 CCDF State Plan Draft
The Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) is seeking stakeholder input on the new draft Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plan for 2025-2027. Colorado must complete this Plan every three years. The Plan explains how the state invests federal CCDF funds to expand access to high-quality child care for working families. We are particularly excited to highlight how Colorado is breaking down silos, strengthening services for children and families, and supporting providers. Now, we want to hear from you!
Your Input and Feedback Matters!
CDEC is making the draft Plan available to gather feedback and input in developing the Plan, which will guide Colorado’s work for the next several years and beyond. You can find a draft copy of the Plan HERE and we have created a slide deck to provide a high level overview of the Plan.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you are reading:
- The CCDF Plan is focused only on how federal CCDF funds are spent. Colorado is fortunate to have other funding for young children and their families; these will be mentioned if they interact with CCDF but otherwise are outside of the scope of this document.
- CCDF funds multiple areas of our early care and education system. By federal law, the large majority of CCDF funding goes to child care subsidies for families, followed by licensing and monitoring activities. Quality and workforce are also included in the Plan.
- The CCDF Plan focuses primarily on current policy and practice for how CCDF funds are spent. Please identify any places where we have not accurately or fully represented current policy, practice, or partnerships.
- There are several places to identify challenges or goals. Please share your ideas to ensure these areas are robust and highlight the challenges and opportunities we have in ensuring high-quality early care and learning.
- There are many complicated requirements to implement CCDF, and the Plan is very detailed and can be repetitive. We encourage you to provide input wherever you desire. The opening statements give a nice overview of what each of the ten sections covers.
Please provide feedback in the following ways:
- Read the draft Plan and slide deck, and share your feedback by May 30, 2024.
- Please use this form to submit your feedback on the sections of the plan.
- Join the public hearing on June 3rd, 2024, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at CDEC, 710 S. Ash Street—Building C, Denver, in the Innovation Room, or on Zoom (Passcode: 123456). Learn more about the public hearing HERE.
- Additional opportunities to provide feedback will be shared on the CDEC Calendar.
We are so looking forward to your input! We will carefully review each comment and include your suggestions and feedback where possible. For comments that are outside of the CCDF Plan requirements, we will keep a running summary of the ideas and integrate them into our department-wide planning or programming as feasible.
Together, let's build a brighter future for Colorado's children!
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