Action Alert: Two bills, one request.
The ask: Email your Senator TODAY regarding these two bills. As we approach the end of the legislative session, bills are moving quickly.
SB26-180- Bipartisan Innovative solution to fund low income child care
Right now, enterprise zones across Colorado hold approximately $10 billion in unspent funds, sitting in low-yield accounts, doing very little. A new bill offers an alternative to that for enterprise zones.
The bill creates a special purpose authority that allows enterprise zones, and a select group of similar entities, to move any denomination of those idle dollars into higher-yield investments. The earnings get split back to the participating entities, and a share of those profits goes toward funding child care for low-income families. Funding for child care would begin in year two of the fund.
No new taxes. No new programs built from scratch. Just smarter use of money that already exists.
We have watched an entire legislative session pass without a single meaningful alternative coming forward. Child care providers cannot keep absorbing the financial pressure. Families cannot keep paying the price of a broken system. This bill is not a perfect fix, but it is a real one, and it is on the table right now. It establishes new structures in the state that leaves a lot of questions that have to be answered. Let's answer them but let's move forward.
This bill just passed the Senate Finance committee by a vote of 5:4 and is on it's way to Appropriations but is undergoing serious challenges, which is why your Senator (and later your House Representative) needs to hear from you.
HB26-1282 - About to go to the Senate
HB26-1282 is being marketed as a bill to remove "duplicative regulations for school districts." What it actually does is carve out a separate set of rules for school-based child care, rules that private providers do not get.
Take the playground provision. The bill would allow school districts to submit a certification in place of a physical inspection. Specifically, they want to skip having their resilient surface material measured. That measurement exists to protect children. If a program is in compliance, the measurement is no problem. If it is not, the measurement matters. Either change this rule for everyone, or leave it alone. Writing a state law to benefit one type of provider is not a regulatory fix; it is preferential treatment.
The bill also allows school districts to waive certain inspections by showing in advance that they already meet or exceed the requirement through CDE oversight. That applies to square footage and staff training. On its surface, this sounds reasonable. But there is a serious problem with how the language is written.
The bill uses the phrase "substantially similar" to describe when CDE requirements can stand in for CDEC requirements. That phrase is not defined anywhere. A determination that CDE rules are "substantially similar" could be made administratively, with no public input and no recourse for private providers. That is a wide door, and it does not swing both ways.
The second problem is just as significant. CDEC regulations frequently exceed federal minimums. The federal government may require certain staff training, but CDEC determines how long that training must be and how often it must happen. Under this bill, a school-based program could satisfy the requirement with shorter or less frequent training and still be considered compliant. That is another financial advantage handed to school districts, on top of the ones they already have, while private programs across the state continue operating under the full standard.
Colorado's child care oversight system should be consistent. If a rule is worth having, it should apply to everyone who cares for children. Stop changing regulations through state law language!
ECEA Members Minute (click here)
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We sent out a members only update earlier this week. We've added the Adverse Action Guide and the CAMDRS Process Guide to our members only website so that you can download them anytime you need them!
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