funding from the state will increase by $859 to $8,966 in the next school year. Overall, the district will get a 10% increase in funding next year, about $45 million, compared to a usual increase of 3% or 4%, partly because of the injection of one-time stimulus money.

Smith cautioned that this will not be the new normal.

Using money from its general fund, the district will remove all future furlough days for employees, part of a previous plan to reduce spending during the pandemic. Future furloughs were expected to save the district $10 million, according to draft budget details.

Now, Cherry Creek will give $22 million in ongoing pay raises (about a 4% raise per employee) and give staff a one-time payment of about $1,000, which Smith said was to offset cost of living increases.

The district will also spend money to lower the ratios of students to teachers in elementary and middle schools, replace some aging school buses and reinstate middle school activities and athletics, which were cut during the pandemic.

Money from ballot questions 4A and 4B, the mill levy increase and bond issues approved by voters last fall, will go to a range of construction and improvement projects in the district, including the building of its final elementary school.

The meeting was the first for the district’s new superintendent, former chief of staff Chris Smith. Smith thanked Cherry Creek employees, parents and students for their tenacity during the pandemic and vowed to approach the next year with a growth mindset.

“There are conversations about learning loss, and we do know that is real,” Smith said. “However, I will tell you, our kids learned a lot. We as parents learned a lot. We will focus on their assets and what they bring to the table coming back next year, and we will focus on what they learned and inspire them to be better.”

The school board is now on break for the summer. Its first meeting of the 2021-2022 school year is scheduled for Aug. 9 at Cherokee Trail High School.

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Mill levy change will bring in more than $91 million

In Colorado, school funding is shared by the state and local districts. Once total school funding is established by a formula, the state pays for whatever local taxes don’t cover. Over the last few decades, due to the complex interaction of constitutional provisions, more of that burden shifted to the state, crowding out other needs in the state budget. Meanwhile, taxpayers in different districts paid wildly different tax rates, from 4 mills in wealthy Aspen to 27 mills in Cañon City and Alamosa. One mill is equivalent to $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value.

This year’s change in state law gradually increases local property taxes in districts with rates below the cap of 27 mills. The Colorado Supreme Court signed off on the change, agreeing with an argument that voters didn’t need to approve the increase because tax rates had been lowered in the past despite voters at the time agreeing to hold rates constant.

This change is expected to bring in $91 million in new school revenue for 2021-22 and more than $288 million a year when it’s fully implemented. It’s the first time in years that Colorado schools have had a new revenue source, and it means that taxpayers in different districts eventually will pay similar rates.

Matt Richmond, an independent consultant who previously advised Colorado lawmakers on school funding issues as the chief program officer at Ed Build, said the money produced by this change is significant and “worth the work that was put in,” but it’s even more valuable that it creates a fairer funding system. Previously, some wealthy districts paid lower taxes while collecting more state money than poorer districts.

“Anytime you have a statewide system, especially something as important as education, you want people to feel that it’s fair and that they’re bought in,” he said.

If the mill levy change were the only change this year, it would have meant more spending overall on K-12 education, but many districts, including some serving working-class communities such as Aurora, Denver and Commerce City-based Adams 14, would have seen less state money as they covered more of their own costs with local taxes.

Instead, the majority of school districts are seeing increases in state money and paying a smaller share of their total costs, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. Why? The deep cuts lawmakers made in 2020 turned out to be unnecessary because the economy performed better than expected, and the forecast for 2021 also was strong. That meant the legislature had plenty of money to work with and could restore past cuts, invest new money in schools, and save money in the state education fund as a reserve against a future downturn.

According to estimates from state analysts, Denver taxpayers will pay 5% more toward schools in 2021-22, while the state will pay almost 33% more. In the Adams 14 district, which serves one of the highest percentages of English language learners in state, local taxpayers will pay less than 0.2% more while the state will pay almost 20% more.

There are a few exceptions. The Aspen school district, a poster child for the unfairness of the previous tax system, will see a 75% decrease in state aid and cover more than 96% of its own costs next year through a local tax increase of about three-quarters of a mill.

