Colorado program that helps “the most vulnerable families” with child care faces freezes amid rising costs

Low-income child care assistance in every Colorado county could soon face a near-complete freeze in new enrollment or, at best, a waitlist as state and local funding fails to keep up with new mandates, state budget documents show.

The Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, or CCCAP, helps low-income families afford child care so that parents can work or go to school. But recent state and federal changes, coupled with stimulus money drying up and tight budgets all around, has put it in dire straits.

State officials project that roughly 22% fewer families will be able to access the program without a sudden injection of cash, according to a budget brief by nonpartisan legislative staff. About 29,000 children receive day care through the program annually.

More than a dozen counties have already frozen enrollment into the child care program, including Denver, Jefferson, Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Broomfield counties. Officials expect every county in the state will either freeze enrollment completely — meaning no new children can enroll, and those who leave the program won’t be replaced — or establish a waitlist for applicants by the end of the state’s fiscal year on June 30.

Those actions mean thousands of children and families across the state won’t be able to access a program aimed at lower-income families trying to juggle work, education and childrearing. Traditional child care costs an average $20,000 per year in Colorado, according to a 2024 analysis by LendingTree.

“We were really serving the most vulnerable families in the community,” said Tara Noble, the program manager for Jefferson County. “(CCCAP is) really a work support. It’s there so people can go to work and go to school to improve their situations.”

Jefferson County limits access to families at 225% of the federal poverty line, or a household income limit of about $60,000 a year for a family of three. Other counties limit eligibility to 185% of the poverty line, or about $49,000 for a family of three. The limit is up to 300%, or $80,000, in the mountain counties with the highest cost of living.

But historically, the program has served only about 10% of those who qualify, according to a presentation last week by Denver Human Services to a City Council committee.

Jefferson County has 440 children across 330 households who were frozen out, after having more than 1,000 children on the waitlist through the summer, according to officials there. The waitlist means those children may be accepted into the program if a slot opens up.

In a statement, the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, which oversees the program, laid out a limited list of options: Ask for more money from the federal and state governments, and work with counties on how to limit expenses.

Otherwise, it expects the program’s cost to soar, from $6,000 per child as of last September to $18,000 per child by October 2026, spokesperson Carolyn Romero said.

“If additional funding is not identified, counties will continue to implement enrollment freezes or waitlists to adjust caseloads to match available resources,” Romero said in the statement. “Our priority remains ensuring that families who rely on CCCAP continue to receive support while working collaboratively to identify sustainable funding solutions.”

“An unfunded mandate”

Last year, the state enacted a new law increasing how much the program pays child care providers and expanding enrollment criteria so that more people can use it. That largely aligned the state with federal standards.

But since then, federal stimulus money has dried up, costs have increased and budgets have tightened. At the same time, total spending on the program has risen from about $113 million in the fiscal year that began in July 2018 to more than $177 million this fiscal year.

Most of that has been footed by the federal government, and state funding has remained relatively flat, at about $30 million.

Colorado Counties Inc., an advocacy organization for county governments, estimated that, collectively, counties have needed to spend between $17 million and $24 million more to meet the new state requirements just since July. And the cost to counties is set to rocket in coming years if counties shoot to serve the same number of families.

For Denver, the impact of the changes in state law will amount to an estimated $10 million per year, said Clint Woodruff, the chief financial officer for Denver Human Services, during the recent presentation — “with no additional funding in sight.”

The Denver program serves about 3,200 children per month. Woodruff expects it needs to get down to about 2,000 to break even. Accounting for children naturally dropping out of the program, he said, that would take about three years with a freeze in place.

“This was an unfunded mandate from the state, and without an increase in funding that could fill that gap, we’re really just stuck holding the bag here,” Adams County Commissioner Julie Duran Mullica said. “We really have our hands tied trying to help these kids.”

More than 700 children have been put on waitlists there, while about 2,200 are currently enrolled, she said. She expects the waitlist to increase, meaning more kids potentially cut out of early childhood care and more parents unable to work or build their skills.

Potential budget increase?

So far, Gov. Jared Polis has proposed a $10 million increase to the program for next year, which could help — if lawmakers can agree on where Polis found the money — but it also wouldn’t alleviate much financial pressure when spread across the state, Mullica said. The state is also requesting that counties foot a larger share of the program’s cost after a decrease during the pandemic.

In all, the department estimates the changes will increase costs by more than $60 million per year when implemented.

Jefferson County Commissioner Rachel Zenzinger, who helped write the state budget as a senator last year, says she hopes the state can both fill the gap this year and patch it before it grows. Without affordable child care, other challenges can spiral for families, she said. They might turn to lower-quality, lower-cost care, or they might have to turn to food assistance if they can’t work and afford child care, she said.

“If people can’t work, they can’t afford their rent or their mortgage — and they’re more likely to end up in a situation facing housing insecurity,” Zenzinger said. “There’s just this ripple effect.”