The modern version of the brewery, which has occupied a high-profile space in the Auraria campus’ student union for a decade, and the organization that runs the facilities shared by three onsite colleges weren’t able to come to a lease agreement after months of negotiations, according to Devra Ashby, Auraria’s marketing and communications director.

“Since 2015, [Tivoli] has been an integral part of the Auraria Campus, contributing to the campus community and collaborating on educational initiatives until 2021,” Ashby said in a statement. “While brewing operations on campus ceased in fall 2023, the Tivoli Tap House served as a gathering space for students, faculty, staff, and the broader Denver community. We appreciate Tivoli’s contributions over the years and extend our best wishes for their future endeavors.”

Auraria is currently “in discussions” with a potential replacement, she added.

Although the taproom is closed, the brewery will continue to operate a production facility in the southeastern Colorado town of La Junta, where it primarily makes a lager called Outlaw Light. The Tivoli name is also still attached to the taproom at Denver International Airport, but the company is no longer connected to the space, which is run by an airport concessionaire called SSP America.

The original Tivoli brewery was founded in 1900 in the same building as the new one, at 1900 Auraria Parkway. The company and its owners had brewing roots on that site dating back to 1859, however, a year after Denver’s founding. Tivoli was one of just a handful of Colorado breweries to survive prohibition and later became one of the largest beer makers in the West. It went out of business, though, in 1969, for several reasons, including a strike and a flood.

In 2012, Corey Marshall, a former Coors executive who had been a bouncer at a bar that was located in the student union building in the 1990s, began researching and collecting old Denver beer trademarks and brands from the 1800s and early 1900s. His goal — as the craft beer industry began to boom — was to update some of the beers and sell them to thirsty Denver residents.

In 2015, Marshall struck a deal with AHEC to reopen in the Tivoli building, adding modern brewing equipment, but keeping some of the historic kettles that remained as decoration. But by 2018, Marshall had left and been replaced by a new ownership group. During the COVID-19 pandemic, conditions got even worse as the campus was shut down.

In recent years, CEO Ari Opsahl has steered the company away from its historic beers and toward Outlaw Light, which has been selling well, according to the company.

Last year, Opsahl told The Denver Post that he hoped to find “a mutually amicable path forward.

“The taphouse is a cornerstone for the campus,” Opsahl said then, pointing out that the brewery and the building share a name. “We love it, but operating there is a challenge, as it is pretty dead all summer (when classes aren’t in session). We can’t even break even.

“We want to be there,” he added. “But have to find a way to make it work for both parties.”

Subscribe to our new food newsletter, Stuffed, to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox.

WASHINGTON (AP) — At first, the bar association for immigration attorneys began receiving inquiries from a couple students a day. These were foreigners studying in the U.S., and they’d discovered in early April their legal status had been terminated with little notice. To their knowledge, none of the students had committed a deportable offense.

In recent days, the calls have begun flooding in. Hundreds of students have been calling to say they have lost legal status, seeking advice on what to do next.

“We thought it was going to be something that was unusual,” said Matthew Maiona, a Boston-based immigration attorney who is getting about six calls a day from panicked international students. “But it seems now like it’s coming pretty fast and furious.”

The speed and scope of the federal government’s efforts to terminate the legal status of international students have stunned colleges across the country. Few corners of higher education have been untouched, as schools ranging from prestigious private universities, large public research institutions and tiny liberal arts colleges discover status terminations one after another among their students.

At least 600 students at more than 90 colleges and universities have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press review of university statements and correspondence with school officials. Advocacy groups collecting reports from colleges say hundreds more students could be caught up in the crackdown.

Students apparently targeted over minor infractions

Around 1.1 million international students were in the United States last year — a source of essential revenue for tuition-driven colleges. International students are not eligible for federal financial aid, and their ability to pay tuition often factors into whether they will be admitted to American schools. Often, they pay full price.

Many of the students losing their legal status are from India and China, which together account for more than half the international students at American colleges. But the terminations have not been limited to those from any one part of the world, lawyers said.

Four students from two Michigan universities are suing Trump administration officials after their F-1 student status was terminated last week. Their attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, Ramis Wadood, said the students never received a clear reason why.

“We don’t know, and that’s the scary part,” he said.

The students were informed of the status terminations by their universities via email, which came as a shock, Wadood said. The reason given was that there was a “criminal records check and/or that their visa was revoked,” Wadood said, but none of them were charged or convicted of crimes. Some had either speeding or parking tickets, but one didn’t have any, he said. Only one of the students had known their entry visa was revoked, Wadood said.

