711/25 Members ONLY Update
New Platform for ECEA Members
We are working diligently to resolve any issues you have in our new platform. If you encounter something that isn't working or need support on anything inside of this, just reach out to [email protected] for support. Your question will help us to resolve any issue that is affecting all of our members!
This Kajabi platform is being utilized by our organization now because it offers us far more flexibility in how we communicate with you as well as what we can offer you as a member. It is going to make our training capacilities for the ECEA Bright Foundation dramatically better and we will offer a range of trainings from free, to minimal cost, to a larger fee due to extensive content and resources. These trainings must be offered at consistent rates by the foundation to everyone. Your membership levels offer you a perk as a discount in most cases.
Did you know that our email distribution list was nearing 5,000 people every week? That means that tons of people statewide were eager to hear from us on what we are doing. We will be transitioning away from emailing a large portion of those people as soon as our new platform is fully implemented. You might receive multiple emails for a bit from the different apps that we use for communication. We promise those will scale back soon. Please do not opt out because then you will lose future access to our updates and supports. YOU can make that happen faster by shifting your membership to the new platform asap. If you haven't received an email with those details yet, connect with [email protected] for support or keep an eye on your inbox because they are still going out!
With our new shift to the new platform, we are scaling back who we are talking to! We will be speaking directly to community based providers including members, non-members, and pending programs. You as a member will receive all of the information! The other two groups of community based programs (non-members and pending programs) will get teasers to encourage them to join ECEA. The fact is, the stronger we are as an organization, the stronger our support for the industry can be!
Lastly, in this new system, we have to limit access to one login per membership site. We have a workaround for that if you need it (ie., really want a separate login for Owner, Director) just reach out with details on what the program name is, the names and roles of each person and we will "gift" a membership so that they have access under your paid membership for that same site!
Stage II Investigations
You may recall that in our White Paper late last year, one of our recommendations was to have CDEC stop conducting Stage II - Licensing Investigations as a follow up to an unfounded abuse/neglect investigation that has been conducted by the County. ECEA met with the CDEC Licensing (DELLA) Leadership team and elevated YOUR concerns to the state, working to bring resolution to this approach of over-regulating the CO child care industry.
They are proactively working on a new policy for unsupervised children (previously referred to as lost children) that they will be pushing out very soon! Without a doubt, these county referrals happen most often and DELLA is working with counties to decrease the number of referrals that they receive for that issue!
Other great improvements:
1) Looking at revising the descriptions in PDIS for parents to better understand the various types of reports and violations. They want to include information that clearly tells parents that to see more details on the violations and how they were resolved by the program they can do a full open records request.
2) They are willing to develop a video to post in PDIS for parents to understand (for those that like to hear rather than read content).
3) Some kind of computer glitch is now showing reports in PDIS that are older than 3 years old. CDEC is researching and working to reverse this asap.
4) In 2026, DELLA reports of inspections will include the full monitoring information. That will show parents what you are doing well in addition to what was cited for non-compliance.
5) ECEA continued to advocate for Unfounded Stage II's to not have a licensing investigation. The state's current stance is that this helps them to keep kids safe because they've found significant safety violations in many of these stage II inspections. They will be checking in with other states to see when they do inspections for unfounded abuse/neglect allegations. We were able to let them know how Florida, New Jersey and Lousianna handle these situations that differ from Colorado so far.
6) They DO agree that you do not have to report anything that does NOT meet the definition of abuse/neglect. We suggest that if you do this in any given situation, you do FULL documentation about the event in case Licensing comes out to cite you for not reporting on a situation. If you get cited for not reporting something you firmly believe was not an abuse/neglect concern we need to know about it!! This will help us to better advocate for you.
7) Some "lost child" reports will soon be called "Unsupervised child" in alignment with a recent policy change that they have made. They will apply that to this Standard Operating Procedure as well because we made the ask!
CDEC is Asking the Feds to do WHAT!?!
This is a hard one to report out. Previously CDEC was audited and found to be paying programs below the 50% market rate level in our state. The audit required them to increase rates for providers and the state decided to break that rate increase into 3 annual increases. This year 10/25 marks the second increase to bring rates up to a better rate for programs.
Mary Alice Cohen announced at the last Early Childhood Leadership Council (ECLC) meeting that they are considering requesting that the 3rd increase to CCCAP rates that is supposed to go into effect 10/2026 be waived permanently by the federal government because they would then be paying programs at about the 75% rate. If they MUST complete the increase, can they get permission to extend the implementation dates so that it is less of a burden on the state and counties.
ECEA's response to CDEC on requesting to not implement the 3rd increase:
We asked when Colorado will get to the point where they are paying accurate rates for programs that support low income families statewide. We understand that at that rate (full implementation of Alternative Rate Methodology to meet Audit requirement) fewer families can be served. We believe that only at that level will we have an accurate picture of what CCCAP realistically looks like in Colorado.
$22M of 70M for the increased cost of CCCAP is for this alternative rate methodology. That means $48M more is what the NEW CCDF Regulations costs CO every single year. WE MUST ADVOCATE FOR THAT RULE SET TO BE RESCINDED. Mary Alice was clear...if the feds don't rescind the rule set then they MUST comply with federal laws. Counties are frozen because they cannot afford to operate with the new unfunded mandates. "Now we are closing centers." Mary Alice stated. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcEkZToO__k) (29:00)
As a reminder -- Federal input ENDS on 7/14/2025
Take action NOW and tell the feds that they MUST RESCIND!!
Want other regulations to suggest changes on? ECEA worked with several other states to put a summary sheet together of regulations that you might want to provide feedback on. You can find that here: https://docs.google.
Department: HHS Administration for Children & Families
2024 CCDF Rule Set
Andrew Gradison, Acting Assistant Secretary
If you don't know the answer to every question, give it your best shot but still submit!!
WITHOUT RESCINDING, CCCAP IS UNLIKELY TO UNFREEZE FOR UP TO 10 YEARS.
Family Fun Fair is ONE Month Away!
Please share this flyer with your families!! We have 45 vendors and TONS of fun planned. This gives us access to young families so that we can promote the value of community based care. It's also a great way to say thank you to your families for supporting your business!!
Tell families: This is YOUR thank you gift to them! Also, tell them they can bring a picnic lunch for their family if they prefer. Honestly, we are working hard to get more food trucks but right now we only have a coffee truck and a dessert truck. That can definitely change and we will keep you posted on it.
Vendors? Over 45 of them and TONS of fun at a BEAUTIFUL location. This event is NOT to be missed!!
Save Some Time to Request August UPK Payment in Advance!
We've been keeping the pressure on to get you the details. Sounds like they will be sending you a TON of information....plan some time before the end the month to file a request to receive payment in advance of care in August. Make sure when you fill it out you emphasize that this is actually a MONTHLY NEED and request that they reconsider their destructive policy of paying after care for UPK! Send me a screenshot at [email protected] so that we have a ton of those on hand and they can't tell us "no one asked". If they can waive this for one month due to financial need, they can waive it EVERY month!!
Training Runs on Tues/Thursday evenings starting at 6 p.m. starting August 19th. Completely virtual.
Link to flyer: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tqUBOzo53qLQKxP03fdAOX76OjDLyvYq/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112068139125283055161&rtpof=true&sd=true
Registration Links:
For ONE Person - https://eceaco.mykajabi.com/offers/zgqSzWsJ
For Multiple Staff members - email [email protected] for an invoice.
Thank you!!!!
