• The Stabilization and Sustainability Grant application opens on January 21, 2022 and closes September 30, 2022. The application is rolling and you can apply at any time before the closing date to begin receiving monthly payments.

• If your application is completed before January 28, 2022, you will receive your first payment by February 11, 2022.

• To continue receiving monthly grant payments, child care providers must complete a monthly attestation process.

• All grant funds must be fully spent by September 30, 2023, and may be used to reimburse past expenses since the start of the pandemic on January 31, 2020.

All open and licensed or CCCAP qualified exempt child care providers who were in operation on March 11, 2021 may receive funds. This includes programs that serve birth to age five and school-aged children.

• Grants are non-competitive and the award totals are based on licensed capacity and Colorado Shines quality rating at the time of application. Bonus awards will be added for providers serving infants and toddlers, children with special needs, or providing care during non-traditional hours.

• Information you enter into the application will not alter your award total. You can review how the monthly payments will be calculated here.

The Office of Early Childhood (OEC) is partnering with MetrixIQ, a Denver-based technology company, to distribute this funding.

• MetrixIQ will send an email to all eligible providers on January 21, 2022 from coecstimulus@metrixiq.com. The email will have a unique link that will take you to your application.

• If you believe you should have received an application link and did not receive one, please fill out a help desk request at help.coecstimulus.com. Select “Technical Issue - Application” as the category and “I did not receive a link” as the subcategory.

Payments will be distributed monthly for nine months.

Providers have until September 30, 2023 to fully spend their Child Care Operations Stabilization Grants and Workforce Sustainability Grants.

If you need any support filling out the application or if you have questions about what is being asked, please fill out a help desk request at help.coecstimulus.com.

• “Open” means the provider has an open child care license and is not in the revocation process. Programs on probation are still eligible.

• “Operating” means the provider is actively giving in-person care. Virtual services do not count for the purposes of this grant program.

• “In operation on March 11, 2021” means the provider was in existence as a child care program on that date, even if the provider was temporarily closed and/or not actively giving in-person care on that date due to COVID-19 related safety measures and/or financial hardship.

Eligible providers who were temporarily closed during the pandemic may qualify for these funds pending review of documentation supporting the temporary nature of the closure and plans to remain open through the duration of the grant.

A temporary closure is one where your staff is still on your payroll, your license is still active, and you plan to reopen to in-person care within 30 days. Temporary closures of physical care due to COVID-19 related safety measures and/or financial hardship are permitted. Providers that are closed due to natural disaster may still be eligible to receive funds during the closure and should contact their licensing specialist.

Yes, all open and licensed or CCCAP qualified exempt child care providers who were in operation on March 11, 2021 may receive grant funds. This includes programs that serve birth to age five and school-aged children.

• Child care providers must have been in operation on March 11, 2021 either as a family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) provider or as a provider operating as license-exempt and become licensed or CCCAP qualified exempt prior to completing their application to receive the grant funding. The licensing process can take 60-120 days to complete.

• Newly licensed or CCCAP qualified exempt providers will have to attest that they were providing Family, Friend, Neighbor (FFN) or license-exempt care as of March 11, 2021 in order to receive the payment.

• Possibly. If a program was in operation on March 11, 2021 AND the facility never closed operations and only the governing body changed, the new operator may be eligible to apply for these grants.

• The Office of Early Childhood’s licensing team will evaluate specific situations like these on a case-by-case basis. Please fill out a help desk request at help.coecstimulus.com if you have questions.

• Yes, providers are encouraged to apply to all available grants for which they are eligible.

• For entitlement grants, such as the Child Care Operations Stabilization and Workforce Sustainability Grants, eligible providers will need to complete a brief application and will receive funding without going through a competitive or need-based process.

• For competitive grants, such as the Health and Mental Health Grants or the CIRCLE Grants, programs will have to demonstrate eligibility and, due to the grant’s competitive nature, may or may not receive funding.

• CCCAP qualified exempt providers are providers who are legally exempt from licensing but can still contract with their county CCCAP program and provide care to families receiving CCCAP. Usually, these providers are the family, friend, or neighbor (FFN) of the child they are caring for.

• The FFN provider has also met all Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) health and safety requirements.

• CCCAP Qualified Exempt Providers must meet certain county requirements. Contact your county department of human/social services for details.

