Final
STAFF SUMMARY OF MEETING

EARLY CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL READINESS

Date:09/28/2015
ATTENDANCE
Time:10:36 AM to 04:14 PM
Marble
*
Merrifield
X
Place:SCR 356
Singer
X
Wilson
*
This Meeting was called to order by
Pettersen
X
Senator Martinez Humenik
Martinez Humenik
*
This Report was prepared by
Rachel Kurtz-Phelan
X = Present, E = Excused, A = Absent, * = Present after roll call
Bills Addressed: Action Taken:
Foundation Funding for Early Childhood Programs
Home Visitation Programs
Public Comment
Presentation on Child Care Licensing and Demographics
Breakout Sessions
Discussion about process and requests for bill drafts		Witness Testimony
Witness Testimony
Witness Testimony
Witness Testimony
Committee Discussion Only
Committee Discussion Only


10:37 AM -- Foundation Funding for Early Childhood Programs

Representative Pettersen, chair, called the meeting to order and roll call was taken. Senator Todd was also in attendance. The first group of presenters came to the table and several handouts were distributed to the commission members (Attachment A, Attachment B, Attachment C, and Attachment D). Laura Carlson, Program Officer, Temple Buell Foundation, provided background information about the mission and purpose of the Buell Foundation, and explained that they only fund programs in Colorado. She told the commission members that 35 percent of funding goes to Denver metro area programs, and the rest is spent outside of the metro area with a focus on hard to reach and underserved areas. She spoke about the importance of funding early childhood programs and stated that 95 percent of the foundation's funding goes towards early childhood program with a focus funding on funding direct service and systemic endeavors. She said the funding is focused on early learning and education programs, parenting education, home visiting, mental health via a two-generation approach, and professional development for early childhood educators. Ms. Carlson stated that 40 percent of funding is focused on system-building programs, including the Colorado Children's Campaign and Early Childhood Councils. She spoke about the importance of partnering with other funders and explained that the foundation is currently looking into initiative-based community giving. Ms. Carlson said that the theme across all of the Buell Foundation's funding is a focus on quality, and that they have a checklist of quality indicators that varies based on the type of funding being given. She explained the focus on capacity-building endeavors in rural areas, and that one of the requirements for funding is for funded programs to come up with quality-improvement goals on an annual basis. She said there is a very strict review of all applications, and that in addition to looking at program goals and outcomes, they look at financial status, diversity of those impacted and areas served, and the composition of the board. She said that good change requires partnership, especially public-private partnership.







15EarlyChildhood0928AttachA.pdf15EarlyChildhood0928AttachA.pdf 15EarlyChildhood0928AttachB.pdf15EarlyChildhood0928AttachB.pdf

15EarlyChildhood0928AttachC.pdf15EarlyChildhood0928AttachC.pdf 15EarkyChildhood0928AttachD.pdf15EarkyChildhood0928AttachD.pdf

10:46 AM

Elsa Holguin, Senior Program Officer for Child and Family Development, Rose Community Foundation, provided background information about the foundation. She said the current endowment is $300 million and they have awarded approximately $250 million in grants over the past 20 years. She said they provide grants in the Denver Metro region in the areas of health, Jewish Life, K-12 Education, aging, and child and family development, and became a community foundation in order to have an impact on policy and advocacy. Ms. Holguin stated that her focus is on early prevention and early intervention, by looking at early childhood development, helping parents learn to be the best parents they can be, providing high-quality early childhood programs, helping parents become self-sufficient, and changing systems via public-private partnerships such as Early Milestones Colorado. She spoke about her work with the Office of Early Childhood and the Early Childhood Leadership Commission (ECLC), and Race to the Top funding. She talked about the partnership and collaboration between Rose Community Foundation and other local foundations, and about a new committee under the ECLC focused on awareness and engagement of parents and public information campaigns.


