5/27/25 ECEA Members ONLY Update
Small Business Under Attack
It's not enough to just run a business. Small business is under attack by the Colorado state legislature year after year. With 650 bills introduced in ONE year alone, it is impossible for you as a business owner to keep an eye out for any that may potentially undermine your business!
How ECEA Helps
ECEA as a trade association watches ALL bills to see if there are any that would impact your child care business or small business altogether. We track bills, work with legislators to effect changes through legislative action, educate members on what is happening, and coordinate engagement at the best moments for impact. Your voice matters, and we make sure of it!
Lobbying Services
Usually, lobbying services cost $2,500 or more a month year-round. It's not feasible for a small business to do. That's one way that ECEA can help! Anything you hear about legislation from anyone comes through the frame of their perspective. ECEA's frame is Community-Based Child Care Businesses! Even CDEC is unable to provide you with that specific frame of reference for legislation!
Additional Benefits
- Cost Savings Calculator: See the potential savings that a membership has to offer due to our business partnerships. [https://www.coloradoecea.org/membership/membership-savings-calculator](https://www.coloradoecea.org/membership/membership-savings-calculator)
- Business Support Partnerships: Additional partnerships that offer you terrific business support!
- ECEA Insider's Edge: A quick video summary of the critical things you need to know in the industry. (Members see your direct update or find the links in the portal!)
- Colorado Pyramid Trainings: $350 in partnership with our ECEA Bright Foundation. Members get a guarantee if a staff member quits during the training they paid for. [https://memberportal.coloradoecea.org/ap/Events/Register/EqFb6O6TgC6C9](https://memberportal.coloradoecea.org/ap/Events/Register/EqFb6O6TgC6C9)
- AMAZING Products: Save Director's time and be more effective at their job! Watch for our launch to our members-only products.
- Rapid Assistance: Get rapid assistance when things go wrong with staff or licensing, etc. Our members know to reach out via email, and we come through! You won't be waiting for days to figure things out. We are there for our members.
- Supportive Industry: Connect with members via our portal, PRIVATE Facebook page, Let's Talk virtual sessions, or Virtual Statewide Directors Roundtable. We schedule in-person meetings when a need arises (e.g., June meeting re: pending Infant/Toddler Ballot Initiative). We work hard to engage you with the important things that are happening!
- Connecting to Families: ECEA is hosting an Early Childhood Trade Show and Family Fun Fair. We know that we have to speak to families to better educate them on community-based care and universal preschool. We are connecting with them through this tremendous event (make sure to come!) AND through our social media outreaches.
- ECEA Board: A board that cares for you and your business. They work proactively to support your needs through our organization.
- CO Shines Rating Points: Members can receive 2 points towards your CO Shines Rating by engaging in business consulting. Classroom consultations/coaching sessions are available for up to an additional 5 points from our credentialed coach for a fee.
ECEA Staff Support: Connect with ECEA staff for support
Peggy (help with staff and program processes, etc.)
Dawn (help with administrative and legislative advocacy needs)
National Advocates -- Failing to make the case of fiscal wins for families!
- $1,000 fund for every new baby to be put into a retirement investment account.
- Makes Permanent current tax cuts from 2017 - avoiding 22% massive tax increase
- Child Care Tax Credit Increases--Without new Congressional mandates the credit drops back to $1,000 per child. It is Currently $2,000 and the current proposal is to increase it to $2,500 per child.
- Funding for charter schools - Education Department Adds $60 Million in Grants for Charter Schools Although with a recent Supreme Court ruling it has created some complications on the matter for faith based programs.
- Head Start funding NOT being terminated.
- A "Penny" for your thoughts? Going away!--Saving the Federal Government $56 Million of your taxpayer dollars each year!
Buyer Beware: Don’t Learn the Hard Way About Childcare Business Insurance
Running a childcare is a meaningful responsibility and a valuable service. It’s also a business—and protecting that business with the right insurance is critical. Unfortunately, many childcare owners don’t realize the risks of switching insurance brokers or shopping for cheaper premiums until it’s too late.
