Thousands of Colorado’s poorest kids are without adequate day care because their parents aren’t tapping into nearly $46 million in unused funding for low-income families.
State and county officials say one reason is that they stiffened qualifications for Colorado’s Child Care Assistance Program – anticipating federal funding cuts in 2001.
The cuts never came. But the number of children covered by the program dropped by 16,000, or 30 percent.
“The number of children getting help has dropped drastically,” said Leslie Bulicz, child care programs administrator for the Colorado Department of Human Services.
“Families simply quit walking through the door,” Bulicz said.
State and county officials are scrambling to get more families on the rolls, reduce the puddle of money that has built up and get children into day care.
If they don’t use the funds within two years, the money could revert to the general welfare program for redistribution to counties.
“These kids are going somewhere for care, and anecdotally we hear of older kids staying at home to care for brothers and sisters,” said Roxane White, director of Denver’s Department of Human Services.
“There’s a huge difference between quality child care and babysitting,” White said.
The program is key to enabling low- income families and single parents to stay in the workforce, said Kathryn Hammerbeck, executive director of the Colorado Child Care Association.
“Low-income parents just can’t afford today’s child- care costs at the wages they are paid,” she said.
In anticipation of cuts to child-care programs, counties raised the income qualifications for aid so fewer families could obtain it, Bulicz said.
“In those years of economic decline in Colorado, the fear by the counties was if child-care funding took a hit, they’d be holding the bag,” Bulicz said.
The plan worked. The number of kids getting assistance dropped from 53,000 in 2001 to 37,000 last year, Bulicz said.
It sent the message that funding wasn’t available, a mindset that has since deterred new applicants, officials said.
“Families didn’t apply because they believed they didn’t qualify any more, which they didn’t,” Denver’s White said.
“Now they do, but don’t know it. We’re looking for ways to communicate this,” she said.
Even some of the state’s poorest – those just off welfare – believe they don’t qualify once they leave the public rolls, officials said.
“It’s very important for a low-income family getting back on its feet to have this help,” said Cheryl Ternes, director of Arapahoe County’s Department of Human Services.
Two-thirds of the program is funded by federal dollars.
If a county doesn’t overspend its child-care allotment, it pools the leftovers with similar counties to be redistributed to counties that did overspend.
Counties that overspend the allotment can also make up the shortfall by tapping a portion of its unused welfare dollars.
Last year, no one needed the welfare money as backup. As a result, the pool of unused dollars for child care has grown to $45.9 million.
“Even a little bit of money provides something for the kids,” Bulicz said. “Even if it’s just some food.”
In response, nearly every county has changed its income levels for day-care aid so that more families can qualify.
The monthly income limit for a Denver family of three to qualify for day-care aid used to be $2,558. It is now $3,220.
In Douglas County, where it’s tougher to get aid, the income ceiling for a family of three was raised to $2,862 from $1,950.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
