Experts and advocates tackle the crisis at the NoCo Child Care Summit

Child care providers, activists, experts and policymakers from Boulder, Weld and Larimer counties gathered last month at the Longmont Museum for the first-ever Northern Colorado Child Care Innovation Summit. The goal of the event was to connect resources across county boundaries to share insights and collaborate to address the lack of available and affordable child care options.

“There are not enough places to get child care, not enough affordable options for families, and our child care workforce is in a tough spot,” said Kaycee Headrick, director of the Early Childhood Council of Boulder County. “We need to create a space to bring multiple industries and elected officials together to talk not just about problems but also about solutions.

“We are in a crisis.”

“Children shouldn’t be a luxury”

The theme of the day was: “Everyone depends on someone who needs child care.” Speakers drew attention to the difficulties families have accessing care and financing.

The availability of care, particularly for infants and toddlers, is sparse in northern Colorado: 18.1% of Boulder County infants who need care are able to receive it, according to members of the three early childhood education councils present at the summit.

Even if they can find it, the cost makes the care unaffordable for many parents. The average cost of child care in Boulder County is 25% higher than neighboring counties, and many families pay significantly more than average, according to several speakers. The annual cost of child care in Boulder County is equivalent to one year of tuition at a public college.

Grants are available, but many families eligible to use the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) are unable to do so because funding has been frozen. Funding for the program is insufficient: American Rescue Plan Act funds have supported the program since 2021, but those funds expired last month. Data shared at the summit showed that 3,281 children in Boulder County are eligible for CCAP and only 629 children currently have access to the program.

At the summit, nationally recognized child and family policy expert Elliott Haspel spoke about how the cost of child care discourages people from starting a family.

“There are far too many families in these counties and in every county in America whose decisions about how many children they want to have are not driven by their wishes and not by whether they can have those children,” Haspel said. “The crucial question is: ‘Can I find and afford childcare?’

“Children should not be a luxury item.”

More support needed

The event featured more than 25 speakers from over 15 organizations working to address the child care crisis. Much of their work relies on private donations, grants, tax credits and volunteer work.

According to one study, the U.S. spends about $500 per child on care each year New York Times Report, most of them about families below the poverty line. That’s the lowest among the 15 countries named in the report, including Israel ($3,327, or 6.7 times U.S. spending per child), Chile ($8,450, or 17 times), Slovenia ( $11,664 or 23 times) and leader Norway ($29,726 or 59.5 times). ).

“It’s incomprehensible,” Christina Taylor, CEO of the Early Childhood Council of Larimer County, said in response to an audience question about federal funding for child care.

“We need to fundamentally reposition our thinking about child care,” Haspel added, “as a social issue and not as a question of personal responsibility.”

Lyle Smith of NoCo Works, a regional coalition focused on workforce development, spoke about the organization’s work to eliminate the three major barriers that prevent people from finding and keeping jobs – child care, housing and transportation. The work of the Essential Infrastructure Committee at NoCo Works focuses on answering the question: “How can we help the community think about child care and housing as essential infrastructure?”

Smith suggested more funding would be available if the public could view child care as essential.

That’s one step

Colorado recently began responding to the child care crisis with more public resources. In 2022, the state established the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, which helped make the Universal Pre-K program possible for families across Colorado and provide 15 hours of state-funded child care per week to children before they enter kindergarten.

During the summit’s legislative panel, Rep. Lorena Garcia discussed HB24-1312. The law provides a tax credit for workers in the care industry to support teachers in early childhood education.

In the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD), the P-TEACH program has partnered with the University of Colorado Denver to offer a nationally recognized early childhood educator training program, providing young people with a more accessible path to a degree .

In a presentation on regional solutions, educator and researcher Tim Waters highlighted the Early Childhood Alliance’s work to establish a special early childhood district in the Boulder Valley School District and SVVSD. This will be the group’s second attempt to bring the measure to the vote after Boulder County commissioners voted against the proposal in 2023.

From the perspective of event participants, more legislation and advocacy is needed to increase public funding. But given Colorado’s current budget deficit, the industry must continue to innovate and expand on the ideas presented at the event, speakers said.

“Today is important, but it’s a step,” said Headrick of Boulder County. “The challenge now will be how do we move this forward? How can we take advantage of the momentum we’ve talked about here today and keep the conversation going?”

Related: Read more about increasing private equity investment in child care in Colorado