Support, Resources and Guides

Please contact your Licensing Specialist with any questions, concerns or requests for assistance for your program. You may also contact the Colorado Department of Early Childhood  at 1-800-799-5876 or email cdec_communications@state.co.us.

How are we doing?

Following your licensing inspections, please complete the Child Care Licensing Inspection Feedback Survey to help us continue to improve the process. 

File a Complaint/ Concern on a Licensed Facility

It is Division policy not to accept anonymous complaints. To make a complaint, call 303-866-5958 or write and mail a description of the complaint including name, telephone number and mailing address.

Mail written complaints to:
Complaint Intake, Division of Early Care and Learning
Colorado Department of Early Childhood
710 S. Ash Street
Denver, CO 80246​
 
Licensed Substitute Placement Agency Facilities

Find a Substitute Placement Agency.

Early Childhood Councils are available to providers to improve the quality of early learning, increase access for children to comprehensive health care and mental health services, provide families with meaningful community and parenting supports, and deliver resources to early childhood professionals.

Early Childhood Councils focus on advancing programs, resources and support around early learning, family support and parent education, and social, emotional and mental health. They work to bring together local partners to improve the quality and availability of early childhood services for children and families in their communities.
 
Early Childhood Councils support the implementation of Colorado Shines and distribution of quality incentives to licensed early care and learning programs.

Currently, 35 Early Childhood Councils in Colorado represent almost all of the counties in Colorado. Contact your Early Childhood Council.

Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies strengthen the child care delivery system through community-specific solutions that make the system more responsive to family needs.

They create and update databases of resources, developing a high quality collection of options for families. CCR&R agencies build connections by collaborating with a range of partners to improve and shape the child care system, based on each community’s needs.

Contact a CCR&R through the Colorado Shines Child Care Referral Line at Mile High United Way at 1-877-338-2273.

The Colorado Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Consultation is a free program that helps early care and learning providers create nurturing environments and relationships that support mental health and well-being among children and families.

The ECMH Consultation program builds the knowledge and skills of early care and learning providers to support children’s social-emotional development and early mental health. The program seeks to identify children with mental health concerns early in life and connect them to the appropriate support and follow up.

View current Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants and learn more about the ECMH Consultation program at MentalHealthStartsEarly.com. Learn how ECMH Consultation can benefit the children and families in your program by viewing our Overview Flyer (Overview Flyer Spanish) and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (Frequently Asked Questions Spanish).

TEACH Colorado

Want to become a Colorado early childhood educator ASAP?

You can find a pathway that allows you to teach in a classroom tomorrow. There are tons of accessible options for becoming an early childhood educator.

We’re offering a virtual info session alongside TEACH Colorado on Tuesday, July 25 at 4 p.m. REGISTER for a virtual session.

Learn more about how to select and apply a pathway to teaching early childhood, and get your questions answered by experts. TEACH Colorado offers $100 application fee reimbursements, stipends, 1:1 coaching from experts, scholarships, and more.

Register to learn more about these great opportunities!

Can’t make it? Subscribe to TEACH Colorado and get all of the support you need.

Resources for Child Care Programs 

Access the folder containing forms and checklists for licensed child care programs.

Access the folder containing forms and checklists for licensed child care programs (Spanish).

General Resource Materials

• Emergency Plan for Licensed Child Care Programs
• Emergency Plan for Providers
• CDEC Emergency Roles and Responsibilities
• Disaster Preparedness Sample 
• EPA Lead Website and Child Care Provider Flyer
• Video: Don't Leave Your Child In the Car

• Business Guide For Family Child Care Homes
• Guía de Negocios para Hogares de Cuidado Infantil Familiar
• Business Guide For Child Care Centers
• Guía de Negocios para Centros de Cuidado Infantil

The purpose of the Child Care Construction Guidebooks is to inform and assist in navigating the many layers of construction projects as they relate to building and or expanding child care. Family child care home and center based providers as well as those considering constructing a child care facility will benefit from these reference guides. Each guide is tailored specifically to the unique landscape of Child Care in the State of Colorado.

• Child Care Center Guidebook for Design and Construction
• Family Child Care Guidebook for Design and Construction

General Health and Safety Resources

• National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education 
• Healthy Children (from the Academy of Pediatrics) 
• Children’s Safety Network
• When to Wash Hands
• ​Access the 2023-2024 parent letter for child care, preschools, and Head Start, 6 CCR 1009-2
• Access the 2023-2024 parent letter for schools, K-12th grade 

Early Childhood Mental Health Resources

• Communicating with Families about Mental Health
• Center on the Developing Child 
• Early Intervention Colorado 
• ZERO TO THREE

Project Include provides training, support, and equipment to assist licensed Colorado family child care homes, child care centers, and preschools in developing learning environments and curriculums that are more inclusive for all children, including those with delays and disabilities.

The Inclusion and Universal Design Project provides training and support to help child care providers meet the needs of children with delays and disabilities in an inclusive child care setting. 

Children and families make the transition to kindergarten every year, however the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic make this fall different. Across Colorado, there was a dramatic drop in kindergarten enrollment in 2020, signaling that many children will be experiencing a delayed start to kindergarten this year. The key to successful transitions is that both “sides” of the transition are engaged—early care and education (ECE) programs (the “sending” side) and elementary schools (the “receiving” side). Given the circumstances, it is especially critical this year that both sides work together to help children and families experience a smooth transition to kindergarten. 

Two recently developed resources can help in this effort. This brief authored by the Colorado Department of Education describes key policies and research about kindergarten enrollment. This tool developed by the National P-3 Center (en español) provides a timeline and checklist of activities for ECE programs and elementary schools to support transitions.

The following resources address transitions supports specific to the children and families you may work with:

• Children and Families Experiencing Homelessness
• Native American Children and Families
• Children and Families in Migrant and Seasonal Communities