NoCo Child Care Summit unites providers, advocates to tackle growing crisis

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

“There aren't enough places to access child care, not enough affordable options for families, and our child care workforce is in dire straights,” said Kaycee Headrick, Director of the Early Childhood Council of Boulder County. “We need to create a space to bring multiple industries together and elected officials to not just talk about problems but to talk about the solutions.

"We are in a crisis."

‘Children should not be a luxury’

The theme of the day was "Everyone depends on someone who depends on child care." Presenters called attention to the difficulties that families have accessing and affording care.

The availability of care, specifically for infants and toddlers, is sparse in northern Colorado: 18.1% of the infants in Boulder County who need care can get it, according to members of the three early childhood councils who were present at the summit. 

Even if they can find it, the cost makes care inaccessible to many parents. The average cost of child care in Boulder County is 25% more than in neighboring counties and, according to several presenters, many families pay significantly more than the average. The yearly cost of child care in Boulder County is equivalent to one year of in-state college tuition. 

There are subsidies, but many families who are eligible to take advantage of the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) can’t because the funding has been frozen. Funding for the program is insufficient: American Rescue Plan Act money has supported the program since 2021, but those funds expired last month. Data shared at the summit showed that in Boulder County, there are 3,281 children eligible for CCAP and only 629 children who are currently able to access the program.

At the summit, nationally recognized child and family policy expert Elliott Haspel, a, spoke about how the price of childcare keeps people from starting families. 

"There are far too many families in these counties and in every county in America whose decision of how many children they want to have is not determined by their desires and not determined by the issue of whether they can have those children,” Haspel said. “It is determined by the question of, 'Can I find and afford childcare?' 

“Children should not be a luxury good."

More support required

The event featured more than25 speakers from over 15 organizations who are working to address the childcare crisis. Much of their work relies on private donations, grant funding, tax credits and volunteer labor.

The U.S. spends roughly $500 per child each year on care, according to a New York Times report, most of it on families below the poverty line. That is the lowest among 15 countries named in the report, including Israel ($3,327, or 6.7 times U.S. per-child spending), Chile ($8,450 or 17 times), Slovenia ($11,664 or 23 times) and leader Norway ($29,726 or 59.5 times).

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

“We need to fundamentally reposition how we think about childcare,” Haspel added, “as a social issue and not as an issue of personal responsibility.” 

Lyle Smith of NoCo Works, a regional coalition focused on workforce development, talked about the organization's work to address the three primary barriers to people getting and keeping employment — childcare, housing, and transportation. The work of the essential infrastructure committee at NoCo Works is focused on answering the question, “How do we help the community think about childcare and housing as essential infrastructure?”

Smith suggested that if the public could reimagine childcare as essential, more funding would be available. 

This is one step

Colorado has recently started to respond to the childcare crisis with more public funding. In 2022, the state established the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, which helped to facilitate the Universal Pre-K program for families across Colorado, offering 15 hours of state-funded childcare per week for kids before they enter kindergarten.

During the summits’ legislative panel, Representative Lorena Garcia discussed HB24-1312. The legislation provides a tax credit to employees in the care economy, which is intended to support teachers in early childhood education.

In St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD), the P-TEACH program has partnered with the University of Colorado Denver to offer a federally approved apprenticeship program to train and educate early childhood educators, offering young people a more accessible pathway toward a degree. 

In a presentation about regional solutions, educator and researcher Tim Waters presented the work of the Early Childhood Alliance to establish an early childhood special district across the Boulder Valley School District and SVVSD. This will be the group's second effort to get the measure on the ballot after Boulder County Commissioners voted against the proposal in 2023.

From the view of those at the event, more legislation and advocacy are necessary to increase public funding. But with the current Colorado budget deficit, the industry needs to continue to innovate and expand on the ideas shared at the event, speakers said. 

“Today is important, but it is one step,” said Boulder County’s Headrick. “Now the challenge is going to be how do we further this? How do we build off the momentum that we talked about here today and keep the conversation going?”

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