FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 19, 2026
DENVER, CO – Tonight, the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education voted on employee healthcare vendors for the 2026- 2027 school year. In a 6 to 1 vote, the Board approved a one-year extension of its contracts with its current providers, Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealthcare, and Motiv Healthcare, and directed the district to redo the healthcare Request for Proposal (RFP) process in Fall 2026. The following statement can be attributed to Rob Gould, special education teacher and president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA):
“Thousands of educators have fiercely advocated to maintain the offering of Kaiser Permanente as a healthcare provider for the 2026–2027 school year. For 52 years, DPS staff and families have built long-standing and trusting relationships with their health providers through the district’s partnership with Kaiser.
“We’d like to thank DPS Board Members, Hunter, Torres, De LaRosa, Youngquist, Sia, and Klein-Molk for listening to our collective call for transparency, continuity in care, and educator voice in the decision-making process. We appreciate their public acknowledgement of the need for meaningful staff involvement in this process. They recognized that the people who are most impacted by this decision are the thousands of educators who work closest to students every day. We sincerely hope the district administration listens to their call as a new process moves forward.
“Choosing a healthcare provider is a deeply personal decision. It requires time, clarity, and transparency to make informed choices about our own care and the well-being of our families. This vote gives educators the time they need to plan thoughtfully for the next school year, rather than being forced into rushed decisions that could disrupt ongoing care.
“This situation has made clear that the district’s healthcare consultant, Moreton, has been underbudgeting and poorly projecting healthcare costs for years. This has contributed to a deficit that the district has chosen to pass onto employees through repeated premium increases. With DPS Administration now directed to redo the Request for Proposal process, educators remain committed to working in partnership with the district to ensure the new process is transparent and centered on employees’ healthcare needs and affordability. “
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FOR INQUIRIES:
Please contact Angelina Reed
Email: AReed@coloradoea.org
Cell: 720-663-7618
