In this podcast, Nicole Riehl, president and CEO of Colorado Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (better known as EPIC), discusses a new Colorado law that will pay for 10 hours a week of preschool for all 4-year-olds, and what that means for child care providers and families.
Nicole was an early childhood teacher for five years and her background includes extensive work with Denver’s preschool programs as well as coordinating various early childhood quality improvement events, resource, and activities across Colorado. She was the CEO of Denver’s Early Childhood Council before taking over the helm of EPIC in 2019.
She discusses how this new state law was designed for flexibility to allow parents to choose what preschool their children can attend and still be eligible for those 10 hours of preschool, as well as the importance of making the program accessible and easy to use for providers and families.
To learn more about Colorado Epic, visits its website: www.coloradoepic.org.
In this podcast, Nicole Riehl, president and CEO of Colorado Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (better known as EPIC), discusses a new Colorado law that will pay for 10 hours a week of preschool for all 4-year-olds, and what that means for child care providers and families.
Nicole was an early childhood teacher for five years and her background includes extensive work with Denver’s preschool programs as well as coordinating various early childhood quality improvement events, resource, and activities across Colorado. She was the CEO of Denver’s Early Childhood Council before taking over the helm of EPIC in 2019.
She discusses how this new state law was designed for flexibility to allow parents to choose what preschool their children can attend and still be eligible for those 10 hours of preschool, as well as the importance of making the program accessible and easy to use for providers and families.
To learn more about Colorado Epic, visits its website: www.coloradoepic.org.
Welcome to the childcare business podcast brought to you by ProCare solutions. This podcast is all about giving childcare, preschool, daycare, afterschool, and other early education professionals, a fun and upbeat way to learn about strategies and inspiration you can use to thrive. You'll hear from a variety of childcare thought leaders, including educators, owners, and industry experts on ways to innovate, to meet the needs of the children you serve from practical tips for managing operations, to uplifting stories of transformation and triumph. This podcast will be chalk full of insights. You can use to fully realize the potential of your childcare business. Let's jump in
Speaker 2:Good morning, everybody. We are, uh, back with the childcare business podcast and, uh, excited as always to have a guest today that we think, uh, is gonna be able to provide some really valuable content, some really interesting work that's being done, uh, in this case, in the state of Colorado. And so I'm, I'm really excited to introduce Nicole R uh, she's the president and CEO of Colorado executives partnering to invest in children, which is better known by its acronym of epic, which I love for many reasons. Um, Nicole's gonna talk to us about a new Colorado law that will pay for 10 hours a week of preschool for all four year olds and what that means for childcare providers. Um, and just by way of quick intro, and Nicole was an early childhood teacher for five years, and her background includes extensive work with Denver's preschool programs, as well as coordinating various early childhood quality improvement, events, resources, and activities across the entire state of Colorado. Uh, she was formerly the CEO of Denver's early childhood council before taking over the helm of epic in 2019. Um, so we're super excited to have you welcome Nicole.
Speaker 3:Thanks Ryan. I'm so glad to be here today.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We were just talking before, you know, we started recording, which is always fun. You had an interview yesterday with somebody in Hawaii, unfortunately we're in a Colorado based company, just like you are, but you are leaving later today, uh, for some time in, in, in the sun in California. So appreciate you squeezing in a conversation.
Speaker 3:Of course, anytime, always happy to talk about early childhood.
Speaker 2:So, so talk to me about, so early childhood, obviously the reason we connected, you know, our marketing team is constantly looking for, you know, individuals and organizations that are, you know, in our shared space, like we live and work and everything we do is, is in the early childhood space. And so we're always looking to have conversations with, uh, you know, other individuals and companies that are, you know, doing work in the same space for the same, you know, kind of common goal of investing in, in the, the future of, of our country and our economy. And, and that starts, you know, with kids. But talk to me before we jump into like epic. Talk to me a little bit about if you would your story, I know you, your native Colorado, and if I'm not, you know, if I'm not wrong about that, I am.
Speaker 3:And
Speaker 2:Your first job were you, was your first job in, in preschool? Was it in childcare like coming outta school or am I wrong on that?
Speaker 3:Well, my very first job was actually working for a before and after school program for the Metro Denver, Y M C a. Um, but after that first job, um, I really entered the early childhood field as an early childhood teacher working at an employer onsite childcare facility. It was storage techs onsite, um, childcare facility for their employees up in Louisville, Colorado.
Speaker 2:You, it was okay. And you were a teacher. What do you, um, what do you remember just outta curiosity very first day or first, like reflections on, um, I got interviewed for this job. I'm now a teacher. Anything you remember about your first day or first week or first season working in a classroom?
