Concerning a Strategic Action Plan to Address Infant and Family Child Care Home Shortages in Colorado
- Information Sheets
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Through the generous support of Governor Polis' office and the National Governors Association Prenatal to Three Grant, the Department of Human Services Office of Early Childhood, in partnership with the Early Childhood Leadership Commission, developed audience-specific information sheets on the Infant and Family Child Care Action Plan recommendations. Whether you are a family member of a young child, a provider, or a policymaker, we hope these information sheets will help you learn about the action plan and how to get involved.
View information for families in English here.
View information for families in Spanish here.
View information for providers in English here.
View information for providers in Spanish here.
View information for policymakers in English here.
View information for policymakers in Spanish here. - Social Media Toolkit
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Share the word about the action plan across your social media channels.
View the social media toolkit in English here.
View the social media toolkit in Spanish here. - Efforts to Address Report Recommendations
- Updated Data
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The following slides contain updated information about child care capacity and the number of family child care homes in Colorado, as of January, 2022. The slides also contain updated information from the Colorado Shines Brighter Needs Assessment.
Access updated data here. (As of January 2022)
Data Methodology
Infants (under 12 months) Estimated Licensed Capacity Change (2002 - 2022)
Methodology: Capacities are manipulated in r-studio to organize capacities by age (infant, toddler, preschool, preschool/mixed, and school age). “Centers” listed above has an accurate count of infant capacities and is a sum of the infant capacity in Child Care Center (CCC) service type providers. However, infant capacity (under 12 months) must be approximated for family child care homes. To mimic the methodology utilized in the original table created for the Colorado Senate Bill 19-063 Infant and Family Child Care Action Plan (see Appendix F, “Response to SB63 Analysis Request”, Figure 1), “Estimated FCCHs” listed above is found by:
- taking the number of Family Child Care Home 2 under 3 (FCCH3) and Infant-Toddler Family Child Care Home (ITH) and multiplying by 1.5
- taking the number of Family Child Care Home (FCCH), Large Family Child Care Home (LFCH), and Experienced Family Child Care Provider (ECCP) and multiplying by 1
- summing the results.
Data can be found here.
Licensed Capacity Change 2002 - 2022Methodology: Monthly reports available on the Colorado Information Marketplace (CIM) are used as the basis for this chart. The data can be found here. This data contains facilities information such as capacities to get the sum capacity for homes, centers, and total providers. The “center” capacity listed above is the sum of capacities from providers with the Child Care Center (CCC) service type. The “home” capacity listed above is the sum of providers with the service type Family Child Care Home (FCCH), Family Child Care Home 2 under 3 (FCCH3), Large Family Child Care Home (LFCH), Infant-Toddler Family Child Care Home (ITH), and Experienced Family Child Care Provider (ECCP). The separate home and center capacities were then added together to get the “total” listed above. This chart was first created for the Colorado Senate Bill 19-063 Infant and Family Child Care Action Plan (see Appendix F, “Response to SB63 Analysis Request”, Figure 4) and has been updated with Jan. 2022 information.
Background
Licensed infant care has been decreasing since 2010. Additionally, family child care homes, sometimes the only accessible care option for families, have been declining for years. The loss of family child care homes also means the loss of significant numbers of licensed infant care. Although the decrease in family child care homes is consistent with national trends, Colorado currently exceeds the national average in the rate of overall decline. The availability of safe, quality, licensed infant care is critical for working Colorado families. Additionally, family child care homes play an important role in our early childhood care and education system, offering families a smaller environment; the accommodation of nontraditional hours; and convenient, available licensed care where centers do not exist.
In response to these trends, Senate Bill 19-063 requires the Department of Human Services, in consultation with the Early Childhood Leadership Commission (ECLC) and various stakeholders, to study the reasons for the declining availability of family child care homes and infant child care. Following this study, a Strategic Action Plan with recommendations to address the shortages was drafted and submitted to the legislature on December 1, 2019.