Without access to federal child care assistance, single mother Robbie Basham would have to leave her job to care for her son full-time.
“His quality of life would go down because I wouldn’t be able to pay for what we need to live,” Basham said.
A funding freeze on federal safety-net programs that support low-income families and their children will harm all families who seek child care in the state, providers and advocates said in a press call U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, organized Tuesday.
The Trump administration froze $10 billion for the Child Care Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and the Social Services Block Grant programs in Colorado, Minnesota, New York, California and Illinois. The states all have Democratic governors, and the funding freeze is seen by Democrats as punishment against states disfavored by President Donald Trump.
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The Administration for Children and Families, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the states they will not get money for the programs while the federal government conducts a “thorough review of the State’s use of funding for compliance and alignment with statutory requirements.”
Sharyl Boehm and Cheryl Gould, co-owners of the Rocky Mountain Children’s Discovery Center in Cañon City, have worked in child care for 30 years. The funding freeze will have “immediate and devastating consequences for families and educators at our facility alone,” Boehm said. She said 42 children and their families would immediately have their child care upended.
“These parents rely on child care assistance in order to work and support their families,” Boehm said. “The majority of our families in this rural area, it takes two. So both parents are working as hard as they can to pay the bills, and without child care, that doesn’t happen. It’s an impossible choice between employment and caring for their own children.”
Rocky Mountain Children’s Discovery Center has been caring for Basham’s son since he was 6 months old.
“They know about his fears, and they know how to comfort him, and they work with him in every way,” Basham said. “I will be one of the people that will not go to work because my son needs to be safe, and I know he’s safe at Rocky Mountain. ”
Parents have started posting on social media looking for anybody to care for their child, which Boehm said is “really scary” because people who are not licensed or qualified may end up providing child care. Gould said having fewer children in their center due to the funding cuts will affect their bottom line, and could also lead to employee furloughs.
These parents rely on child care assistance in order to work and support their families,” Boehm said. “The majority of our families in this rural area, it takes two. So both parents are working as hard as they can to pay the bills, and without child care, that doesn't happen. It's an impossible choice between employment and caring for their own children.
– Sharyl Boehm, co-owner of Rocky Mountain Children’s Discovery Center in Cañon City
“It really hits us in the heart to say to these families, ‘No, you can’t come because there’s no funding,’” Gould said. “
That’s just not right. Everybody knows somebody who is dependent on child care.”
Pettersen, a mother of two young children, said the $3 million being withheld for child care assistance will affect 27,000 children in Colorado, most of whom are under the age of 3. She said the federal assistance only goes to families whose income is less than $59,000 a year.
“Half of our state already lives in a child care desert, and we have one of the most expensive child care systems in the country,” Pettersen said in the virtual press call. “Colorado loses a billion dollars in revenue because of lack of access to child care, and 10,000 women have said that they would like to be in the workforce, but they can’t afford child care, and that has a huge impact on our economy.”
New burden for county staff
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat running for governor, filed a lawsuit with the other affected states that says the president does not have the authority to unilaterally freeze funding approved by Congress for the states. A judge issued a temporary order halting the funding freeze last week.
The sudden funding freeze undermines the stability of children and their families, as well as local and state economies, according to Heather Tritten, president and CEO of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, a nonprofit policy and research organization. Colorado also uses CCDF funds to train and license all of its child care providers, she said.
“While the freeze is currently paused, this action should never have occurred,” Tritten said. “Children can’t vote.
They can’t run for office, and programs that support children should never be used in political gamesmanship.”
Colorado receives about $136 million in block funding for TANF, administered through Colorado Works, every year. In 2024, a Colorado family of three received a maximum monthly TANF benefit of $585, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. Last year, the state was allocated about $140 million in federal funds to pay for care for children in low-income families, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Colorado’s federal assistance for child care is administered through counties, so the funding freeze adds an additional burden for county staff, Lisa Roy, executive director of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, said. She said state agencies are working together to monitor the impacts of the funding freeze and supplementing with state dollars where possible.
“The funding ensures children are in safe, nurturing early learning environments while enabling parents to work,” Roy said. “They can also pursue education, but most of all, maintain economic stability.”
The state anticipates its federal funding to support child care will run out by Jan. 31.
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Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.