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges.

But many students say they don’t fall under those categories. Students have filed lawsuits in several states, arguing they were denied due process.

In New Hampshire, a federal judge last week granted a temporary restraining order to restore the status of a Ph.D. student at Dartmouth College, Xiaotian Liu, while he challenges the revocation of his visa. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Wisconsin issued a similar order, ruling the government could not take steps to detain or revoke the visa of a University of Wisconsin-Madison gradate student.

In a break from past, feds cancel students’ status directly

At many colleges, officials learned the legal immigration status of some international students had been terminated when staff checked a database managed by the Department of Homeland Security. In the past, college officials say, legal statuses typically were updated after colleges told the government the students were no longer studying at the school.

The system to track enrollment and movements of international students came under the control of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after 9/11, said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, an association of international educators. She said recent developments have left students fearful of how quickly they can be on the wrong side of enforcement.

“You don’t need more than a small number to create fear,” Aw said. “There’s no clarity of what are the reasons and how far the reach of this is.”

Her group says as many as 1,300 students have lost visas or had their status terminated, based on reports from colleges.

The Department of Homeland Security and State Department did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Foreigners who are subject to removal proceedings are usually sent a notice to appear in immigration court on a certain date, but lawyers say affected students have not received any notices, leaving them unsure of next steps to take.

Some schools have told students to leave the country to avoid the risk of being detained or deported. But some students have appealed the terminations and stayed in the United States while those are processed.

Still others caught in legal limbo aren’t students at all. They had remained in the U.S. post-graduation on “optional practical training,” a one-year period — or up to three for science and technology graduates — that allows employment in the U.S. after completing an academic degree. During that time, a graduate works in their field and waits to receive their H-1B or other employment visas if they wish to keep working in the U.S.

Around 242,000 foreigners in the U.S. are employed through this “optional practical training.” About 500,000 are pursuing graduate degrees, and another 342,000 are undergraduate students.

Among the students who have filed lawsuits is a Georgia Tech Ph.D. student who is supposed to graduate on May 5, with a job offer to join the faculty. His attorney Charles Kuck said the student was likely targeted for termination because of an unpaid traffic fine from when the student lent his car to a friend. Ultimately, the violation was dismissed.

“We have case after case after case exactly like that, where there is no underlying crime,” said Kuck, who is representing 17 students in the federal lawsuit. He said his law firm has heard from hundreds of students.

“These are kids who now, under the Trump administration, realize their position is fragile,” he said. “They’ve preyed on a very vulnerable population. These kids aren’t hiding. They’re in school.”

Some international students have been adapting their daily routines.

A Ph.D. student from China at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said she has begun carrying around her passport and immigration paperwork at the advice of the university’s international student office. The student, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by authorities, said she has been distressed to see the terminations even for students like her without criminal records.

“That is the most scary part because you don’t know whether you’re going to be the next person,” she said.

Seminera reported from Raleigh, N.C., and Keller reported from Albuquerque, N.M.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Under current policy, if Superintendent Alex Marrero plans to recommend schools be closed, he must do so each August and the board has to vote on whether to approve his proposal by November of that same year.

But under a proposed amendment to that policy, the superintendent would need to wait at least three years before presenting another round of closures. However, Marrero could propose additional closures if faced with a significant change in enrollment or funding, or an emergency, according to the latest draft of the policy change.

If enacted, Marrero wouldn’t be able to seek additional school closures outside of those exceptions until the 2028-29 academic year, since DPS is closing schools this spring.

The school board voted the amendment into second reading without discussion during a meeting Monday, a needed step before members can finalize the change to their school closure policy.

The policy change comes five months after the seven-member board voted to close or restructure 10 schools at the end of the current academic year, a move that is aimed at preventing a potential financial crisis as DPS enrollment falls.

The school board is also considering a policy that, if approved, would direct Marrero to potentially change school boundaries in response to the city’s shifting demographic and housing trends.

Board members have historically been reluctant to close schools despite enrollment falling since 2019 as Denverites have fewer babies and high housing costs push families out of the city.

Public school enrollment is falling across Colorado, and other districts, including Jeffco Public Schools and the Douglas County School District, have either closed schools or are weighing such decisions.

DPS, the state’s largest district, saw enrollment jump in recent years because of the arrival of more than 4,700 immigrant students. But at 90,450 pupils, enrollment remains below the peak of 92,112 students five years ago.

