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Dear EI Community,
At the Colorado Department of Early Childhood’s Early Intervention Program, we all share the same goal, giving every child in Colorado the best start in life. Like you, we care deeply about helping Colorado’s infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities. Your expertise and partnership are critical as we budget for upcoming years to ensure sustainability of the Early Intervention program and an accurate and fiscally responsible budget.
As required under Colorado law, Governor Jared Polis released his balanced budget proposal for FY 2026-27 and submitted it to the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) of the General Assembly. This budget plan included a request for increased funding for the Early Intervention Program.
Next fiscal year (July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027) Early Intervention will provide services for every eligible child. The Governor’s budget requests a $2,154,661 increase in General Fund dollars to help us meet that need.
For the current fiscal year, FY 2025-26, we anticipate a budget surplus with the addition of $3 million available from carry-forward federal funds and money that was not spent in prior years. We anticipate the need for a one-time reduction of $7.3 million to return unspent funds from evaluations, services, and administration These cost adjustments will not impact current or future direct services for eligible children. We based these recommendations on past spending patterns and being able to fully utilize available federal funds. We looked closely at how the Early Intervention Program has spent money in the past to guide our new budget plan and ensure its accuracy.
This one-time $7.3 million reduction is only anticipated. We will continue assessing actual spending and projections between now and January to make sure our budget matches actual costs. Even after this anticipated reduction, EI will still be funded at a higher level per child than our spending per child in FY 2024-25, with an overall increase of 12% in funding to support eligible children in FY 2025-26.
We know you may have questions, and we want to hear from you. Our program is strongest when we work together. We ask that you send your questions to the Google Form. In the meantime, we have created this Q & A to help answer some of your questions on the EI Colorado website.
Together, we can make sure Colorado’s children in early intervention services get the support they need.
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