AMAZING Hiring Resource NOW AVAILABLE to Plus & Pro Members!!

ECEA is excited to introduce CareerPlug, a user-friendly hiring platform built to help child care providers attract and hire great talent—without the stress. With customizable job templates, built-in screening tools, and automated workflows, CareerPlug is designed to save you time, money, and help you make better hires faster.

Do you spend more than $720-948 in a year on job boards?  If you do THIS BENEFIT WILL SAVE YOU MONEY!!

Pro level benefit:  $60 additional a month per site with an annual commitment

Plus level benefit:  $70 additional a month per site with an annual commitment

What you get:

*Job templates that you can use or modify so that you can post a job in 3 clicks

*Postings on TEN job Boards

*Automated Prescreening of Applicants

*The ability to rate your applicants so you can see immediately who to move forward with

*Interview automation

*Screening/rating of potential employees

*Workflows for your new employees THAT INCLUDE STATE FORMS that they fill out and save in your system!!

This system is going to save you a TREMENDOUS amount of TIME & MONEY!!

Without ECEA, directly from CareerPlug it would cost you $200 a month and you would have to build all forms, job descriptions, etc. from scratch.  This is just another way that ECEA says, "Membership Matters!"

                                                  

State Ballot Initiative that is Seeking to get Tax Payers to Pay Between $400-600 MILLION a year in additional direct taxes to pay for child care in CO for those that need it.  

The workforce committee saw a presentation yesterday that included these state data points for the foundations that are working on the ballot initiative:

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They haven't determined WHO gets the money.They are hoping for other ways to "spin the numbers".  The meeting recording should be posted here sometime next week by the state:  https://www.earlychildhoodcolorado.org/workforce-development-subcommittee   The ballot initiative has to pass in order for pay increases to go into effect.  To be fully transparent:  Our members have GRAVE CONCERNS about this initiative!  Come to a ECEA Member Matters Meetup to discuss more in depth!

Some of the UPK Information has BAD Information---Ratios

As a reminder, UPK ratios for this school year remain at 1:12.  If you want to do smaller ratios you can but the requirement remains at 1:12 for this year! 

Why a Special Session is Likely in CO--The State Shortfall is $1B in Tax Revenue (YOUR MONEY) That They are Losing Due to Excessive Government Spending.  The Special Session Enables them to find a way to try and KEEP Your Money OR Cut Services. 

The media says that OBBB (the Federal bill titled One Big Beautiful Bill) will undermine low income families and won't tax the rich.  Here are the facts from the Ways & Means Commitee:

Share the flyer with your families.  Tell them this is a Thank You for being in care with you as an ECEA member!  We hope to see you and your staff there as well!

CO Pyramid-Starting August 19th !  (NEW SCHEDULE)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WMEm4J2k89ebKdFIw_glz4caW6yqAkBV/view?usp=sharing 

Email Dawn to let me know how many staff you plan to have attend.  $350 each.  [email protected] 

 https://earlymilestones.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/KindergartenReadinessBrief_July2025_designed.docx.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery 

In summary:  CO Standards changed because rating tools changed their benchmarks.  That could in part account for the decrease in scores.  Ultimately, K Readiness assessments in CO do not give a complete picture of whether children are ready for school or not.  ECEA notes that there is also no comparison to be derived that shows the scores of UPK students that attended in community based settings versus school districts.  We've already elevated that recommendation to the Governor's officce.  We cannot show how we excel if we cannot show outcomes!

DOL solicits input on ways to improve small employer retirement plans. On July 28, the Department of Labor (DOL) “announced that its Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA] is soliciting public input on how to help smaller employers that want to offer retirement benefits choose a high-quality, low-cost option known as a pooled employer plan [PEP].”

The request for information “provides interpretive guidance about an employer’s responsibilities when joining a PEP and offers advice on selecting a plan.” More information is available here.

CCCAP Stacking Tip:  Make sure families have their kids in care with you for 5 hours and one minute or more a day so that you get the full day rate!  It's looking like the Federal CCDF Rules will LIKELY be rescinded.  The state has submitted a waiver to defer impleemntation of the rule set so that if approved they can move toward getting counties off of CCCAP freezes sooner than what it may take waiting for Federal announcements on the rule package.  At that point, (wiaver or rule rescintion) counties can start the process of moving to a wait list and then moving off of that wait list.  THIS WILL TAKE TIME.  In fact, we will ask you, when the time is right, to advocate with your local county commissioners to go to a waitlist and slowly start approving families for CCCAP funding support.  The exception?  Denver and Larimer counties are overspent.  They will not be able to move to a waitlist status anytime soon.  More details to come as we get them1

These rules are going to the RAC meeting next.  Let us know if you have concerns!  Here is what will be shared there:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z31FCPOkXPMEPw34E64JEox35OZ2Mjdz/view?usp=drive_link 

• Rules Advisory Council (RAC) Meeting (ZOOM Link)
  • Date: Thursday, August 14, 2025
  • Time: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
  • Topic(s):
    • Proposed permanent rules to support fund stacking for children dually enrolled in UPK and CCCAP.
    • Informational Presentation on the Division of Early Learning, Licensing, and Administration’s (DELLA) Child Care Centers and Outdoor Nature-Based Preschool Program’s (ONB) rules.
    • Informational Presentation on the second phase of implementing HB24-1223 and CCDF changes for CCCAP.
    • Finalization of the amendments to the RAC Bylaws.

Look in the Library on our members only website to find this free resource (and more):