ARVADA, Colo. — Childcare is one of the biggest challenges that stop women in Colorado from working, according to Colorado Department of Labor data shared with Denver7.
Tim Wonhof with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) said data from last year suggests childcare problems are at the highest point in the last 20 years. Women cite it as a reason they're not at work.
That could be availability, affordability and quality challenges.
"It is a very serious problem across the United States, and I would say more so with infant toddler care," Dr. Lisa Roy with the Colorado Department of Early Childhood said. "It's heartbreaking, because I went through it 40 years ago with my own children, and. And was fortunate enough to for United Way to assist with my child care until I could fully afford it, with three young children under the age of four, and a husband who was in working in education, so we didn't make a lot of money. "
For some perspective, CDLE said data shows women in the labor force declined at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as families were making tough choices.
It took through 2023 to recover. Right now, numbers are slightly down compared to 2023, but are still higher than pre-COVID rates.
The department also said women between 25 and 54 years old have a higher level of participation in the labor force in 2025 compared to 2024.
For the women who are still unable to join the work force, they repeatedly cite childcare as a major hurdle.
One program, designed to help lower-income families get into childcare, is going through some massive issues.
Right now, families trying to get into childcare assistance programs (CCAP) are dealing with freezes and wait lists.
That includes young moms like Rosario Chavez Avila.
She had her daughter, Yaremi, when she was 19 years old.
Yaremi is one now.
“I don't know what's gonna happen to her. I'm not gonna be able to control certain outcomes,” Rosario said.
Rosario is worried about the repercussions of Yaremi not having early intervention, and what it could mean for her daughter’s development.
“She's not going to be able to be at the same level as the kids that are already in EL or have already had the opportunity to be in a classroom,” Rosario said.
She’s had to put school and work on the back burner to attend to her daughter — something she knows is a part of motherhood.
Now she’s leaning on people like Lisa Steven, the founder and executive director of Hope House, who are able to offer programming for young moms. However, Steven’s organization is feeling the problems brought on by the CCAP freeze, too.
“CCAP is not accepting any new enrollment, and that means that 100 brand new teen moms to our programming next year will not be able to access childcare, which is terrible for our mission,” Steven said.
That’s because under the Biden administration, rules changed. States including Colorado were told they need to pay more to cover the actual cost of childcare.
“Great idea, but it didn't come with any federal funding, and so the funding got pushed down to the States. Our state last year had a $1.2 billion deficit, and they were unable to meet that federal mandate, which meant that counties simply wouldn't have the funds they needed to provide reimbursement at a higher rate. So they closed their roles to new entrants into CCAP,” Steven explained.
Denver7 reached out to the Office of Governor Jared Polis.
We were told in a statement from a spokesperson in part, “The Governor’s FY 2026-27 budget proposal is focused on shifting as much of our federal child care dollars as possible to cover CCCAP direct services to mitigate the impacts on children and families.”
The statement also said, “The state is focused on opposing unfunded mandates and doing all we can to protect access to these resources for families, while we wait for the administration to repeal these unfunded rules.”