Speaker 3:Well, certainly, um, it's such an important and fun job, but it's also exhausting. So it did take me a while to adjust to being an early childhood teacher and just understanding, you know, how much, uh, how much work it takes to really put your full self into supporting and caring for and educating young children for a full day. Um, but I also just loved the fact that, you know, we, we had parents nearby at the facility I worked at, and so we constantly had parents coming in and out, you know, moms coming to breastfeed parents coming to have lunch with their children, or just do a quick visit. Um, it was so nice to have so much family engagement there on site as well. So I really enjoyed that. And I was always, you know, fond of working with children and loved working with children in general. But when I started working with younger children in early childhood, I really was amazed by the amount of learning and brain development and, and how quickly they advance and just pick up on things that I think that was the most amazing thing to me is an early childhood teacher. And I loved, I loved the work. Um, and in that particular program, we were able to move teachers up and essentially kind of follow the children as they aged up. And so I also followed my class of children really, as they went from toddlers to preschoolers and ultimately pre-kindergarten, and then left, um, you know, for their own, uh, elementary schools afterwards. And I'm actually still Facebook friends with some of the parents and kids today, 20 years later, over 20 years later. Um, so it's, it's amazing the relationships that you developed with these children and families and really you become part of their family in many cases.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I like, I actually like that model. I don't know if I've heard that very often where the teachers actually progress with the children through those early ages. Um, and I love the idea too. We do see a lot of like employer sponsored childcare programs, a lot of, you know, large organizations. And I know this will get into a little bit about what you guys do there at epic. Um, but was that particular center like with, um, storage tech? Was that, do you know, like the Genesis of it, was it a center that was initiated because the organization identified the need and wanted to offer it as a benefit to their staff, to their employees? Or was it more like employee led like, Hey, we need this resource on campus cuz there's a lot of us in that boat or, or was it there way before you started working there?
Speaker 3:He was a little bit of both. I think, you know, storage tech was obviously a technology company really on the forefront of innovation and um, and technology development at the time in Colorado in the late eighties, early nineties. And, you know, they knew that they really needed to be able to recruit the very best talent. Many of whom needed to be recruited really from the coastal areas of our country. And, you know, they were hearing from employees at the same time. Well, you know, we've looked around, we can't find childcare or this is gonna be a challenge for us to relocate. Um, you know, both my, you know, both of our, our, uh, individuals in our household work. And so we need to be able to find a, a good place for our child to play, learn and be cared for. And so I think, you know, really stemmed from both of those things, but ultimately storage tech saw their onsite childcare facility as not only a benefit for their employees, but also a really great recruiting tool, um, because they really needed to be able to attract and retain the best tech talent that was out there at the time.
Speaker 2:And then do, do you know, like at the time, because this, you know, just kind of starts to talk about the blend for you between like, you know, private industry and business, the, you know, the economics of that and how that, you know, has this relationship with early childhood education and the, the importance of that for families, not just for the children, but for, for parents whose kids are in it. Um, you know, at the time, do you know how, um, storage tech did they, did they subsidize childcare for their, for the families and actually cover the cost or a portion of it? Or was it just the main benefit in that environment? Was it just that, Hey, it's onsite, we're gonna provide the space and there's value in that? Or was it a little bit of both, you know,
Speaker 3:Um, I think it was a little bit of both parents did pay tuition for the onsite childcare facility, but I believe it was a little bit lower than market rate. Um, I also know that just to make the, the child care business and high quality operation of that business, sustainable storage tech did invest money into that childcare facility and operation each year. So they saw that childcare program as a cost center versus, you know, a benefit that was essentially, um, designed to kind of pay for itself or break even, um, got it. So they re they recognized that they needed to invest in that onsite childcare benefit, but that they were also receiving a return on that investment in other areas, some more measurable than others, but they certainly knew that. Um, and it was also located in the wellness center on the storage check campus, but also had, um, you know, healthcare services and, you know, a workout facility, a swimming pool, um, a dentist on site. So they also had other services they invested in on their campus too. So that employees really had great access to, um, a wide variety of family and wellness benefits.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Which is AMA, I mean, because now, and I, and I think, you know, this in Colorado probably way better than I do, but the whole challenge of the supply of childcare. I mean, for employers to recognize that for our families who actually need this resource for them to have to go out and find it on their own is super challenging where there's just not enough spots. So to, to actually take that decision out of the mix and that challenge out of the mix is, like you said, may be hard to measure for employers who actually invest in onsite childcare, but they were obviously seeing a benefit to it. And it made a lot of sense for them then after that for you, like, um, after you left that, cause I just kind of wanna walk your track a little bit, leading up to what you're doing with epic. So you, you left, um, the childcare center at that point as a teacher. And then I think you left the industry for, for a little bit. Am I right on that? And then what brought you, what brought you back? Was it the man, this is just in my bones and it's where my passion is. Or was it some other event that brought you back?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was really, you know, I, I left early here in education after I received my business degree and went into the private sector for several years. Um, you know, which I enjoyed that work, but at the end of the day, I really missed having an impact on children and families. I didn't necessarily want to go back into the classroom and teach, but I did want to, um, get involved. And I think, you know, work on maybe more of a systemic level around early childhood. And so I was working in, in the private sector actually for a large national home builder at the time. And a friend of mine called me and said, Hey, Denver just passed this voter initiative that creates universal preschool in Denver, and we're gonna need some help designing this program, rolling it out, working with childcare providers, getting them onboarded and actually designing a quality improvement program and model to offer them grants and support them in this effort too. And said, you know, would you be interested in coming back to early childhood? And I said, yes,<laugh>. Um, so, you know, I had really missed it and was yearning for another opportunity and something a little bit different than what I had done, but also really making a big impact. And that's what eventually brought me back to early childhood.