The board rejected Marrero’s recommendation to close 10 elementary and middle schools in 2022 before eventually agreeing to shutter three schools in 2023.

But board members were resigned to the fact that they needed to close schools when the superintendent presented his most recent consolidation plans last year and voted unanimously to do so.

Under that plan, DPS will close five elementary schools: Castro, Columbian, Palmer, Schmitt and the International Academy of Denver at Harrington. The district will also close two secondary schools: West Middle School and the Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design.

DPS will additionally restructure three schools — DCIS Baker 6-12, Dora Moore ECE-8 School and Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy — so that they serve fewer grades.

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.

BOSTON (AP) — The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University, after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.

The hold on Harvard’s funding marks the seventh time President Donald Trump’s administration has taken the step at one of the nation’s most elite colleges, in an attempt to force compliance with Trump’s political agenda. Six of the seven schools are in the Ivy League.

It sets the stage for a showdown between the federal government and America’s oldest and wealthiest university. With an endowment of more than $50 billion, Harvard is perhaps the best positioned university to push back on the administration’s pressure campaign.

In a letter to Harvard Friday, Trump’s administration had called for broad government and leadership reforms at the university, as well as changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus, and stop recognizing some student clubs.

The federal government said almost $9 billion in grants and contracts in total were at risk if Harvard did not comply.

On Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university would not bend to the government’s demands.

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber said in a letter to the Harvard community. “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

Hours later, the government froze billions in Harvard’s federal funding.

The first university targeted by the Trump administration was Columbia, which acquiesced to the government’s demands under the threat of billions of dollars in cuts. The administration also has paused federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern.

Trump’s administration has normalized the extraordinary step of withholding federal money to pressure major academic institutions to comply with the president’s political agenda and to influence campus policy. The administration has argued universities allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Harvard, Garber said, already has made extensive reforms to address antisemitism. He said many of the government’s demands don’t relate to antisemitism, but instead are an attempt to regulate the “intellectual conditions” at Harvard.

Withholding federal funding from Harvard, one of the nation’s top research universities in science and medicine, “risks not only the health and well-being of millions of individuals but also the economic security and vitality of our nation.” It also violates the university’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the government’s authority under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination against students based on their race, color or national origin, Garber said.

The government’s demands included that Harvard institute what it called “merit-based” admissions and hiring policies and conduct an audit of the study body, faculty and leadership on their views about diversity. The administration also called for a ban on face masks at Harvard — an apparent target of pro-Palestinian campus protesters — and pressured the university to stop recognizing or funding “any student group or club that endorses or promotes criminal activity, illegal violence, or illegal harassment.”

Harvard’s defiance, the federal antisemitism task force said Monday, “reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges — that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws.

“The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable.”

Trump has promised a more aggressive approach against antisemitism on campus, accusing former President Joe Biden of letting schools off the hook. Trump’s administration has opened new investigations at colleges and detained and deported several foreign students with ties to pro-Palestinian protests.

The demands from the Trump administration had prompted a group of Harvard alumni to write to university leaders calling for it to “legally contest and refuse to comply with unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self-governance.”

“Harvard stood up today for the integrity, values, and freedoms that serve as the foundation of higher education,” said Anurima Bhargava, one of the alumni behind the letter. “Harvard reminded the world that learning, innovation and transformative growth will not yield to bullying and authoritarian whims.”

The government’s pressure on Harvard also sparked a protest over the weekend from the campus community and residents of Cambridge and a lawsuit from the American Association of University Professors on Friday challenging the cuts.

In their lawsuit, plaintiffs argue that the Trump administration has failed to follow steps required under Title VI before it starts cutting funds, including giving notice of the cuts to both the university and Congress.

“These sweeping yet indeterminate demands are not remedies targeting the causes of any determination of noncompliance with federal law. Instead, they overtly seek to impose on Harvard University political views and policy preferences advanced by the Trump administration and commit the University to punishing disfavored speech,” plaintiffs wrote.

The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to state education departments on April 3 threatening to pull federal funding from public schools over such programs. States were given 10 days to sign and return the notice, but multiple states, including New York and Minnesota, have said they won’t comply with the order.

Córdova said during a meeting of the Colorado State Board of Education on Thursday that she won’t sign the certification letter and will not ask districts to do so. Colorado schools already comply with federal anti-discrimination laws, she said.