10:53 AM

Sue Renner, Executive Director, the Merage Foundations, provided background information about the foundations she oversees. She spoke about public-private partnerships and the foundation incubator which houses three start-up businesses, one of which is focused on early childhood called Early Learning Ventures (ELV) Shared Services Model. She explained that the foundations are deeply engaged in policy reform, and work with on-the-ground social entrepreneurs to bring what they learn into policy reform. She provided more information about ELV, which is working on providing equitable access to high quality care and approaching it from a business sector point of view. She explained that in Colorado, the majority of child care providers are small and private, which is a costly way to operate, so ELV is seeking to provide a model of shared services by taking the timely and costly activities off the child care providers' plates by connecting them with other partners. The said that this enables the providers to spend more time and money in the classrooms and focus on quality since they are saving time and money with these new efficiencies. She said that ELV impacts over 40,000 students and saves centers an average of $8 for $1 dollar invested by the foundation. Ms. Renner reiterated the importance and impact of public-private partnerships.

















11:02 AM

Ms. Renner answered questions about shared services and connecting non-profit organizations with school districts to deal with capacity issues. She spoke about the difficulty for some providers in maintaining Colorado Preschool Program (CPP) standards and how shared services assists them with maintaining these standards. Ms. Holguin spoke about how often foundations work together and communicate with each other. She talked about how multiple foundations worked together to develop Qualistar after acknowledging the need for quality standards in early child care. Ms. Renner answered questions about how providers find out about and access ELV, and about the return on investment to the foundation. The commission members discussed the importance of accessing economies of scale across multiple sectors. The panelists talked about the Colorado Family Resource Center Association which assists 24 family resource centers across the state, and answered questions about low worker pay and whether operational efficiencies have led to higher pay. The panelists talked about the importance of teaching providers how to access third party dollars, such as food program dollars, and Denver Preschool Program slots. The panelists answered questions about what the legislature can do to assist early childhood education, including focusing on efficiencies of policies, sustainability of Race to the Top funding, public awareness and engagement, and the need to invest in family, friend, and neighbor care and home visitation programs since approximately 70 percent of children are not cared for in child care centers.


11:18 AM

Ms. Carlson spoke about the need to ensure that the quality of centers is standard across the state, and about a model of higher worker pay that is successful in Summit County, Colorado and is now being implemented in other counties. Ms. Renner spoke about market incentives in the child care sector, and the need to examine how to incentivize providers to become more competitive. The panelists talked about how early intervention saves millions of dollars and answered questions about whose responsibility it is to pay for early childhood education.


11:37 AM -- Home Visitation Programs

The next panelists came to the table: Allison Mosqueda, Consultant, Nurse-Family Partnership, Charlotte Brantley, President and CEO, Clayton Early Learning, and Jackie Cordova, Home and Community Based Mentor Coach, Clayton Early Learning. Ms. Mosqueda distributed a handout (Attachment E) and provided background information about the Nurse-Family Partnership. She discussed the importance of working with young children before problems start, including improving pregnancy outcomes, child development, and self-sufficiency of parents. She explained that nurses from the home visiting program visit parents starting early in pregnancy until a child is approximately two years old, and visit the family's home every 2 weeks. She explained that the home visit is with a registered nurse, and the focus is on six key areas: personal health, environmental health, maternal role, life course development, family and friends, and health and human service utilization. She spoke about the history of home visitation programs and about the randomized control trials that show the success of these programs. She told the commission members that the Nurse-Family Partnership is a public-private partnership, with the Office of Early Childhood as the fiscal agent, Invest in Kids as the program support, and the University of Colorado as the contract manager. She spoke about the success of the program in Colorado and how the program saves the state money. She discussed a study by the Rand Corporation showing that every dollar invested in the Nurse-Family Partnership yields a $5 return in the future.

15EarlyChildhood0928AttachE.pdf15EarlyChildhood0928AttachE.pdf





11:45 AM

Ms. Brantley provided background information about Clayton Early Learning, which offers home-based programs for infants, toddlers, and preschool children. She discussed the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) and told the commission members that 94 percent of preschool age children in HIPPY identify as Hispanic. She provided other statistics about the students enrolled in the home-based program as opposed to the center-based progam. She said that 64 percent of families enrolled in home-based program report food insecurity issues. Ms. Brantley talked about the tools used to assess the outcomes of children who have participated in Clayton Early Learning's home-based versus center-based programs, and said that the data shows that the majority of children who participate in both types of programs enter school ready for kindergarten.