Speaker 2:And then for that work, just cuz this will be kind of the building blocks about, you know, I, I keep saying this, but about what we're doing at epic, but in designing that preschool program that was specifically for the Denver Metro area. Uh, can you talk a little bit about what that entailed it was? Was it universal preschool and was it the mechanics for you? Was it figuring out how are we gonna fund this? How are we gonna distribute the funds? Or was it more like the program architecture, what it looked like in the actual classrooms?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was more about the program architecture and how the program actually interacted and supported with the childcare providers because the voter ordinance had been passed and the funding was available for families to access, which was a sliding scale of hours and, and a tuition credit that was available to all families across Denver. But then we also had to have the, the childcare providers across Denver participating in that program. And so there really was a lot of recruitment, a lot of education, a lot of engagement that had to happen around launching that new program, helping childcare providers understand how it worked, how they were gonna help parents get approved for those tuition credits and manage them on their end administratively, and also the benefits that would come to them as a result of participating. So for example, they would've access to additional grants that could support the purchase of materials for classrooms or support additional curricula in the program or, um, support additional professional development for their teachers. So part of it was really also helping to design what that looked like from the very get go, you know, what was the value proposition for childcare providers and participating with the Denver preschool program and how did we make that program work? Both from the demand and the supply side,
Speaker 2:Because, because in that case, cuz we hear a lot about universal pre-K in different states all over the country and, and specific in Denver at that time, when you talk about the value proposition for providers, because it, it, it's not something that they were mandated to participate in. And so like if I was a childcare, an independent childcare provider, I didn't have to accept universal preschool if I'm hearing you correctly. So when you talk about having to recruit participation for a preschool that was full or maybe had a waiting list and felt like, Hey, that's not something we need, you guys actually had to kind of sell the benefits of the program. And do you think the states do a good job of, of making it attractive to providers? Like you said, you have access to different grants and funding. Is that an accurate description? If I'm a provider that has a full center or a full preschool already, what's the benefit to me of opening up seats for universal preschool? If that's a fair question.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, so part of it comes down to of course, making sure that if parents have access to that tuition credit and that financial support that they feel like they can access that when and where and how they need to, um, in a childcare program of their choice. And I think Denver preschool program was unique because it really, it honored that for families, it honored the parent choice component and the fact that many parents were also working parents and had a wide variety of programs that they preferred for their children. Um, and so for providers, we knew that we needed to make that as, as easy as possible and also meet them where they were in terms of quality, you know, part of administering public dollars. As you wanna do that responsibly, you also wanna make sure that public dollars are funding quality, early childhood experiences and care for children. And so part of that program was saying, Hey, you know, we'd like you to participate in quality improvement initiatives and you know, and really support those components of it. But also the program needed to meet people where they were. So if they needed to invest in professional development for their teachers, if they needed to buy new materials for the classrooms, um, if they really needed support in actually reaching higher levels of quality that they had access to grants and funding support and coaching and technical assistance to do that as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's amazing. And you got, and you, you, so you really got to be a part of the formation of that. It sounds like you were around for rolling it out and establishing it in hundreds of, of programs in the Denver Metro area. And then what was the next step for you? How did you end up at epic maybe kind of coming full circle a little bit. And when did you start at epic and, and what led you there? What was the opening and, and what drew you to the organization?