Colorado’s school funding formula starts with a base amount per student and then adds weights based on student factors such as poverty and district factors, including size and cost of living. These weights end up steering more money to expensive districts than to ones serving large numbers of students in poverty. Rather than run all the new money through the old school funding formula, which could have exacerbated those inequities, lawmakers made two important changes.

They decided to count more students living in low-income households, adding those who qualify for reduced-price lunch to those who qualify for free lunch to the at-risk calculation. And for the first time, districts will get 8% more for each student learning English. Colorado previously set aside some extra money for English learners, but that amount hasn’t grown with the population.

“If the new money had not come in, I’m not sure we would have had the support for these formula changes,” McCluskie said. “If we had made these changes without the new money, then wealthier districts with fewer students in poverty would have seen a decrease in funding.

“Our school districts are very willing to engage in formula changes as long as the pie is expanding. I hate to use the phrase winners and losers, but if we shift resources to districts with more need [without new money], some districts that were winners would lose money, and that has been a challenge.”

Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, known as TABOR, requires voters to approve any tax increases and limits how much the government can grow year over year. If the economy does well, and revenues grow faster than inflation, the state has to give money back to taxpayers, something state economic forecasts predict will be required for each of the next three years.

Tracie Rainey, director of the Colorado School Finance Project, worries that TABOR refunds will eat into the general fund money available to support education.

This year’s changes have “the potential to help if the state can sustain it for the next five years, but if we get in a situation where we seesaw back and forth, have money one year, next year it goes away or is reduced, then you cannot put it into people and programs,” she said. “You’ll have this constant upheaval.”

Richmond said Colorado’s constitution makes it a uniquely challenging state.

“The state can have as many great ideas as they please, and with the number of restrictions that come from the constitution related to funding, it’s very difficult to implement them,” he said.

Colorado lawmakers plan to convene a special bipartisan committee to look at further school finance reform. This is the second such effort in five years. The topics include how the state counts students in poverty, how it pays for special education, how it funds rural districts, how to account for cost differences around the state, and how to make up for some districts’ ability to pass special tax increases called mill levy overrides that let them provide additional services that less well-off — or more tax-averse — districts cannot.

Richmond said changing how the state thinks about poverty is critical, a sentiment echoed by local education advocates. With the federal government extending universal free lunch during the pandemic, families increasingly aren’t filling out applications for subsidized lunch and not showing up in at-risk student counts, even though many families are struggling more than ever. Other ways of measuring poverty include looking at community income levels or how many children take advantage of certain services.

Changing the cost-of-living factor, which often sends more money to communities with high property wealth and fewer students in poverty, will likely be contentious. With this year’s changes, that factor now directs a smaller share of state money, but districts that have benefited aren’t seeing cuts.

But if Colorado wants to spend more on special education or other student needs, the money will have to come from somewhere. That will mean hard decisions.

“I keep feeling like people are looking for this magic moment where it won’t take any political courage to make these changes,” said Luke Ragland, who heads up the conservative education advocacy group Ready Colorado. “It’s never going to be easy. It’s never going to be palatable or convenient to all these traditional interest groups to take money from a system that benefits institutions and invest it in ways that benefit kids.”

But Ragland and Lundeen, the senator, both said they are encouraged to see broad agreement that Colorado’s school finance formula should be built around the needs of kids.

“A formula that honors student achievement is still alive in the building,” Lundeen said. “If we don’t focus on that, if we don’t honor that, then we have failed the students of Colorado.”

Many Republicans don’t think Colorado schools need more money so much as that money needs to be spent differently and with more leadership and commitment.

“I always ask: What is the number? It’s always ‘more,’” Ragland said. “That’s not a real discussion. That’s a talking point.”

A growing body of research finds that spending more money on education improves outcomes for low-income students, though not necessarily for their better-off peers.

Colwell, of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, said the public should expect even this year’s investments to make a difference, if not immediately in test scores than in other ways.

“The public should expect investments made in things that will directly address the lost learning opportunities from the pandemic, and we should see some acceleration of student learning in the next year because students have more access to the supports and interventions that they need,” she said.

Ragland said the public should also watch to see if teacher salaries go up or if new money goes toward administrative costs.

Rainey said the first question for the special committee needs to be what kind of education system Colorado wants, the second how much that would cost, and only the third how to distribute the money.

