Employer-Based Child Care

The Need 

Families in Colorado face a number of challenges accessing child care, including affordability, long wait lists, limited locations near work or home or no local licensed child care options. These issues may worsen with increased demand for care with the implementation of Universal Preschool and as families return to work. 

The Strategy 

This activity focuses on incentivizing employers to build child care on or near site and consists of two aspects. 

The first is providing grants for eligible entities to construct, remodel, renovate or retrofit a child care center on or near the employer’s site. These grants are intended to support workforce participation and provide safe, stable, quality and accessible care for employed parents and families. 

Second, CDEC partnered with Executives Partnering to Invest In Children (EPIC) on the Employer-Based Child Care Design Lab (Design Lab), a unique opportunity for employers to gain the knowledge necessary to plan an on-site or near-site child care facility. The Design Lab offers direct support and community partnerships for employers to develop a competitive grant application for up to $800,000 in state funding for their projects. 

Key Outcomes and Learnings 

Impact

Employer-Based Child Care Grant 

• Four grant rounds have been solicited. 
• Read about the stories of The City of Grand Junction, Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp., and Eagle County Schools. 
• As of September 2023, 20 grants had been awarded in 15 counties, creating 287 new child care slots. Notably, 14 of the grantees are located in child care deserts. 

Design Lab 

• Design Lab Overview, in partnership with EPIC 
• Inaugural 2021-2022 Design Lab Impact 
• Design Lab 2.0 Executive Summary 
• Design Lab 2.0 Project Report 
• "At hospitals, food halls, and ski resorts, Colorado effort helps employers create on-site child care" (Chalkbeat Colorado, 2022) 

Learning

• Permitting processes and weather delayed many of the construction projects, and executing contracts took up to 11 months. It is critical that future grant rounds have multiple years to spend funding.Technical assistance has been critical to support grant awardees in finalizing their contract documents. 
• Extra time needs to be built into the procurement process, as the state process is new to many grantees and each contract is unique.