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so after I had, you know, I'd worked with the Denver preschool program and eventually moved into more of a grants management role and, um, ultimately then moved over to Denver's early childhood council at the time early childhood councils were becoming this really robust and strong network of organizations across Colorado, 34 of them, um, that were really created and designated to support childcare providers. So they provided a whole myriad of services and supports to make sure that early care and education system and providers from homes and centers and public preschools were all supported in their efforts to support children and families. Um, when I joined Denver's early childhood council, you know, we were a small organization, a staff of three, a budget under a million dollars. By the time I had left in 2019, we were almost a$6 million organization and had over 33 staff members. So there was a lot of growth in that time, you know, race to the top grants came out, um, across the country, there was a huge amount of focus and I think support and all of a sudden awareness around the importance of early childhood care and education. And so it was a great time to really see how a lot of these new efforts were blossoming and how we could really, um, hopefully design programs to meet the needs of not only families and children, but meet the needs of the childcare providers as well because they have such a tough job, um, and even administratively right, working in so many different funding streams, oftentimes that is a tough job as well. Um, and so it was really fun doing all of that work in, in 2019, uh, I ended up at a happy hour and learned that Epic's president, my predecessor was retiring and that they were going to be looking for a new president and CEO. And, you know, were
Speaker 2:You familiar so sorry to interrupt, but were you familiar with epic at that time? So with your work at the childhood council, had you interacted with epic and knew about the organization, so you at least had that reference point?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I, I knew about epic and my work and I had always been so intrigued by the idea of business leaders and employers really advocating for early childhood and getting involved in addressing a lot of these, um, opportunities and challenges that we had around early care and education for families. So I knew about epic and really for me, that was the co the perfect combination of what I wanted to do. It was putting my passion for business and my passion for early childhood together. Um, because I did, you know, sometimes miss working in the private sector as well, and certainly enjoyed that work when I, when I worked there. Um, and so when, when the previous president retired, um, you know, one thing led to another, I ended up in conversations and interviews with their board members and, um, ultimately joined epic as their new president and CEO in September of 2019. So I had interesting a few months right before the pandemic hit<laugh> yes, it was a, an interesting first year on the job to say the least. Um, but it's an amazing organization. And I was just so excited about the potential of working with really influential business leaders and employers and private sector partners to lift up the importance of early care and education and early childhood supports for families.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a, I, I would imagine, and I, I could be wrong on this, but coming from work at a state level where a lot of government involvement and then being able to actually work with private business owners, like I would think in some ways there's a freedom that comes with that where, Hey, we're not tied to so much of the red tape that maybe, you know, public dollars and public institutions, you know, are tied to. I know you guys do a lot of work in that arena, but, but talk about like, so, so our audience can kind of understand what epic does, like from a mission standpoint, Epic's role and how they're structured. Maybe if you could articulate that for somebody who's never heard of epic before, and is curious about the mission of the organization, how it's structured. Can you, can you speak to that a bit?
Speaker 3:Sure. So about 13 years ago, a group of business leaders got together at lunch and said, you know, early childhood is really important for our workforce today and our workforce for tomorrow. And we wanna create an organization that can serve as the business community's voice in support of early childhood policies and infrastructure and investments that help us make sure, sure that we are attracting and retaining the very best workforce today, but we are also building and developing a great workforce for tomorrow. So that is why epic was founded. That is why we exist. And we really focus our efforts on kind of four key areas. So first of all, we focus on policy work. We know that policies that are put into place, impact families and children for decades and beyond. And it's incredibly important to make sure that we not only have the right policies, but those policies are also created in a way that are efficient and effective and are ultimately designed to serve our end users of whatever it might be, our preschool or childcare providers or our families and our children first and foremost. So we care deeply about that. And our, our policy work is very bipartisan in nature. Um, we work with legislators on both sides of the aisle and always make sure that we've got perspectives from, you know, all sorts of different industries and points of view included in our policy work. Secondly, we work with the business community to educate our business leaders and our private sector employers on the importance of early childhood and early care and education, making sure that we really help illustrate the impacts on the economy related to, you know, families who maybe are, or aren't able to enter and stay in the workforce because they don't have access to childcare. Um, why is it important of course, for the future generation and the workforce that companies are going to need in 15 or 20 years from now to make sure children are also getting