Accomplishments
ECEA has been hard at work with legislators and administrators at the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. ECEA has been especially busy since 2024, securing legislative and regulatory wins that benefit licensed child care programs in Colorado.
2025
CDEC modified the Provider Agreements for UPK to protect Continuity of Care for families. School Districts MUST direct families to the state UPK site for initial registrations instead of using their own district sites to capture registrations. This is a protective factor for the mixed delivery system.
Advocated for legislative modifications to the Universal Preschool Program including:
Re-establishing ratios per licensing requirements
Re-establishing pre-payment for Universal Preschool Payments
Restoring direct enrollment abilities for families to enroll in preschool
Advocated for modifications to legislation:
ECEA testified, with members, to ensure that a buyer pool for child care owners remains in CO
ECEA testified, with members, to ensure that child care wait list fees were not capped and avoided major industry restrictions
- Supported the codification of Nurse Consultants
2024
- SB24-002 Local Government Property Tax Rebate - ECEA worked with legislators for the passage of a bill that would enable localities to determine that child care is an area of local concern and to provide city & county property tax rebates to child care businesses (with locally defined parameters).
- Board President served on the Rules Advisory Council
- Board President Scott Bright, resigned from ECEA, as he was elected to the Colorado State Senate
- Published an industry white paper, "The Breaking of an Industry"
- Provided a cost calculator to members and CDEC to be utilized in tracking Universal Preschool expenditures