I’m pretty partial (OK, I’m very partial) to the School Choice for Kids website (or Opcion Escolar Para Ninos, en espanol) as an invaluable source of information for parents in Colorado who want to exercise their educational options. But it’s not the only source out there.

Denver’s Piton Foundation and 9 News have teamed up to create the Colorado School Choice / Escuela Para Mis Hijos site. The site provides some different information than is available on SCFK — with special emphases on schools’ academic growth ratings and student demographics.

Click the play button below (or follow this link) to listen to my Education Policy Center friend Pam Benigno discuss the newer site with Van Schoales of the Piton Foundation on an informative 18-minute iVoices podcast:

Besides the site itself, Pam and Van talk about the need for parents to have access to the best information on schools generally. In 2007 Pam fought to ensure that schools would still have to give paper copies of the School Accountability Reports (SARs) to all parents.

Eventually the SARs were phased out and replaced, and today there is no requirement for parents to get paper copies of reports. But that’s probably just an example why the kind of information provided on sites like School Choice for Kids and Colorado School Choice will be needed for the foreseeable future.