“Frankly, I would be uncomfortable signing a certification that binds us to federal guidance that doesn’t have the force of law,” Córdova said. “I would be uncomfortable signing a certification that lacks definitions and clarity around what is or is not prohibited. I think that’s particularly true given that the certifications come with the potential consequence of loss of federal funds.”

The federal Education Department’s notice said the “use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law” and that it is illegal for programs to advantage one race over another.

Córdova said her decision was also made, in part, because the document sent by the Trump administration wasn’t approved under a federal law called the Paperwork Reduction Act, which is a process that must occur for the federal government to collect information, including such certifications, from state and local agencies.

“It would be unlawful to restrict federal funding because somebody declines to sign a document that we’re not legally obligated to sign,” she said.

The State Board of Education met in an executive session, which was closed to the public, on Wednesday to discuss a legal memo related to how the Colorado Department of Education planned to respond to the April 3 letter.

But Republican members of the board, most notably Steve Durham, who represents the 5th Congressional District, pushed for the board to hold a public discussion about the agency’s response.

“The real reason, I think, behind not signing this is political rather than legal,” Durham said during Thursday’s public meeting. “There can be significant debate or disagreement, I guess about, what DEI actually is, but there is plenty of evidence of its misuse.”

Durham’s comment was the furthest any of the nine members, including the four Republicans on the board, went in criticizing Córdova’s decision to not sign the letter.

And, as with Durham, several members vaguely mentioned diversity, equity and inclusion practices being used to discriminate against students in Colorado classrooms, but none identified specific incidents or evidence of such discrimination having taken place.

Democratic members of the board supported Córdova’s decision.

“If you ask 15 people to define DEI, all 15 would define it differently,” board member Karla Esser said. “Because we have no definition, I wouldn’t sign it to begin with.” 

The Trump administration has targeted both K-12 and higher education institutions, threatening to revoke federal funding because of their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The University of Colorado’s Colorado Springs is among more than 50 universities under investigation for allegedly discriminating against white and Asian American students. The administration is also investigating Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest district, for “discriminating against its female students” by creating an all-gender bathroom at East High School.

Córdova said both during Thursday’s meeting and in a letter sent to K-12 school districts that Colorado is already in compliance with Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.

Districts are already required to affirm their compliance with Title VI when they receive federal money and those assurances are binding, Córdova wrote in the letter to district leaders.

Colorado’s schools receive millions of dollars from the federal government.

DPS received about $96 million from the federal government for the 2024-25 academic year and about 75% of that money is Title 1 and IDEA — Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — funding.

Douglas County School District, the state’s third largest district, receives about $15 million from the Department of Education, including $1.5 million from Title 1 funding and $11 million from IDEA funding.

So far, the state education department and local K-12 school districts haven’t said whether they plan to cut any departments, programs or classes related to diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

In Colorado, local school boards and educators decide what is taught in the classroom. But the State Board of Education does approve standards, such as for social studies and science, which are a framework for teachers developing lessons.

In 2022, the board approved adding much-debated references to people of color and the LGBTQ community into the state’s social study standards to comply with a 2019 bill passed by the state legislature that aimed to add diverse views into students’ history and civics lessons.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.

The federal Pell Grant program faces a looming $2.7 million budget shortfall, according to a January report from the Congressional Budget Office.

Established in 1972, the Pell Grant gives undergraduates from low- and middle-income backgrounds up to $7,395 per academic year to pay for college. Unlike with a student loan, students don’t need to repay their Pell Grant award. Roughly 7 million students receive Pell Grants each year, according to the National College Attainment Network.

If the funding gap remains unaddressed, the government may need to cut program costs. That could mean reducing the number of students or programs that are Pell-eligible, lowering the amount of Pell dollars that individuals can receive — or both, says Michele Zampini, senior director of college affordability at The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS).

Students’ financial aid packages could be impacted as early as the 2025-26 academic year, and effects could worsen each year that the shortfall continues, Zampini says.

Even in the Pell Grant’s current state, many students still face an affordability gap between the amount of financial aid they receive and the total price tag of their education. Regardless of your Pell eligibility or future government action, it’s always a good idea to consider additional strategies to pay for college.

How Pell Grant funding works — and why it’s short

The Pell has a complex funding model, Zampini explains. Like Social Security or Medicare, it’s an “entitlement program,” which means all students who are eligible for the Pell Grant receive it. Unlike Social Security or Medicare, it doesn’t rely solely on automatic mandatory funding; instead, the Pell is funded by a mix of mandatory and discretionary funding. Congress must appropriate discretionary funding annually, based on enrollment projections for the following year.