11:52 AM

Ms. Cordova told the commission members that she is a former home visitor and is now a mentor coach. She explained that home visitors visit a family once a week, and that twice a month a group of families and their home visitor come together for socialization activities. She said there are currently 56 families and eight home visitors in the infant and toddler program, and 72 families and 6 home visitors in the preschool program for 3-5 year olds. She stated that the program supports parents in their role as primary caregivers, promotes self-sufficiency, helps connect families to resources in their community, and provides families with activities and books to help with a child's social, emotional, and cognitive abilities.


11:57 AM

The panelists answered questions from the commission members.


12:02 PM -- Public Comment

Senator Martinez Humenik asked if anyone in the audience wished to make public comment.

12:06 PM -- Lisa Hill, representing Invest in Kids, and Heather Tritten, Executive Director, Colorado Parent and Child Foundation, came to the table to speak about home visitation programs. Ms. Hill explained that the Colorado Home Visitation Coalition has been in existence for over 20 years to ensure that there is coordination in regards to service delivery strategy. Ms. Tritten stated that her foundation serves as the state office for HIPPY and Parents As Teachers (PAT). She said that there are over a dozen home visiting programs in the state, and provided further information about several of these programs. Ms. Tritten stressed the importance of home visiting, and stated that these programs are made possible because of public-private partnership. She talked about the federal funding that is available for these programs. The witnesses answered questions from the commission.

12:15 PM -- Ms. Mosqueda returned to the table to answer questions.

12:21 PM -- Ms. Hill answered questions about federal funding received through the Affordable Care Act.

12:27 PM -- Ms. Mosqueda answered questions about programs to prevent childhood obesity.








12:32 PM

The commission recessed for lunch.


01:24 PM -- Presentation on Child Care Licensing and Demographics

Senator Martinez Humenik called the meeting back to order. She invited Noel Nelson, CEO and President of the Early Childhood Education Association of Colorado (association), to come to the table. He explained that the association is a professional trade association focusing on the needs of early childhood programs and parents. He provided background information about the association, and distributed a copy of his powerpoint presentation (Attachment F). He discussed a survey that was done in 1996 when the Colorado Preschool Program was first being implemented to identify the top five early child care provider concerns. He told the commission members that from 2012 to 2014, the number of child care centers operating in Colorado dramatically decreased, and that center closings are outpacing center openings. He explained that in response, a new survey of child care providers was done and the top concerns of providers currently are: low Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) reimbursement rates, new publicly-funded centers that compete against private centers, problems with staff recruitment, and a burdensome regulatory structure. He said that Colorado ranks second in the country for the high cost of infant care, and talked about the expenses incurred by providers and why it is so expensive to provide early child care. Mr. Nelson responded to questions about why child care in Colorado is so expensive.

15EarlyChildhood0928AttachF.pdf15EarlyChildhood0928AttachF.pdf

01:35 PM

Mr. Nelson spoke about the economic impacts of the child care industry on the state. He said that these employees support families that are working in other industries, and therefore early child care is a driver of other economic impacts in our state. He said the child care industry provides $1.4 billion in output to Colorado's economy, and that the affordability of child care is central to the conversation, but the real issue is how to support families facing the high cost of high-quality early childhood education. He discussed the need to leverage dollars to support private industry as opposed to directly competing with it. Mr. Nelson answered questions from the committee.


01:42 PM

A commission member asked Mr. Nelson what percentage of providers in the state provide continuing education services to their employees. Mr. Nelson answered that 70 percent of the association's providers provide continuing education benefits to their employees. The commission discussed employee recruitment and retention in the child care sector. Mr. Nelson responded to a question about why more centers are closing than opening. He said that the number one reason is the shallow talent pool, which causes centers to be unable to find qualified staff to meet the operating licensing requirements. He explained that this problem is more pronounced in rural counties. He said there has also been a decline in enrollment in early childhood education programs in the community college system.










01:51 PM

Mr. Nelson responded to questions about the current regulatory environment faced by child care centers and stated that in the past five years, the Department of Human Services has become more collaborative with the Early Childhood Education community when dealing with concerns. He said there is a need for child care center licensing to ensure health, safety, and quality education for children. He concluded by stating that another reason centers are closing are due to the local county reimbursement rates.