these excellent early childhood learning experiences and that their development is fully supported. So we work with a lot of chambers of commerce, economic development, corporations, groups like that. Um, we also work directly with employers who want to improve their own benefits and look at ways to support the needs that their employees have. Sometimes that's just asking employees and helping them think about how they assess the needs of their workforce related to caregiving obligations and, and childcare needs. Sometimes that's actually supporting employers in building onsite childcare facilities as well when they get to the point of saying, yep, we need this. Um, oftentimes it's a very daunting task and childcare is not within their expertise and not what they do as a day to day business. And so epic does not operate childcare facilities, but we do help employers really get from concept to completion will help them think about the facility needs, do some proforma, financial modeling, and even connect them to potential operators as well. Um, cause there are a lot of great operators out there who could operate facilities for employers as well. Um, and then lastly, we also recognize that onsite childcare is not a solution that actually works for most employers, um, and many employees. Um, you know, some people prefer family childcare homes, some, you know, there's lots of different family preferences out there. And so we also just make sure that in our efforts, we're trying to, as a whole support, the infrastructure needs for the early care and education community, including building the workforce and making sure that childcare programs have the great teachers they need in their programs, but also working on things like facilities, because we know it's also a very capital intensive business and starting up a new childcare facility is also quite the task.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's amazing. It's amazing to me that 13 people or business leaders, you know, years ago sat down and recognized the need for that. Was that, do you think that was because those business leaders, like they were acutely aware of, like when we look at our workforce there's actual data or metrics that we can look to that say individuals that came from early childhood programs are more successful in the workforce or more prepared in the workforce is, was that one of the things that they were seeing like, Hey, we don't have the same talent pool and they track it all the way back to early education. Is there data that exists that kind of supports that, that, that mission that you were talking about?
Speaker 3:Yeah. You know, 13 years ago there was a lot more research coming out about the long term impacts of children having access to these high quality early childhood supports and services and education. And so our founders are certainly very data driven and they were noticing, you know, of course all this research coming out, but also knew that even in Colorado finding the talent that they needed to keep their businesses operating, but also growing and globally competitive was becoming more and more of a challenge. So part of that too, was just thinking about how do we become the very best place to live and work and raise a family and make sure that we are competitive when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent. How do we make sure that instead of importing so much talent into our state and into our economy and businesses, we can actually grow and build our own. And so that was also I think, a big component of the conversation. They saw the data, they were understanding the importance and the greater return on investment that comes back to employers and public sector leaders and, and really the economy as a whole, when we invest in children early in life. But also of course saw those direct bottom line impacts and benefits for their own businesses as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Some of, some of the, um, you guys have done such a good job, some of the people in Colorado natives might say, Hey, you guys have done such a good job of recruiting people to our state. It's gone nuts in the last 20 years. Everybody's moved to Colorado. Do do you, of, of those, um, buckets that you were were talking about earlier, uh, is there one in particular, so like working with local businesses, educating businesses on the need of early, you know, childhood education doing the, the work with, you know, obviously the government, is there one of those buckets that takes more of your attention than others? I know specifically the reason I ask that is, I know you guys just recently did a lot of work around, you know, providing funding for, um, you know, tuition dollars to families in Colorado. I, is there one of those buckets that, that you index more towards, or are they pretty equal efforts across the board?
Speaker 3:I would say the two buckets we end up spending, um, the lion share of our time in would be policy. And certainly that tends to be very, very busy during Colorado's part-time legislative season, which really goes from January to may. And then we also spend quite a bit of time working directly with employers and organizations across Colorado, um, around feasibility studies and actually looking at implementing early care and education benefits for employers as well. So that has become something that as a result of the pandemic employers have certainly become much more focused on looking at childcare benefits for their workforce and thinking about how they can be a part of the solution.