This can lead to a funding gap if a greater number of Pell-eligible students enroll than expected, Zampini says. College enrollment in the current 2024-25 year grew by nearly five percent from the year before, and FAFSA formula changes led to the number of Pell-eligible students increasing by 12.6%, according to an Urban Institute study.

To ensure the Pell is well-funded and stable for the long haul, more than 100 college access organizations are asking lawmakers to move it to a fully mandatory spending model.

However, it’s not clear how the current Trump administration and Republican-majority Congress will respond. Already, President Donald Trump has promised to overhaul federal student lending, close the Education Department and limit Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

“I don’t see this administration or this Congress moving Pell to mandatory spending. I think that puts Pell at risk, puts students at risk and ultimately puts the educational aspirations of low-income students into question,” says Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president of Ed Trust, an organization that works to dismantle racial and economic barriers to education access.

The Pell Grant last faced a shortfall in 2011, which prompted Congress to cut program costs by more than $50 billion over the following decade, according to TICAS. As a result, students could no longer use Pell funds for summer courses, the lifetime Pell limit shrank from 18 semesters to 12 semesters and millions of students immediately lost their Pell eligibility.

Other ways to pay for college

The Pell Grant is a valuable way to pay for college, but it doesn’t have to be your only source of funding. Maximize your financial aid package with these additional options.

Submit the FAFSA

The first step in any financial aid journey: file your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year.

In addition to unlocking the Pell Grant, the FAFSA can also open the door to work-study opportunities, flexible federal student loans, and even some private and state-based scholarships and grants.

Look for state-based grants

Most states offer financial aid in the form of grants, scholarships and free or reduced tuition programs at public institutions. If there’s a Pell shortage, some states may step up their aid to fill in the funding gaps for students. State financial aid programs are run independently of the federal government, so they make their own budgetary decisions, Zampini says.

To access state aid, submit the FAFSA, then check if your state has a supplemental financial aid application on the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators’ state aid database.

Apply for scholarships

Search for scholarships with databases like the Labor Department’s CareerOneStop, contact local religious and community organizations and reach out to your college’s financial aid office for ideas.

To maximize your scholarship awards, you must remain diligent and plan ahead. In many cases, scholarships require students to reapply every year, Del Pilar says.

Negotiate with your college’s financial aid office

Try to negotiate with college financial aid officers, especially if you have special circumstances during the year you’re applying to college, Del Pilar suggests. Ask about your eligibility for grants and additional aid. You may need to explain your family’s financial situation and provide documentation.

Choose an affordable school

Choosing an affordable school can go a long way toward a degree that doesn’t saddle you with long-term student debt. Consider community colleges and in-state public schools to save thousands of dollars on tuition, compared with private or out-of-state colleges.

Borrow only what you need — and prioritize federal over private loans

Lastly, if you have any funding gaps in your college education that you can’t cover with “gift aid” (like grants, scholarship and work-study), you may need to turn to student loans.

Take out the maximum amount you can in federal student loans before turning to private student loans. Federal loans offer benefits that most private loans don’t, like income-driven repayment plans, student loan forgiveness options and a range of options to pause or reduce payments if you face financial difficulties in the future.

Most families don’t have the time to deeply research child care programs, because they just need to find a place they can afford that is nearby and accepting new children, said Maureen Reid, chief program officer at Denver’s Early Childhood Council.

RELATED: With child care costing $25,000 a year, how are Denver parents affording families?

The council mostly works with providers on quality improvement, but does have some resources to help parents find care. Its goal is to make sure that every child care option offers safe, high-quality care, taking the responsibility of vetting a provider off families’ plates, Reid said.

State licensing partially does that, because every provider must follow safety regulations — though informal providers also have a role in filling gaps and need more resources, she said.

“If any center is licensed, that’s a testament to (its) health and safety,” Reid said.

That said, if parents do have multiple options, Colorado has several tools to help them find the best one, Reid said. Families can call 211 or an agency such as the Early Childhood Council for guidance, or they can look up and compare programs online.

