ECEA's Member ONLY Newsletter   New White Paper: The Case for Market-Based Child Care Reform We are the workforce behind the workforce, and ECEA just put that truth in writing. This month we released a new white paper, The Case for Market-Based Child Care Reform: A Strategic Roadmap for Colorado. It makes the argument so many of you live every day: Colorado does not have a child care demand pr...

  FEDERAL POLICY UPDATE  ·  WHAT THE 2025–26 CHANGES MEAN FOR YOUR BUSINESS Is this a crisis or is it an opportunity? Cutting through the national headlines: the core child care programs weren't cut; they were funded and nudged up, and a new tax law put the biggest child care benefits for families and employers in nearly 40 years on the table. Here's what actually happened since January 2025, ...

New funding is coming, statewide and locally. Whether it comes from a progressive tax, a sales tax, a lodging tax, or a special district, the dollars can strengthen private programs or quietly replace them. The difference is design. Before ECEA supports any funding initiative, we look for a specific set of requirements to be built in, and they matter in a specific order: level the playing fiel...