For example, the additional 8% for English learners doesn’t reflect the full extra cost of teaching students a new language — it’s just what lawmakers felt they could afford.

Colorado spends a smaller share of its total economic capacity on education than most other states, according to an analysis by Bruce Baker, a school finance expert from the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. Neighbors like Kansas spend more because its state constitution requires the legislature to provide funds to meet goals set by the state’s board of education.

“Colorado is one of the least well-funded school systems in the country, especially for as wealthy as it is,” Baker said. “Colorado has been willing to try anything but money. Let’s dramatically expand charter schools, let’s do teacher evaluations, let’s do portfolio model, let’s do anything but fund schools.”

— Chalkbeat

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Stocking up for school can be eco-friendly and economical

Earth-friendly school supplies might sound expensive, but you can be gentle with the planet and respectful of your wallet. Start by widening your idea of what’s “green.”

LOOK FOR FREEBIES FIRST

Using what you already have is the ultimate environmentally friendly move and fits with a frugal lifestyle . Lo ok for pens, pencils, unused journals picked up at a convention, binders no longer in use, and unused or lightly used supplies from last year.

You may not have to buy at all. Chelsea Brennan, who blogs at Smart Money Mamas, says she sees posts on her hyperlocal Buy Nothing Facebook group every fall requesting notebooks and other school supplies. “And then someone may comment, ‘We have those, plus three composition books that have never been written in. Do you need those?’” Brennan says she borrows, donates and receives items through the group.

SAVE ON BACKPACKS AND OFFICE SUPPLIES

For backpacks, Mary Hunt, founder of the website Cheapskate Monthly, recommends JanSport or Eastpak for durability. If you are shopping resale, those are labels to look for because they’ll last longer. And JanSport backpacks have a lifetime warranty.

Or choose a backpack made from recycled materials. Whether you choose new, used or recycled, look for sturdy zippers, pockets and supportive, padded straps. You don’t want this year’s backpack to be in a landfill next year.

Many stores now carry office-supply lines that are earth-friendly. Several companies offer pens made from recycled plastic. Pencils can be made from recycled newspaper, but they’re more expensive than pedestrian wooden pencils. A mechanical, refillable pencil might be the more economical green choice.

Notebooks and loose-leaf paper made from recycled paper can be fairly pricey. For example, a set of four college-ruled “decomposition books” at Target costs more than $25. If recycled paper products don’t fit your budget, you can still be green by making sure your student recycles used paper instead of throwing it in the trash.

Derek B. Davis, a spokesman for Earth.com, noted that many schools now bundle required items and offer them to parents. You may not save money but you’ll save gas and time.

CUT COSTS ON FOOD AND DRINK CONTAINERS

Davis thinks the item likely to have the biggest impact on the planet is your student’s reusable water bottle — hardly a budget breaker. Reusable packaging for lunches and snacks also saves you money and lets you contribute less to the enormous problem of plastic in oceans and landfills.

To estimate the impact of a water bottle, know this: Americans use an average of 13 single-use plastic bottles per month, according to the nonprofit Earth Day Network. One reusable bottle, over a nine-month school year, could keep 117 single-use bottles out of circulation. Tap water is vastly cheaper than bottled, and eliminates plastic waste and the carbon emissions needed to distribute bottled water for sale.

There are also reusable — and dishwasher-safe — containers or bags for sandwiches and snacks. You can put those reusable bags inside a reusable lunch container. Bento boxes, which have compartments for various types of food, are another alternative. Reusable lunch bags and boxes can be purchased fairly inexpensively new — or keep an eye out for used ones.

Davis, the father of a rising second-grader, notes that kids lose things, and suggests buying backups of water bottles or lunch containers if you see an especially good price.

SHOP SECONDHAND FOR CLOTHES

For back-to-school clothes, consider resale stores. You may find clothes that are practically new for pennies on the dollar. You save money and extend the life of the clothes, keeping them out of landfills. You can shop online with ThredUP and similar sites.

Finally, no matter where you’re shopping, bring a reusable bag, Davis says. Keep one handy in the car.