01:58 PM -- Breakout Sessions

Senator Martinez Humenik asked Anna Jo Haynes, Co-Chair of the Early Childhood Leadership Commission (ECLC), to come to the table to speak about a letter sent to commission members from the ECLC. Ms. Haynes read the letter aloud and a copy was distributed to the members (Attachment G). Ms. Haynes answered questions from the commission members regarding the specifics of the letter. Senator Martinez Humenik announced that the breakout groups would meet for one hour and then come back together as a group to present what was discussed. She reviewed the ground rules and goals for the breakout groups.

15EarlyChildhood0928AttachG.pdf15EarlyChildhood0928AttachG.pdf

02:17 PM

The commission recessed so that the breakout groups could meet.


03:09 PM

The commission came back to order. Representative Singer provided a summary of what was discussed by the breakout group focusing on teachers. He said that the group did not come up with any ideas for legislation, but did identify a number of issues, including recruitment and retention; House Bill 15-1001; a lack of diversity amongst early childhood teachers; and the need to examine whether teacher pay or increasing professional development credentials makes more sense.





















03:12 PM

Senator Hudak came to the table to provide an overview of what was discussed by the breakout group focusing on equalizing access to care. She stated that the group came up with three ideas for legislation. She asked Thamanna Vasan, a representative from the Colorado Fiscal Institute, to join her at the table to explain one of the ideas, which is to remove a trigger from the Child Tax Credit which was established by Senate Bill 13-001. The representative provided a fact sheet (Attachment H) and explained that the trigger is dependent upon the implementation of the Marketplace Fairness Act or similar legislation which has not yet occurred. She said that the premise would be to remove that trigger so that families can begin claiming that tax credit. Senator Hudak explained that the second bill suggestion is to expand the number of Colorado Preschool Program (CPP) slots by 3,000, and that the group's third suggestion is to remove the requirement that preschool through second grade teachers be evaluated by student growth scores from assessments.

15EarlyChildhood0928AttachH.pdf15EarlyChildhood0928AttachH.pdf

03:27 PM

Senator Marble told the commission that her breakout group which focused on child welfare did not have any suggestions for legislation to bring forward. Senator Marble answered questions from the committee.


03:34 PM

Emily Bustos, Executive Director of Denver's Early Childhood Council, presented the ideas from the group that focused on family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care. She told the commission that the group discussed changing the definition of exempt providers to see if it can be expanded to better serve the FFN population. She said that it is possible that this may be able to be done by a rule change and therefore the group is not recommending legislation. She said the next idea the group discussed was about staff qualifications, but they decided they needed to do more research about this topic before recommending legislation. Ms. Bustos told the commission that the only piece of legislation the group recommends pertains to the expansion of the cliff effect pilot program and the need to have a realignment to get the appropriate number of participating counties in order to gather enough data.


03:40 PM

Chaer Robert, representing the Colorado Center on Law and Policy (CCLP), came to the table to present a bill suggestion from CCLP. She distributed a handout (Attachment I), and explained that the bill would create a task force to evaluate the best way for state agencies to coordinate to address the child care needs of low-income parents of young children who wish to advance their education. Ms. Robert explained the components and mission of the task force in further detail and answered questions from the committee.

15EarlyChildhood0928AttachI.pdf15EarlyChildhood0928AttachI.pdf








03:54 PM -- Discussion about process and requests for bill drafts

Julie Pelegrin, Office of Legislative Legal Services, came to the table to explain the next steps in the process to request bill drafts. She said that the commission can recommend up to five bills to Legislative Council, and that the bills put forth must fall under the commission's charge. She told the commission that the bill drafts must be finalized to be released by October 15, 2015, and that after a bill is released there will not be any changes made until the meeting at which the commission votes on the bills. She explained that at this meeting, which will be on October 26, 2015, each bill that is approved must be assigned a sponsor and co-sponsor, whether it will start in the House or the Senate, and whether it needs a safety or petition clause. Ms. Pelegrin answered questions from the committee.


04:00 PM

Rachel Kurtz-Phelan, Legislative Council Staff, reviewed each bill idea that was discussed by the commission members and break out groups. A hand vote of the commission members was taken on each bill draft request. The following bills were approved to be drafted:


04:14 PM

The commission adjourned.