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Colorado’s child care industry gets $100 million

By Hannah Metzger 06/03/2022 | updated 3 years ago

Around $100 million will soon be invested into Colorado’s child care industry after Gov. Jared Polis approved the spending on Friday.

Beginning on July 1, Senate Bill 213 uses $50 million of economic recovery and relief money and another possible $50 million in federal funds to pay for staffing, training and expansion of child care facilities. 

On Friday, Polis also signed House Bill 1010, which creates a tax credit for early childhood educators to help them save money and encourage new providers to enter the field.

This comes as Colorado struggles through an acute child care shortage that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated.

“The pandemic exposed glaring gaps in our state’s child care system, and it’s hurting Colorado’s families and our economy,” Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, who sponsored SB-213, said. “Increasing our state’s child care capacity and helping more folks train for jobs in the child care field will allow us to provide critical support for working families across Colorado who have been doing their best to make sure their children have a safe place to learn and grow during the workday.”

In Colorado, an average family with two young children spends $28,600 – or 14% of their income – on child care annually, according to federal data. Single parents fare even worse, paying on average 49.5% of their income on infant child care at Colorado centers, according to a Child Care Aware of America report.

Some families can’t find child care at all. In Colorado, 51% of residents live in “child care deserts,” where there are more than three times as many children as there are licensed child care slots, according to Mile High United Way.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic closed around 7% of licensed child care centers in Colorado, providers only had the capacity to serve 62% of the state’s 246,000 kids under 6 whose parents both work, according to a report that cited 2019 figures. That meant a shortage of more than 90,000 child care slots statewide.

“Child care is one of the largest costs families have to deal with, and many of us juggle between multiple providers to find reliable care for our kids,” said Rep. Kerry Tipper, D-Lakewood, who sponsored SB-213. “Too many families cannot go back to work because they simply can’t afford child care or cannot find a provider to care for their children. This new law will boost our state’s child care capacity and builds on our work to make child care more affordable and available for families across our state.”

SB-213 puts $16 million towards opening new child care centers and expanding capacity at existing facilities. Another $10 million will create employer-based child care facilities at businesses, $15 million will fund a grant program to train and recruit staff and $7.5 million will train informal child care providers – such as babysitters, nannies and family members – on the best practices for teaching, fostering emotional development, nutrition and first aid.

The potential $50 million in federal funds would be used to implement the Child Care Sustainability Grant Program, offering licensed child care providers between $2,100 and $31,500 to spend on employee pay, benefits, training or hiring additional staff.

The bill earned bipartisan support in the legislature, passing the Senate unanimously and receiving 41-22 approval from the House. However, critics denounced the large investment, blaming this kind of state spending for rising costs of living.

 
Hannah Metzger

Reporter

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