What will ultimately be most effective in cleaning up the Earth, he says, is kids seeing parents who weave green living into everyday life: For instance, making coffee at home, drinking from reusable cups and making their own seltzer.

— The Associated Press

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7 ways to build your child’s vocabulary

If you want your child to have a rich and fulfilling life, one of the best things you can do is help build your child’s vocabulary. Research shows strong language ability is associated with a number of positive things, including happiness, friendships, connections with family, academic success and a satisfying career.

Building your child’s language ability is not something you should wait to do until they’re old enough to go to school. Vocabulary development is extremely rapid. Between birth and second grade, children, on average, learn about 5,200 root words.

The ability to quickly interpret words at 18 months can determine the size of a child’s vocabulary later in childhood.

By grades three and four, vocabulary also is closely related to children’s ability to understand what they read. This is partly because a child’s vocabulary is a strong indicator of a child’s knowledge of the world.

As one who researches the best ways to develop children’s literacy, here are seven things that I believe parents and educators can do to help build children’s language and vocabulary skills.

1. Talk about objects and events that interest the child

Talk about something that has the child’s attention. A mother may notice her 8-month-old baby staring at a large cat and say, “Oh look at the nice kitty. She has such pretty eyes and soft fur.” Such interactions may also occur when a child points to something and starts trying to talk about it, indicating excited interest. These exchanges are prime opportunities for adults to name, describe and explain things. Occasions when parents and children talk about things they are both attending to are powerful instructional moments. Words are paired with objects, events and emotions. The importance of these exchanges is shown by the fact that the amount of pointing by children at 18 months is related to language development at 42 months.

2. Have many conversations with children

The amount of language children hear during conversations with adults in the first 18 to 24 months of life matters. Language areas of the child’s brain are rapidly developing. The ability to translate sounds into meaningful words is rapidly improving. Linking sounds to meanings quickly enables one to continue to make sense from the words they are hearing. The speed with which children assign meaning to words is strongly related to the amount of language they have heard as part of adult-child conversations.

3. Engage in sustained interactions

By the time children are 2, it is not only the quantity but also the quality of the conversations they hear that matters. At this point to really foster your child’s language growth, don’t be in a hurry – talk with your child about particular objects or events for a decent amount of time. It’s not necessarily a certain amount of time that matters. But there should be at least eight to 10 back-and-forth exchanges between the parent and the child. When children are verbal, these back-and-forth exchanges that take place over many turns are especially valuable.

Indeed, preschool children who have longer-lasting conversations show faster brain development and more efficient processing of information than those who have fewer and shorter conversations.

4. Read and discuss books

One of the most powerful of all shared activities is book reading. Books can be shared and enjoyed from the first year of life. They provide endless opportunities to name objects, animals and action. These experiences can be repeated over and over. The activity also gives parents a time to bond with their child while talking about favorite pictures, events and stories.

5. Use varied words while expanding world knowledge

Children acquire knowledge rapidly as they learn words that refer to more complex concepts. As time goes on, these words will be used during conversations about new ideas and experiences. For example, during a trip to an aquarium a child might see fascinating creatures as their parent names the animal, talks about parts of its body – its fins and tail, for instance – and how it moves. Or, during a trip to the grocery store, one can name objects, discuss their attributes, talk about where they come from and much more.

6. Talk about past events

Through language we are able to travel through time to past and future events. As parents talk with children about experiences from the past, they tend to use novel words and children, in turn, are encouraged to use them. For example, a parent may say, “Do you remember when we went to the aquarium? The child responds: “Yes, we saw that big big fish with wings.” To which the parent replies: “Yes that was an enormous stingray.” Regular conversations about the past foster vocabulary learning.

7. Engage in pretend play

Language enables children to construct and live in imaginary worlds. The talk that occurs as they enact their roles in these imaginary worlds leads them to expand their vocabulary.

For example, two children are playing with action figures that represent doctors. One child holds a doctor figure and the other is playing with one that is lying on the ground. The doctor says, “Be quiet I need to use my stethoscope.” The “injured” figure says, “OK. Is that the thing you use to hear my heart?” Here we see one child informally teaching a sophisticated word. The second child is learning what a stethoscope is and, as they play, will gain some understanding of how it is used.

— The Associated Press