Welcome to What’s Your Agenda?, Colorado Politics’ weekly publication of trade association priorities for the state’s 2025 legislative session. 

The Colorado Association of Family & Children’s Agencies is a non-profit membership group founded in 1980. 

“Colorado Association of Family & Children’s Agencies (CAFCA) is the alliance of agencies committed to providing quality care, leadership, and accountability in services to children, youth and families across Colorado,” said executive director Becky Miller Updike. “Member agencies represent a broad continuum of trauma-informed services for child welfare, juvenile justice, homeless youth, education, behavioral and mental health, residential care, foster care, placement stability and related services for children, youth and families who have experienced trauma, instability, risk and adversity. CAFCA agencies offer best practices and trauma-informed services that provide safety, stability and healing leading to better life-long outcomes.

In their own words, here are CAFCA’s top priority bills for this session. 

Preventing members from entering Medication Capitation

In 2006 Colorado state legislation created a carve out for the Residential Child Healthcare Waiver Program for Medicaid eligible children who have “complex behavioral support needs”.  The waiver was designed to provide access to services that support a child returning to home while in the custody of the county department of human or social services and providing out of home services, as necessary.  Those out of home services were defined as Residential Child Care Facilities (RCCFs).  This carve out in the HCPF budget has been successfully utilized to serve these children since 2006. Legislation to implement the elimination of the carve out is set to be implemented on July 1, 2025.

Experience has shown us over the past four years that Colorado does not have sufficient placements for and providers for high needs, complex children. Service providers for these children have been reduced by approximately 80% since 2001.  Without the carve out, service providers who treat Medicaid eligible children who have complex behavioral support needs will be ultimately eliminated. Eliminating this carve out for providers is the WRONG priority and will ultimately lead to more youth in detention, hospital emergency rooms and some youth will die.  Without treatment, these are the children who will also be in the community doing acts of violence.

Remedy: In March 2025, the JBC voted to approve legislation to delay the removal of the current carveout for a year to explore other solutions to protect bed capacity to serve high needs youth.

Protecting Medicaid provider rates of reimbursement 

A 2022 state-commissioned actuarial analysis revealed that residential child care facilities are receiving about half the actual cost of care to treat children and teens. Until care is more adequately funded, providers are unable to sustain without protecting at least their current rates of reimbursement.

Remedy: On March 26th, the JBC moved to pass along a 1.6% Medicaid provider rate increase.