The Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP) helps low-income families pay for child care while the parents work, look for work, or go to school.

Who Can Get CCCAP?

To get help from CCCAP to pay for child care, you must:

• Live in Colorado.
• Be working, looking for work, or attending school or training.
• Have at least one child who is under 13 (or under 19 if the child has special needs or a disability and requires child care).
• Have a family income that is less than the CCCAP income limits, which vary from county to county. The Colorado Department of Human Services provides a chart listing each county's CCCAP income limits (the limit when you apply is called the "Entry Income").
  • If you get Colorado Works benefits, need child care, and get a referral from your Colorado Works eligibility worker or case manager, you automatically qualify for CCCAP (and bypass the waiting list, if there is one).
  • If you are in the Colorado Child Welfare program (for situations of abuse or neglect), you automatically qualify for CCCAP (and bypass the waiting list, if there is one).

How to Apply

You can apply for CCCAP:

• Online through Colorado PEAK
• By contacting your local county human services department, or
• By downloading a paper form, filling it out, and mailing or taking it to your local county human services department.

When you apply, you must provide either:

• Copies of pay stubs (or other documents showing where you work and how much you earn), or
• Written proof that you are enrolled in an education program.

You will get a letter or email from your county letting you know if you have been approved for CCCAP within 15 days after you send in your signed application and all needed documents.

You have up to 30 days to send in copies of these documents or CCCAP won't help pay for your child care. (Remember that the sooner you send in your documents, the sooner you will find out if you can get CCCAP.)

If you can't get the documents you need, talk with your county child care worker. The county worker may also call your employer to ask about your hours and wages.

The Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP) helps low-income families find and pay for child care while the parents work, look for work, or go to school.

When you get a letter or email saying you are approved for CCCAP, it also tells you how many child care hours are included, the rate that your child care provider can charge, and if or how much you have to pay for your child care.

Parent Fees

The parent fee is the amount you must pay to your child care provider at the start of each month, and then CCCAP pays the rest of the cost to the provider. The parent fee is on a sliding scale of 1% to 14% of your household income. Where you are on the sliding scale depends on the size of your household, your income, the number of children getting child care, and the total number of child care hours needed.

Your provider can't charge you more than the rate approved by CCCAP for the number of hours that are approved by CCCAP. If your child gets more hours of child care than the total amount approved by CCCAP, you have to pay for those extra hours yourself. And if you pick up your child after hours and your child care provider charges late fees, you have to pay those late fees.

Note: If you do not pay your monthly parent fee, your CCCAP may end, and you might not be able to get these benefits in the future. You must pay your parent fee even if you change child care providers.

Finding a Child Care Provider

Once you are approved for CCCAP, it is up to you to find the right child care for your children. A few counties may have a wait list, but most do not and you can start choosing your child care provider right away. If you are in the Colorado Works or the Colorado Child Welfare programs and get a referral from your program, you can bypass the wait list, if there is one.

The state of Colorado licenses child care programs to make sure they meet health and safety requirements, and licensed programs are monitored every year. You can choose a licensed child care center, a licensed family child care home, or a friend, neighbor, or relative caretaker. It can be hard to decide, but you can get help.

Colorado Shines is a free service that helps you find and research licensed child care and preschool programs throughout Colorado. It offers:

• A Child Care Referral line at 1-877-338-CARE (2273), where you can get help finding a child care program
• Ratings of licensed child care programs
• A way to search for licensed child care providers that accept CCCAP
• Descriptions of the many different types of child care programs, and
• A step-by-step guide for finding quality child care.

If you are interested in a child care provider, contact it to see if they have space and if they accept CCCAP.

Note: If you choose a licensed child care provider with a high quality rating from Colorado Shines (3, 4, or 5 in its 1-5 rating system), you get a 20% discount on your parent fee.

Authorization

Once you choose a child care provider, you must report their name, address, and phone number, and if they are licensed to your local county human services department, so they can approve paying that provider. Note: You must do this before your child starts going to that child care provider. CCCAP will not pay the costs of any child care you get before the provider is approved.

Redetermination

Every 12 months, you must fill out a Redetermination of Eligibility Form so your county can see if you still qualify for CCCAP. If your current income is more than the Exit Income limit, your CCCAP will end.

You must fill out and turn in the redetermination form to your local county human services department with proof of your current situation (such as 30 days of paycheck stubs and your work schedule). If you don't submit the form and needed documents, your county will end your child care benefits.

Report Any Changes

You can change your child care provider, but you must tell your county before your child starts going to the new person or facility.

And you must tell your local county human services department within four weeks if:

• Your income changes
• Your child care schedule changes, or
• There are any other changes that might affect your eligibility for CCCAP.

If you move out of Colorado, you no longer qualify for Colorado Child Care Assistance Program benefits. If you move within Colorado, you don' t have to report the move until you fill out your annual redetermination form (but if you change child care providers that still must be reported before the change is made). If you move from one Colorado county to another, you don't have to report the move until you fill out your annual redetermination form, but the form must be sent to the county where you now live.

Note: If you do move from one Colorado county to another, it is a good idea to tell your county human services department about the move when it happens (even though you don't have to do this), so they can help make sure that your redetermination form gets submitted correctly.

Keisha and Sarah's Story

Up until recently, Keisha supported her wife Sarah and their young daughter through her job as a cashier at a local grocery store. Then the store laid people off. Keisha lost her job, but didn't qualify for unemployment benefits. Keisha and Sarah have very little money in savings, and aren't sure how they can keep paying for rent, food, and utilities.

They apply for Colorado Works online through Colorado PEAK. Then they meet with Maria, an eligibility worker, who also helps them apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Health First Colorado (Medicaid). Several weeks later, Keisha and Sarah get a letter saying they are approved for Colorado Works. Next, Keisha and Sarah meet with their case manager, Carol, to come up with a plan to get them jobs.

Keisha thinks she can work from home doing customer service over the phone, and agrees to take a customer service training program and then search for a job. Sarah needs just a few more classes to complete her training as an x-ray technician, but she put those plans on hold when they had their child. Carol suggests Sarah can finish her training and then look for a job.

“I’d love to go back to school,” Sarah says, “but what about our little girl? We can’t afford to pay someone to watch her.”

“I'll give you a referral to the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP)," Carol tells them. "Because you're on Colorado Works now, you'll skip the waiting list, if they have one, and get subsidized child care more quickly."

“Great!” said Sarah. ”How does that work?"

"Once I process the referral, CCCAP will contact you and let you know how many hours you qualify for, and how much you have to pay each month," Carol explains. "Since neither of you is working right now and you're getting Colorado Works, you probably won't have to pay anything, or just a small fee. CCCAP will explain the details."

After their meeting Carol sends the referral to CCCAP. About a week later, Keisha and Sarah get an email saying they're approved for CCCAP services, telling them how many hours are included, and what the rate will be per hour. Since they currently have no income, Keisha and Sarah do not have to pay a monthly parent fee.

Keisha and Sarah go online to Colorado Shines, and find a child care center near them with a good rating. They call the center, but it doesn't have any openings for new CCCAP students. So they look online again and find a preschool just a bit farther away that also accepts CCCAP and has a good rating. They call that place, and it has an opening.

Keisha and Sarah visit the preschool and decide it's a good fit. They do the paperwork needed to get it approved as their CCCAP child care provider.

Soon, their daughter is meeting new friends at preschool, and Sarah is able to start the classes she needs to finish her x-ray technician training.