• More information on becoming a CCCAP qualified exempt provider can be found here, under Qualified Exempt Provider Requirements.

• Providers that are only open during the summer: These providers will receive funding only for the months they are open. Providers should submit an application for grant funding for the first month they are open and providing care.

• Providers that are closed during the summer: These providers are eligible for the full 9 months of payment, but are not eligible to receive the funds while they are closed over the summer months. Providers should complete monthly attestations and receive grant payments only during the months they are open and providing care. For example, a provider that is open during the school year and closed during the summer may receive grant payments in the spring and fall but not during the summer break.

• Both the Child Care Operations Stabilization Grant and the Workforce Sustainability Grant will be allocated through a formula based on a provider’s licensed capacity and their Colorado Shines quality level at the time of submitting their application. The award amount will not change if the provider’s capacity or rating changes during the nine-month payment period.

• Bonus awards may be distributed through a tenth-month payment for providers serving infants and toddlers, children with special needs, or providing care during non-traditional hours.

• Providers who only run programs for school-aged children with a license type of a school-aged care center (SACC) and do not have a Colorado Shines rating will be assigned a default rating of Level 1.

• Providers who run both preschool and school-aged programs and have a license type of a child care center (CCC) should have a Colorado Shines rating and can apply their rating to the whole cohort in their care, including those in school-aged programs.

Colorado Shines ratings indicate to families when programs have taken the extra step to engage in continuous quality improvement activities. There are extra costs associated with maintaining high-quality programming, which are reflected in the higher formula amounts for the award.

Both grants will be based on the licensed capacity and Colorado Shines quality level of a child care provider, regardless of what ages they serve.

• Child care licensing regulation defines “infant programs” as care for children between the ages of 6 weeks and 18 months.

• A toddler program provides care for children between the ages of 12 months (when walking independently or with a health care provider’s statement indicating developmental appropriateness of placement in a toddler program) and 36 months.

Non-traditional hours include care provided in the evening and overnight (between 6pm - 6am), and during the weekend.

• The federal stimulus funding is subject to the same tax rules as regular grant funding.

• MetrixIQ will issue 1099s to providers receiving grant payments in accordance with IRS regulations.

Providers who do not complete their attestation by the 15th of each month will not receive their payment for that month. If a provider misses an attestation, they can still receive their 9 payments, but it will be over a longer period of time.

The Child Care Operations Stabilization grants have some flexibility in how they are used, but the Workforce Sustainability Grants must be used by family child care homes to support themselves and their staff (if applicable) with benefits, compensation, early childhood professional development, and hiring additional staff or related workforce support. See this document for allowable uses of funds for both grant programs.

• No, federal stimulus funds cannot be used for new construction or major renovation projects. Minor facility maintenance or improvements may be allowed using Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) stimulus funds.

• The only funds approved for construction are from the State's General Fund, specifically the Emerging and Expanding Grant and the Employer-based Facility Child Care grant program.

• Awardees must recertify their grant activities and provide additional grant monitoring information each month of the grant period to continue receiving monthly payments.

• MetrixIQ will send reminders to awardees to recertify application information each month.

• Providers will be asked to report their total expenditures by category of allowable use.

• Awardees must keep documentation to show how grant funds were spent, upon request, which may include: payroll records, receipts for purchases, account statements for lease/rent/utility payments, or other documentation to show how funds were spent.

• More information on compliance and reporting will be available by February 11.

Examples of high impact, allowable uses of the funds include:

• Reasonable compensation for current staff

• Staff benefits and fringe

• Employee health and mental health resources

• Early childhood professional development opportunities

• Hiring additional staff

• Other related workforce recruitment and retention activities

• Providers should prioritize relief for families by an amount equal to 50% of their base grant award. You will be asked to report the total amount of financial relief that was passed on to families, but you will not be penalized if you are unable to meet the 50% target.

• Financial relief for families can include a new or continuation of tuition reduction, forgiveness of unpaid parent fees or tuition for children still in care, and/or other financial relief, such as waiving fees and offering free services.

• Financial relief to families should not impact your revenue. The amount of the reduction in private-pay tuition revenue should equal the grant award amount dollar-for-dollar. The grant serves to offset lost private-pay revenue and may be used to cover approved expenses that would otherwise be covered by private-pay tuition.