Speaker 2:I think that is one of the, the, I don't know if you guys have seen this, but I heard you make a couple comments. So I assume so that just as hard as the pandemic was, like you said, you started in September, 2019, and nobody expected what 2020 was gonna look like and difficult to navigate it. The change management that everybody had to go through was huge, but then coming out of it, it has shown a light on the importance of this industry and the segment. And, and because of that, we've seen government dollars flow into the industry, which has created some new challenges about how do we distribute things and do it, you know, in a way that's equitable. Um, but it sounds like you guys have seen that too. And in particular, I, I know talking about the work that you guys are doing with the government, with the state there in Colorado, talk about this new law. That seems to be like an exciting thing that I don't know if it's unprecedented, but I, in terms of working in all 50 states, haven't heard a lot of states that have gotten this much momentum behind it. Can you talk a little bit about, I don't know if that's 20, 22 or 2023, that it goes into effect, but it's the, um, you know, the state's gonna pay for some childcare hours, preschool hours for families, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah. As of August 20, 23, Colorado has free universal preschool available to all children in their year before kindergarten. And it guarantees a minimum of 10 hours per week of free preschool. And some children and families would be eligible for more as well. And, you know, I think this really goes back to when governor Jared POIs was elected in Colorado in 2018. He is a tremendous champion for not only children and families, but young children and families, families early childhood was something that he included in his campaign language and has had a real focus on. He has, you know, two children of his own and certainly saw the benefits of having access to early care, um, and education programs and supports for his own children as well. But when he, you know, came on as governor, um, I think there were a lot of partners who were talking about, well, how can we really take the next step to support children, families in Colorado? And part of that conversation, which many of our epic business leaders were part of was talking about, okay, let's make sure that, you know, our children are prepared for school that we're putting, you know, setting them up for success, um, and ready to reach their full potential, whatever that might be later in life. And, you know, we had started with funding full day, kindergarten in Colorado, and that was passed. And so we, you know, we had to get free full day kindergarten in place first. And then we moved down to preschool. Um, and I think what was really important for epics business leaders who were involved in these conversations was saying, you know, listen, we wanna honor family's choices and needs. We know that, you know, a parent who's working a third shift in manufacturing is probably gonna have a different childcare choice and a different choice for their child's preschool, then another parent. And so it was really important that as we thought about implementing universal preschool for Colorado, that we did it in a way that really allowed parents to access the preschool programs that they wanted for their children and was flexible. So that, uh, preschool providers and childcare providers could also access those dollars really easily. And, you know, we ran a referendum, uh, through the state legislature in 2020, which was passed with bipartisan votes and then placed on the ballot for Colorado voters in November of 2020 and Colorado voters approved an increase in taxes on tobacco products here in Colorado, and also for the first time taxes on liquid nicotine and vaping products in Colorado. And all of that funding would be dedicated to supporting access to universal preschool for the state as a whole and all of that,
Speaker 2:All of that funding. So everything related to the tax on those products that you said, so you guys did a lot of work to build that
Speaker 3:In. Well, yeah, I, I should say almost all of the funding will be dedicated to universal preschool. There are some very small components of the funding that will go towards, um, education around vaping products and, you know, and smoking cessation and things like that as well. Um, but for the most part, the, the, you know, the lion share of the money is going to fund universal preschool, um, which is over 220 million a year. So it's a significant amount of money, um, that is being invested in this universal preschool system and voters, you know, when it went to the voters across Colorado, you know, red and blue counties alike, uh, vote voted for this, uh, for proposition EE and it passed overwhelmingly with about a two thirds vote of support in Colorado, from voters as well.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. I'm, I'm curious, this is like a complete side note on that initiative, but like for you being as an organization, heavily invested in that legislation and, and putting in all the legwork to get it on the ballot and then on election night as it's rolling out, is that like, is that a nervous night for you guys watching like, Hey, how is the public gonna respond? Is all of this work gonna translate? Do they understand the mission? And then there's a lot of stakeholders yourself and epic and all the other organizations that worked on that was that, am I right? Is that like pins and needles that night? Or was it like, Hey, you know, we did the work, whatever the public says will live with and move forward, or what's that like for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I think everyone was really nervous, excited, nervous, right? If it passed, it meant huge things for Colorado. If it didn't pass, it was, you know, gonna be obviously a huge disappointment. There had been so many different stakeholders and, and partners and organizations who had supported proposition EE, you know, I mean, organizations had just put so much time and effort into it with, you know, card children's campaign, leading a lot of those policy efforts and, and discussions, you know, parents and business leaders. Um, it really had a lot of support behind it. And of course they do some pulling ahead of time with these types of things too. So I think we were generally feeling pretty good about it because we knew that there was pretty broad support for preschool, um, really across different voter groups in general, but you just never know. Um, you know, there's always opposition to these types of things and plenty of, uh, of ads that come out at the last minute. And so yeah, you are on pins and needles until you start to see the returns and the numbers coming back and, you know, you can breathe a little bit of a sigh of relief.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no kidding. That it passed. And then, and then what, so what does the, what does the future look like for epic, like in terms of, so that that's next year, that was in a big initiative and is a big part of the messaging around like, Hey, providing families of every economic status, access to preschool for that, you know, those four year olds, three year olds. It's been a while since my kids were that age, but in that, that age group, um, what are you guys working on now? What, what, what has your attention, I know broadly what you guys are focused on, but any specific initiatives that are going on in Colorado that, that epic is focused on right now?
