(1) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that there is a critical need to increase services for young children and their families, including those families with members who are entering the workforce due to Colorado's reform of the welfare system, making the transition off of welfare, or needing child care assistance to avoid the welfare system. The statewide need includes increasing and sustaining the quality, accessibility, capacity, and affordability of services for children and their parents to help parents raise their children to be successful at school, at work, and in the community.
Research demonstrates that there are positive outcomes for young children and theirfamilies who receive quality, integrated child care and related services in their early, preschool years, delivered through a comprehensive early childhood system that includes quality care and education, family support, health, and mental health programs.
Providers of half-day preschool and full-day child care services have to overcomebarriers and inflexible requirements of the various sources of funding in order to design and implement programs that are more responsive to the needs of working families.
Consideration of various state and federal funding sources would allow for an integrated delivery system of quality programs for young children and their families in Colorado's communities.
An integrated delivery system would further enhance the ability of the state department to identify the best practices relative to increasing and sustaining quality and to meeting the diverse needs of families seeking child care and other early childhood services.
Distinctly local needs and conditions require that the state design and integrate asystem that has the flexibility to adapt to those local needs.
It is therefore in the state's best interest to establish a comprehensive system of earlychildhood councils to increase and sustain the availability, accessibility, capacity, and quality of early childhood services throughout the state, as provided in this part 1.
Source: L. 97: Entire article added, p. 1123, § 1, effective May 28. L. 2007: Entire section amended, p. 1633, § 1, effective May 31. L. 2009: (7) amended, (HB 09-1343), ch. 355, p. 1855, § 2, effective June 1.