Colorado Shines, run by the state’s Department of Early Childhood, allows parents to filter child care programs by:

• Age of children served
• Languages spoken
• Whether they participate in Head Start
• Type of setting, such as a center or home-based program
• Distance from a particular location
• Whether they accept kids covered by the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, which pays part of the cost of care for low-income families
• Quality rating, ranging from one to five

Programs in levels one or two — the lowest — are licensed, meaning they have to comply with state regulations, but may not have gone through the process of proving they meet quality standards.

Those at level three or higher are graded based on:

• How much education staff have, and how much ongoing professional development they receive
• How well the program engages and communicates with families
• Whether management uses sound business practices and maintains a respectful work environment
• Whether the program uses an evidence-based curriculum
• Staff-to-child ratios
• If the program regularly assesses children’s development
• If each classroom performs well on a standardized observation

All programs with a rating are in “good standing” with the state, though that doesn’t necessarily mean they have completely clean records. A program with a level-five rating could be on probation for safety violations and still keep that rating, if the state believes it is working to fix its problems.

RELATED: Soaring costs could force 64% cut in Colorado child care program

The state’s website does allow parents to look up whether a provider has faced any penalties or significant complaints recently, and to review the results of inspections.

Most programs don’t have major problems, regardless of their rating.

Of nine programs with a level-five rating within five miles of the Colorado Capitol, only one had a founded complaint in the last three years, and none had a recent child abuse investigation.

Most of the lowest-ranked programs had similarly clean records, though seven out of 54 programs at level one within that radius had a recent founded complaint or investigation.

The ratings can be a good place to start if parents want to narrow down their options, but some programs rank lower not because they do a poor job, but because they take a different approach, Reid said.

For example, Montessori programs often use different materials than other types of classrooms, so a program may not rank highly, even if it does a good job within that framework, she said. (Montessori programs are less structured than some types of early childhood education and let children direct their own learning.)

“There are things about a level-five center that may not be for everyone,” she said.

Tools and ratings aren’t a substitute for visiting a program, Reid said. The Denver Early Childhood Council, Colorado Shines and ChildCare.gov offer checklists for parents to assess safety and how child-centered a provider is.

Families also need to consider the intangible factor of whether they feel at home and can see themselves and their children as part of a particular community, Reid said.

“It really is extremely personal,” she said. “You can look at all these things on paper… and when you visit, that will tip the scale for a lot of people.”

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Denver District Court, comes as hundreds of foreign students across the country — some who have been linked to pro-Palestine activism — are facing deportation and visa revocation by the Trump administration.

The complaint names as defendants Chief Jason Mollendor and six other members of the Auraria Campus Police Department involved in last year’s arrests on the campus, home to the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and Community College of Denver.

“The truth is that the arrests on April 26, 2024, were never about enforcing campus policies, they were about punishing protesters for their views,” the lawsuit, brought by the Rathod Mohamedbhai law firm, states.

Devra Ashby, director of communications and marketing for Auraria Higher Education Center, said campus officials had not yet been served with the lawsuit Wednesday.

“We are committed to following the appropriate legal processes and will respond through the proper legal channels should we receive notice,” Ashby said.

The plaintiffs — an MSU Denver professor, two CU Denver faculty members, two CU Denver students and three Colorado residents — all either had their charges dismissed by the Denver City Attorney’s Office or entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the City Attorney’s Office that led to the dismissal of their charges.

“I was taught by this university that we are supposed to raise our voices when injustices are happening,” said plaintiff Sarah Napier, 25, a CU Boulder graduate who joined the protest to advocate for the CU system to divest from Israel.

“I took many classes on civil disobedience at CU and felt called by my personal beliefs that I should be there protesting the university’s complicity in genocide,” she said. “They’re not upholding what they’re teaching. They can’t be educating students and then silencing the truth.”

Encampment met with arrests

On April 25, several hundred pro-Palestine demonstrators established an encampment on the grassy lawn of Auraria’s Tivoli Quad. The Denver protest, which included tents and demonstrators peacefully assembling, was born out of a wave of student activism and college encampments across the country protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.

Demonstrators pledged to stay until University of Colorado officials divested from activities and funding related to Israel.

“Rather than respecting the constitutional rights of those gathered, law enforcement, including officers from the Denver Police Department and the Auraria Campus Police Department, abrogated well-established First Amendment rights through intimidation and mass arrests,” the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, police justified the arrests of students, faculty and other demonstrators as necessary to enforce Auraria’s camping ban that prohibits tents — a policy the plaintiffs’ attorneys said was enacted in 2004 following a protest against the Iraq War in which students set up tents on campus.