Speaker 3:Well, we've still been focused on the implementation of universal preschool a little bit because of course, proposition EE passed and then all of the hard work around actually designing the program and how it looked and, and how it was framed had to be done as well. And I think one really great thing about the way Colorado did this process is they, they listened to parents and childcare providers intently in this process. And I think what was interesting is childcare providers said, you know, the system we have right now, which is managing all these different funding, streams have having different reporting methods, having different applications, different rules and requirements for each program is not working for us. We need something better. And parents said the same thing parents said, I'm going to three different state departments to apply for programs and support, filling out all these different applications. Everything's confusing and different. I want something that's easier for me. And so part of implementing universal preschool has been thinking about how we, um, how we do a better job of that for families and providers. So we did implement a brand new cabinet level department of early childhood in Colorado this year. It is launching July 1st<laugh>. And so that has been a big deal. And all of those different funding streams are being pulled into the department of early childhood so that they can all be administered by one entity rather than multiple departments. Um, and the parents will have one single application they can complete as well, which will be a game changer for families. Um, on the provider side, you know, providers will also have, I think, a much more streamlined experience. They're streamlining, you know, everything from rules and regulations and requirements to also, you know, the application and fiscal process for providers and really trying to make that a much more seamless experience for childcare programs as well. Um, so lots of great work there. Uh, the preschool program funding itself is actually flowing through the department of early childhood and not necessarily, uh, school districts directly, which a lot of, you know, other states or areas in the country that have implemented preschool have done they've, you know, funded that money through school districts. Um, sometimes primarily. And I think that can make it difficult for community based programs to participate. And so we really didn't want to have that barrier of entry in this model and, you know, it's, it's gonna be, um, what I would kind of consider level playing field for family childcare homes, family childcare centers, public preschool programs, to all service families and children through that model with this new department of early childhood. And then we've also done a lot of work on, uh, really facilities and workforce to make sure that as we are expanding access to universal preschool in Colorado, that, um, childcare centers and programs who want to expand or want to start up new locations have access to funding to do so. So we have, um, the emerging and expanding, uh, childcare facility grant program in Colorado that can provide access to funding to support those endeavors. We've made tremendous investments into our early childhood workforce. We have a brand new tax credit refund, refundable tax credit that was created this year. So that early childhood teachers can receive up to$1,500 each year when they file their taxes, um, for being an early childhood teacher and achieving certain levels of credentials in their own professional career. So a lot of investments into those other areas, knowing that when you implement universal preschool, you need to also make sure that you have the great teaching professionals in the classrooms to support that demand and make sure that we don't lose our infant and toddler care. And you also have the facilities in the classrooms where those children can go. And again, you're not losing those infant and toddler classrooms to provide preschool care.
Speaker 2:Are, are some of those last initiatives like, so, you know, one of the things that we keep hearing from, you know, providers all over the country and organizations that support the industry is, you know, the challenge of staffing right now and finding quality. So some of that work that you mentioned around the tax credits, obviously that's something that, you know, should be, you know, it's a benefit to people that are individuals that are teaching in this space, but just even recruiting people, um, who have a passion for early childhood and for educating kids and being involved, uh, is, are those things that you guys get involved in as well, continuing to partner with providers on how do we recruit and how do we find teachers and, and what does that look like to make this an attractive career path? If that makes sense?
Speaker 3:Uh, you know, I think we've got the early childhood councils and a lot of really great, um, you know, advocacy groups who work directly with childcare providers in Colorado, who I think, do work more closely with them on strategies and how to implement those pieces. You know, the, the beauty about epic though, is that, you know, we have kind of the unusual suspects advocating for these early childhood policies and investments at the table. So we have, you know, business leaders of organizations who are totally unaffiliated with childcare, you know, calling legislators or signing letters of support saying this is really important. We need to make these investments. So we really try to stay on the, um, on the advocacy and the policy side. And we work closely with our other stakeholder partners and early childhood councils and advocacy partners to actually help implement those things, you know, throughout the sector and with childcare providers directly.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's amazing. Do you guys, are you familiar like, um, nationwide, I mean, epic and all the work that we do, it, it, it sounds like a unique approach to problem solving the challenges in early, you know, early childhood education. Are you familiar with other organizations in other states that are doing similar things, like, do you guys partner in other states and collaborate, or are you, is this like cutting edge, like Colorado is one of the first to have something like epic where the business leaders have come together to establish this, this purpose?
