Early Childhood Education Compensation in Summit County, Colorado

Prepared for Early Milestones Colorado in 2019

In 2019, Early Milestones Colorado contracted with APA Consulting (APA) to conduct a study of child care compensation in Summit County, Colorado. APA began its work by reviewing the characteristics of the county, including existing tax revenue sources, the currently high health care costs, high housing costs, and shortage of available child care slots. APA also reviewed the existing unique funding mechanisms and policy innovations to support child care in the county, including universal pre-kindergarten funding passed in fall 2018 by county voters, Right Start funding, and a Town of Breckenridge program to subsidize parent tuition and early childhood education teacher salaries.

APA also spoke to a number of important players in Summit County child care, including staff and the board from Early Childhood Options, representatives from County and town governments, leaders at the Summit County School District, and the executive director of the Summit Foundation. APA also conducted cost collection interviews with several child care centers and family care homes in order to better understand the revenues and cost pressures such providers face in order to remain in business and to understand barriers that aspiring new providers face to enter the Summit County child care market and to expand existing child care options for parents.

This report generated a number of recommendations for future actions that could be taken by the Towns or the County, singly or in coordination, to further support child care availability, affordability, and quality in the area. These include:

• progressing with the Silverthorne child care center;

• renting classroom space from the school district;

• scaling the existing Breckenridge program to subsidize parent tuition and child care teacher salaries countywide;

• developing a shared services program for both centers and family care homes; creating a countywide substitute pool;

• expanding the universal pre-K program to three-year-olds; and

• providing workforce housing for early childhood education staff.

Any of these initiatives could provide significant support for child care availability and affordability, as well as raising the compensation of early childhood education teachers. The report also proposes a number of potential funding mechanisms that could support and sustain the proposed initiatives. These potential funding mechanisms include raising the lodging tax throughout the county; increasing the sales tax; and increased partnerships with local businesses.