City of Longmont's solution to addressing child care challenges in Boulder County

This is the fourth article in a series on the Consortium of Cities, which recently addressed child care challenges in Colorado and Boulder County.

The Boulder County Consortium of Cities (COC), which includes the cities of Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville, Boulder, and the Town of Erie, as well as non-voting Niwot representatives, convened on Dec. 4, 2024, to discuss the county's child care challenges. The City of Longmont presented its initiative to support the overlooked network of friends, family, and neighbors (FFN) who provide over 60% of all child care services in the city.

Boulder County faces significant child care challenges, including affordability, availability, uncertainty about state and federal funding, and lack of financial support for unlicensed and licensed exempt providers, representing 60% of the child care market.

City of Longmont employees Jennifer Diaz, the Community Coordinator for Prevention through Education, and Rogelio Mares, Public Information Officer, explained the city's approach. Diaz emphasized the importance of recognizing and supporting FFN providers, who, despite their crucial role and presence, often lack a relationship with the city.

Diaz said, "In 2023, we created an early child care data-driven dashboard to map FFN providers in relation to neighborhoods, aiming to understand better and engage this vital community." She noted the challenge of building trust with the FFN providers, some of whom may be hesitant to disclose their unlicensed status, or may not even consider themselves as formal care providers, but as a family member.

To bridge this gap, Longmont hosted a summit featuring Colorado State Representative Cristina Herman, an advocate for FFN providers state-wide with personal experience in the field. Breakout sessions allowed FFN providers to share their needs and challenges. Diaz said, "We wanted to understand their perspective and felt the trust-building approach worked."

Diaz is excited about Longmont's partnership with the Early Child Care Council of Boulder County (ECC) to secure a grant for "Rooted in Care," a training program for FFN providers. The program will offer workshops on topics ranging from caregivers' well-being and cultural education to licensing information and resource fairs. Rooted in Care will have three 10-lesson sessions accessible via Zoom, Feb. 22 - April 26, June 7 - Aug. 9 and Sept. 6 - Oct. 18. Participants are eligible to receive $950 toward materials from grant funds.

Diaz said that the Longmont City Council had prioritized child care early on, incorporating childcare provisions into new housing developments based on data from the city's child care dashboard, identifying areas of high need. The locations of child care providers in relation to the locations of the parents were important criteria.

The ECC highlighted a concerning statistic that showed one-third of highly educated women drop out of the workforce annually due to the lack of affordable and available child care.

Diaz explained, "We see this statistic play out across Boulder County. The lack of affordability and availability puts parents in a challenging position. Women have to make a choice, and oftentimes, it is more expensive for them to go to work and pay for child care versus stay home."

Finally, Mares addressed the potential impact of recent federal funding pauses. While programs like Head Start were reportedly exempt, disruptions have occurred. Longmont is preparing a city-wide response and assessing potential impacts, with a press release pending a recent court decision by U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocking the funding freeze only minutes before it took effect.