Speaker 3:I would say Colorado probably has the more, the most formalized and advanced version of a business leaders organization focused on early childhood. Certainly other states do have business leader, round tables and other organizations that they've developed, uh, to advocate for early childhood. But of course we are a 5 0 1 C three nonprofit organization. And, um, our are certainly much more robust in our capacity and our strategic mission and vision and the work that we do. Um, and so, you know, certainly we speak to a lot of other states and get a lot of phone calls about epic to actually help other states think about how they can do the same. And, and, you know, it really all starts with, I think, a really core group of business champions because it was the business leaders who had the influence and the power and, you know, really the, the passion behind their voices that made epic happen in Colorado. And so if you can find the same type of business leaders in other states, you can do something similar as well. Um, and of course we work with, we also partner with groups like, you know, council for strong America who put out a lot of great research and reports, um, and also advocate through their own network of business leaders. So we work with, you know, partners like that closely, um, as well.
Speaker 2:Got it. So if you, if you, if, if Nicole went to some other state and it was like, there was nothing like this at all established, it really starts with finding some, you know, community business leaders that are invested in this cause starting there because funding for you guys, is it, is it donation based? Is it all grant based funding that actually gives you your operating budget? Or is it a combination?
Speaker 3:It's a combination. So I would say the lifeblood of epic is, is our membership and our members contribute financially to our mission each year. And that really gives us a core base budget to operate off of and make sure that we can do our, you know, our policy work and everything else. We also receive grants throughout the year from foundations, family, foundations, um, things like that. And then we also have revenue that we bring in from feasibility studies and actual consulting and contracting work that we do with employers as well. Um, so it's a little bit of a combination of all three of those things that supports our budget.
Speaker 2:Got it. And then maybe one of my final questions. So for membership, uh, or members of epic in terms of like, is there are the membership benefits that you have a voice at the table, or like for you guys, as you kind of present, like, Hey, this is the benefit of being involved with epic as a business in Denver or across Colorado. Are there membership benefits if a business leader is listening about being involved in epic or is it more like, Hey, you're, you're helping us on this cause which is gonna be benefit all of us kind of universally across the state.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So epic, you know, we do host webinars and different types of learning experiences, um, where our members can come and join and learn more about certain topics. So for example, you know, know conducting surveys with your workforce around childcare benefits or, um, participating in a panel discussion about onsite childcare. Um, we have an employer's toolkit that we've developed and we offer some technical assistance to employers and our members specifically around implementing those types of, um, of practices in their own organization. And then our members also have access to events and networking events throughout the year. Um, for example, our executive members oftentimes will have round tables with the governor here in Colorado to talk about kind of the next hot early childhood effort that we're gonna be working on, or, you know, um, really just share information about what they're hearing or what's going on, um, with their own workforce and what they feel like we should be working on as a state. Um, and we of course have a number of business leaders who, you know, like to just get together and make sure that we can talk about early childhood policy and talk about the implications of the economy and what employers are seeing right now as, um, maybe challenges for their working families too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet. I think that last piece is probably super valuable to businesses, just the community of likemindedness and shared initiatives. Um, I, if people, a lot of our audience that would be listening, I would imagine Nicole are gonna be people in Colorado, like childcare owners, directors, administrators. So, and then, you know, probably nationwide individuals that might listen and say, that's an interesting model. You we'd love to maybe find out a little bit more about it for, for individuals who might be interested in learning more about epic. Are there some simple places where they can go find more information about you guys?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So they can visit our website@coloradoepic.org. And as soon as you visit our website, you'll get a popup to join our newsletter. So we always love it. If people join our list, serve and receive our newsletters, we try to keep everyone informed on everything that's happening. We'll share really, um, great articles, but also information on policies that are being developed in Colorado. Um, and sometimes, you know, even beyond. So, um, we've been working on a new design lab this year with employers, actually helping employers go through a full kind of process and business model development around onsite childcare. And we've gotten a lot of interest from other states on that. And so we're trying to develop some resources right now to share that information as well. So we've got lots of information on our website, around our policy work, um, the employer design lab, um, of course our membership and everything else that we do too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Amazing, super interesting stuff that you guys are doing. Nicole real, um, president and CEO of Colorado executives, partnering to invest in children, better known, uh, as epic. It's been really fun talking with you, Nicole. I know every time we have a guest on, you know, our show, I know how busy you are. We were talking before we started recording how many things that you have, uh, in the fire right now. So, so thank you for carving out an hour with us and we will add all of the information about epic and how people can find you in our show notes. Um, but appreciate all the content and, and keep up the good word.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Thank you for having me today. It was great to chat about this.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of the childcare business podcast, to get more insights on ways to succeed in your childcare business, make sure to hit subscribe in your podcast app. So you never miss an episode. And if you want even more childcare business tips, tricks and strategies, head over to our resource center@procaresoftware.com until next time.