The timing of the policy indicated it was created “not as a neutral regulation, but as a tool to restrict expressive conduct and limit speech on campus,” the lawsuit states.

On April 26, Skip Spear, general counsel and chief administrative officer for Auraria Higher Education Center, told several protesters their tents violated campus policy and they needed to leave, the lawsuit alleges.

“It was a peaceful protest,” Napier said. “We were just there with signs and tents. Students were still able to go to classes. It wasn’t disrupting the normal flow of the university.”

The lawsuit alleges Spear did not tell all of the gathered protesters that they needed to leave, nor did he say that they could continue to demonstrate if they removed the tents. Spear then contacted Chief Mollendor, who declared the protest “unlawful” and deployed law enforcement, according to the lawsuit.

The eight plaintiffs, in their lawsuit, contend the Auraria demonstrators did not violate laws or campus policy, other than a few unidentified protesters who set up tents.

“By refusing to allow protesters to move away from the tents and continue their protest, Chief Mollendor made clear that he was there to shut down the protest rather than simply ensure the removal of tents,” the lawsuit states.

Mollendor issued a dispersal warning that failure to leave could result in arrest, the lawsuit said. That order was unlawful, the plaintiffs’ attorneys argue, because “it failed to instruct demonstrators to remove the tents, instead broadly prohibiting all speech on Auraria Campus.”

The lawsuit said officers began dismantling tents and arresting seated protesters who had linked arms. Seven out of the eight plaintiffs were charged with trespass and failure to obey a lawful order, while one protester, CU Denver lecturer Joie Ha, was charged with interference and failure to obey a lawful order.

Denver and Auraria police arrested around 40 people for trespassing and resisting arrest on April 26.

Despite the tents being removed at that time — the only alleged policy violation — the lawsuit said police continued arresting people.

“Once the tents were removed, the protest was entirely lawful and protected under the First Amendment,” the lawsuit states. “The decision to proceed with arrests after the fact demonstrates that the objective was to suppress the protest and retaliate against the protesters.”

The lawsuit noted that a week after the arrests, Denver police Chief Ron Thomas said during a Citizen Oversight Board meeting that he refused to aid in clearing the encampment because there was “no legal way” to do it unless the protest “truly does something that creates an unlawful assembly” and that they weren’t “going to go in and sweep out this peaceful protest just because they’re occupying a space on campus that you’d like to use for something else right now.”

The demonstrators re-occupied the Tivoli Quad after the arrests and stayed 23 days until the campus ordered the dispersal of the encampment.

“This is democracy in action”

Plaintiff Alex Boodrookas, an MSU Denver professor who teaches Middle Eastern history, said he joined the protesters after walking past the encampment on his way back from a faculty meeting and seeing riot police.

“The police presence was stunning,” Boodrookas said. “There were police cars everywhere, fully armored, and armed police and this was a peaceful protest. The dangerous thing that day was the presence of the police. Other than that, the protesters were holding talks and craft circles.”

Attorney Azra Taslimi, who is representing the plaintiffs, said it’s an important time to bring this lawsuit forward amid the federal government’s targeting of student activists. 

“It’s a dangerous message to send out to the public at large that there is some speech that is going to be protected and some that when it challenges government, what our country’s policies are, that is going to be met with police oppression,” Taslimi said. “We are seeing a dangerous unraveling of the rule of law across the country.”

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. State Department already had revoked 300 or more visas from international students across the country as the Trump administration largely targets foreign-born students who have objected to Israel’s war in Gaza.

In Colorado, the Trump administration has revoked at least 22 international students’ visas, including 10 students at Colorado State University in Fort Collins and 12 students across the University of Colorado’s four campuses. It’s unclear why these students — whose identities and countries of origin have not been released — were targeted.

“Student protests are not a disruption of education, they are a reflection of it,” Taslimi said. “This is what civic engagement looks like. This is democracy in action.”

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 10 students at Colorado State University in Fort Collins and 12 students across the University of Colorado’s four campuses had their student visas revoked by the federal government amid the Trump administration’s nationwide crackdown on foreign students.

CU and CSU provided updated counts of visa revocations, but neither university has identified the students who lost their visas, said what countries they are from, or revealed whether federal officials provided any explanation.

The Trump administration has targeted students nationwide who had been involved with pro-Palestinian activism or speech, with a few high-profile detentions of students including Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was a leader of protests at Columbia University.