If you're wondering whether you're getting the best coverage and premium, your first step should be to talk to your current insurance agent or broker. They know your business, your history, and your needs. That relationship is valuable.
Be cautious of other brokers who aggressively try to win your business. They may ask you to sign a Broker of Record (BOR) letter or a release of information. This isn’t just a quote request. This document gives them control over your policy and locks out your current broker—often without you realizing the full implications. While they may promise lower premiums or enticing discounts, those offers can come with reduced coverage, higher deductibles, or hidden exclusions that cost you more in the long run. A quality broker will fully explain the process and help you understand before you sign anything.
What You Might Not Know About Business Insurance:
- Brokers access the same insurance markets. The quotes you receive typically come from the same underwriters, so pricing should be consistent—if they’re rating based on the full picture of your business and coverage requests.
- Rates for workers’ compensation and other coverages are filed with and regulated by the state Division of Insurance. This means there’s less room for price variation than you might think. Changing limits, deductibles, or rating information will affect pricing—and that is where a quality broker will help you sort through the details.
- Keeping your policies with one provider can unlock valuable multi-policy discounts. Splitting them up may cost you more. A trusted broker can help you weigh the pros and cons for your specific situation.
- Shopping your coverage every year can actually hurt your long-term insurability and relationship with carriers. You want to maintain access to the best options to protect your business.
The Bottom Line
A stable, long-term relationship with a trusted broker is often the best strategy. They understand your business and can advocate for you when it matters most. Don’t be swayed by flashy offers—make informed decisions that protect your childcare business for the long haul.
NEW Rules to include in your handbook -- Per 2025 Legislative Mandates!
New Car Seat Manufacturing Regulations Going into Effect in June 2025--Side Impact Improvements. Details can be found here: https://www.saferidenews.com/2022/09/q-a-new-side-impact-rule-fmvss-213a/
When you buy new car seats they will automatically meet that criteria. THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME TO MAKE SURE YOUR CAR SEATS ARE NOT EXPIRED! If they are....replace them!! Using expired car seats can result in additional program liabilities for you.
Answer 3 questions about the ECEA Child Care Update NOW! Takes 10 seconds of time to make us more effective with our updates.
https://forms.gle/po1TkK4s85LUyT4J8
Nationwide Advocates DON'T CARE about Child Care Enrollment Levels...Their Agenda's are Showing!
What can you do about it?
Reach out to your federal legislators and tell them to Rescind or Fund the 2025 Rule set!! If that were to happen, freeze lists would cease to exist! https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Now, GO DO IT!
Here's an article posted by Corey Gaines:
How changes to government-subsidized childcare made it so there are now waitlists.
In the post prior to this one, I talked about the Sun's disparate coverage of Trump vs. Biden on executive orders.
In this post, I want to look in on the Biden executive order and Biden administration rule itself. Putting media bias aside, Biden's order and the Federal rules are a classic example of government subsidies and interference in the market causing problems.
After we look at that, I also want to highlight how the 2024 state bill which brought Colorado into line with the Biden policy might have added to the problem (a look at the sponsors would certainly give one immediate suspicions).
The two Sun articles linked first and second below (in reverese chronological order) detail the impat of Federal rule changes that came about after a Biden executive order in early 2024. They also give the stories of several Colorado child care providers who are struggling and the current freeze/waitlist on government subsidized childcare.
Before getting to that, however, let's back up and look at the changes that spurred the problem. A 2024 law (passed and signed by Polis) followed shortly behind Biden's orders, and was intended to synchronize Colorado policy with these Federal rule changes. That bill, HB24-1223 is linked third below.
Screenshot 1 is from the bill's fiscal note and summarizes the Federal changes.
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The first two bullet points are mostly procedural. Focus in on the last two, however. It is these provisions which are causing the problem. The third bullet point requires counties to pay for low-income child care to centers based on the number of low-income students enrolled and not the number who show up.
As an example, you might have 100 eligible students enrolled but only have 70 who show up regularly. Prior to Biden's change, the county only had to pay the child care center for the 70. After, they pay for the 100.
The fourth bullet point puts a cap on the low-income family's copayment for childcare at 7%. Absent the prices dropping (they didn't), what this does is shift more cost burden back onto the local government.
