§ 26.5-2-201 — Legislative declaration

(1) The general assembly finds and
declares that there is a critical need to increase services for young children and
their families, including those families with members who are entering the
workforce due to Colorado's reform of the welfare system, making the transition off
of welfare, or needing child care assistance to avoid the welfare system. The
statewide need includes increasing and sustaining the quality, accessibility,
capacity, and affordability of services for children and their parents to help parents
raise their children to be successful at school, at work, and in the community.

(2) Research demonstrates that there are positive outcomes for young
children and their families who receive quality, integrated child care and related
services in their early, preschool years, delivered through a comprehensive early
childhood system that includes quality care and education, family support, health,
and mental health programs.

(3) Providers of half-day preschool and full-day child care services have to
overcome barriers and inflexible requirements of the various sources of funding in
order to design and implement programs that are more responsive to the needs of
working families.

(4) Consideration of various state and federal funding sources would allow
for an integrated delivery system of quality programs for young children and their
families in Colorado's communities.

(5) An integrated delivery system would further enhance the ability of the
department to identify the best practices relative to increasing and sustaining
quality and to meeting the diverse needs of families seeking child care and other
early childhood services.

(6) Distinctly local needs and conditions require that the state design and
integrate a system that has the flexibility to adapt to those local needs.

(7) It is therefore in the state's best interest to establish a comprehensive
system of early childhood councils to increase and sustain the availability,
accessibility, capacity, and quality of early childhood services throughout the state,
as provided in this part 2.

Legislative History

Source: L. 2022: Entire article added with relocations, (HB 22-1295), ch. 123, p. 594, � 3, effective July 1.