But more U.S. schools are seeing visas stripped from students with no known connection to protests. In some cases, past infractions such as traffic violations have been cited. Some colleges say the reasons remain unclear to them — and they are seeking answers.

The list of American colleges that have discovered students have had their legal status terminated includes Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA and Ohio State University.

Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but college leaders nationwide say the Trump administration has been quietly terminating students’ legal residency status with little notice to students or schools. That marks a shift from past practice and leaves students vulnerable to detention and deportation.

College officials worry the new approach will keep foreigners from wanting to study in the U.S. Some students targeted across the country in recent weeks have had no clear link to political activism. Some have been ordered to leave over misdemeanor crimes or traffic infractions.

Kathleen Fairfax, CSU’s vice provost for international affairs, wrote online that the Fort Collins institution has not been contacted by nor asked to provide student information to the U.S. Department of State or the Department of Homeland Security.

“We are working proactively with the students to help them connect with appropriate legal resources and understand their options,” Fairfax wrote on a CSU webpage providing information to international students. “CSU is providing this support based on students’ personal decisions.”

NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, estimated there are more than 10,000 international students in Colorado who contribute more than $400 million to the economy and support nearly 4,000 jobs.

CU Boulder’s International Student and Scholar Services office posted an update Tuesday on its website saying the office is regularly accessing federal immigration databases for changes to students’ visa records and will notify any impacted students. The office said students should not contact it to ask if their visa or immigration status has been revoked or terminated.

Visa holders who find their visas or status revoked or terminated and have not been contacted by CU’s International Student and Scholar Services are encouraged to immediately contact the office and their national embassy. They can also contact the Immigration Clinic at the CU Boulder Law School.

“CU Boulder values international students and scholars and their contributions to the campus’s academic and research endeavors, and ISSS is committed to supporting international students, scholars and their dependents,” the webpage reads.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.

The legislature’s Joint Budget Committee is sponsoring a bill that, if approved, will transfer $2 million from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to help fund the Early Intervention Colorado program for the remainder of the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The program, part of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, is also set to receive $16.5 million from the state’s general fund to prevent cuts under the proposed budget for the next fiscal year. The 2025-26 budget cleared the state Senate last week and is now working its way through the House.

“Current early intervention services will continue unchanged as a result of the JBC’s action to identify additional funding for the program,” said Carolyn Romero, spokeswoman for the Department of Early Childhood.

“There will be no immediate impacts on early intervention services and CDEC remains focused on long-term sustainability while minimizing impacts on families and providers,” she said in a statement.

The Early Intervention program announced in February that it planned to make cuts because of a $4 million shortfall, including imposing a four-hour-a-month cap on services, such as physical and occupational therapy to children.

Currently, there’s no limit on the number of hours of service a child can receive. The proposed reduction in services was among a host of “emergency cost containment measures” the agency announced.

The Early Intervention program serves babies and children up to age 3 with developmental delays and disabilities. An average of 11,178 children receive services through the program each month.

Officials with the Department of Early Childhood have said the program is facing a shortfall because caseloads increased, stimulus funding is running out and fewer costs are being covered by Medicaid.

About $1 million of the $4 million shortfall goes to children on Medicaid who receive care, such as from dietitians, that can’t be billed to the federal program.

The agency’s decision to reduce services provided under the Early Intervention program caused uproar among families and providers and led the Joint Budget Committee to call an emergency hearing in February.

Members of the committee have repeatedly expressed frustration with the Department of Early Childhood regarding the funding debacle.

“The failures to communicate in this from the beginning have been significant,” said Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat, during a March 19 hearing.

Bridges, who chairs the committee, said during that hearing that he found out about the potential Early Intervention cuts from his child’s physical therapist — not the Department of Early Childhood.

At the March 19 hearing, a Joint Budget Committee staffer told members that the Early Intervention program needs more money for the 2025-26 fiscal year than the $3.5 million increase initially expected from the state’s general fund.

Rising caseloads coupled with both the $4 million shortfall and the loss of $6.4 million in federal money means the Early Intervention program needs about $16.5 million to prevent cuts during the 2025-26 fiscal year, the staff member told the committee.

“The Department of Early Childhood really missed the boat on this one,” Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, said during the hearing. “The fact that they came in and only asked for $3.5 million more of (the) general fund is extremely disappointing.”

She called the agency’s actions “totally irresponsible.”

“I’m just really ticked off that we left these families with these children in this type of situation and put them through all of the trauma and drama,” Kirkmeyer added.

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.