The latter Sun article below puts some numbers to things. Quoting:
"Paying providers more — to reflect the true cost of care — will add nearly $26 million to the state’s tab every year, [Colorado Child Care Assistance Program Director Sarah] Dawson said, while reducing family copays will cost Colorado more than $9.8 million per year. Meanwhile, shifting from paying providers based on attendance to paying them based on enrollment will amount to a projected $33 million annual expense for the state. The slate of changes will dramatically increase how much Colorado pays per child to cover the cost of care — from about $6,600 per child per year before the new rules to an estimated average of $18,000 per child per year, according to Dawson."
Small wonder, then, that Colorado counties are freezing enrollments for this program. Returning to the Sun article for numbers on this:
"More than 5,700 children from low-income families have been shut out of child care programs across Colorado, where 23 counties have, as of May 1, frozen enrollment or set up waitlists for the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, according to data from the Colorado Department of Early Childhood."
Thus the outcome of market control by government fiat. Politicians, governments in general, often struggle to understand basic economics. There doesn't seem to be the kind of common sense that asks basic questions like "how will we fund this?" before acting in a way that makes us all look and feel good. Then when the bills come due, it's "oops!"
This is bad enough at a faraway Federal level, but the state of Colorado made some of the same kinds of basic errors in thought with the state-level changes in HB24-1223.
Screenshot 2 (also from the bill's fiscal note) has the state changes. As with the Federal rules, some of the items on the list are procedural, but focus in on the first and second bullet points.
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Both of these items fall under the same rubric as would the federal changes I mention above: both expand eligibility, making it easier to be in the program and boosting eligibilty. If you invite more people in, you strain the system more.
Whatever your thoughts on the role the government ought to play in providing child care, I hope we could agree that reality and basic economics ought to be in the discussion. We can throw wide all the doors and gates we want to, we can subsidize at whatever level we choose to, but at some point, a realistic assessment of how we'd fund it needs to happen.
I don't get the sense that this happened with the Federal changes or state changes. And now we see the outcome.
https://coloradosun.com/2025/
https://coloradosun.com/2025/
https://leg.colorado.gov/
Colorado Christian camp sues over new rules on gender identity accommodations
What killing penny coins means for you and how it will change shopping
Here’s what’s in the GOP’s 1,116-page ‘big, beautiful bill’
CO reverses Course, Will offer Weight Loss Drugs to employees (somewhat)
School Choice: Competition Finally Comes to Education, Upsetting Teacher Unions and Bureaucrats
A federal school choice program is advancing in Congress
It’s Not Just a Feeling: Data Shows Boys and Young Men Are Falling Behind
Mapped: Average Salary by State in 2025
Pursuant to the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act, a staff member may qualify for the portability of their background checks.
A staff member is not required to submit new background checks when the individual has received ALL required background checks within the past 5 (five) years while employed by or seeking employment by another Colorado child care provider. The staff member has to have qualifying results to the first provider, is employed by a child care provider within the state, or has been separated from employment from a child care provider for less than 180 days.
This portability process is available only for the following license types: Child Care Centers, School-Age Child Care Centers, Preschools, Family Child Care Homes and Qualified Exempt Child Care Homes.
The Notification for Portability of Background Checks form must be submitted by the employer when the following occurs:
- An applicant separates from their former employer and begins new employment at a new facility within 180 days, OR
- If remaining employed with the current employer and adding additional employers or adding additional license numbers for a current employer.
Employers utilizing the portability process will receive one single letter stating eligibility for their records and department audit purposes. If the new employer desires the individual’s background check results (CBI, FBI, TRAILS, and Out of State) attached to their license number, new background checks must be completed by the applicant.
Forms received after 180 days of separation will be denied and applicants will be required to complete new background checks.
*If an applicant has submitted new fingerprints under the new employer’s license, a transfer can not be requested or processed.*
Forms
- Notification for Portability of Background Checks(opens in new window)
- Notification of Flag Removal Form
Licensing will accept the single letter. Don't pay for more background checks when you don't have to!
