DENVER — Right now, a statewide program that helps families pay for childcare is short roughly $65 million. This means 18 counties are freezing enrollment and families are making incredibly difficult choices since they can’t afford childcare.
“There was a woman who applied and got on the freeze list,” Sarah Dawson with the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program said. “She lost her job, and so now she's doing GrubHub with her 2-year-old in the back all day.”
Dawson said historically they are only able to serve around 9% of the kids who need help because of funding. That translates to roughly 29,000 kids.
Then a series of issues popped up. Stimulus funding is wrapping up this year.
The program was flagged for not reimbursing daycare and childcare providers enough. The program is currently making those changes to pay providers more, so it’s more comparable to what families who privately pay for tuition give. That could cost an additional $20.4 million.
Under the Biden administration, there were new federal rules announced last year that Dawson said are well meaning, but came with consequences.
“They were really aiming to stabilize the child care sector and start to match the program payments to private pay payments,” Dawson said. “The problem is it didn't come with any money.”
The idea is to pay a provider, based on enrollment, versus how many days a child attends that care center. That could cost an additional $33 million.
The family co-payment plan used to cap out at 10% of a family’s income, but the new rules require that to go down to 7%. That will cost around $10 million a year.
Dawson said that means, they went from spending around $6,000 a kid to as much as $18,000 a kid by next October. Right now, Dawson said they have no choice but to freeze their programs and downsize enrollment.
“We've seen childcare is a typically bipartisan issue, right?” Dawson said. “It also is really needed for the economy. If folks can't go to work because they don't have affordable childcare. So, I think that we are still hopeful that there could be some movement there.”
It’s also why they’re meeting with different county and city leaders to try and appeal to the federal government together for more support.
The ask comes at a tough time with a state budget that needs to be slashed and a federal government that’s downsizing.
"We're not stopping fighting to get the funding that we need and to serve the families that are eligible and need this help."
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