The state has taken courageous efforts to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and “flatten the curve” by closing bars, restaurants, ski resorts and gyms. Our hope is that these necessary precautions will give our health care workers, including critical support staff, and emergency first responders enough time and capacity to build the infrastructure we need to contain the virus. However, we know that approximately 80,000 of those emergency workers have young children and without child care many of them will not be able to return to the jobs that are most crucial to containing the spread of the virus.
It is for that reason that Governor Polis called together a group of early childhood providers, advocacy groups, school districts and foundations to partner with the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) and the Office of Early Childhood (OEC) to establish a system of emergency child care for our most essential workers.