CO Code § 26-6.2-304 (2021)
2021 Colorado Code|Title 26 - Human Services Code|Article 6.2 - Early Childhood Child Care Access|Part 3 - Early Childhood Services Transition|§ 26-6.2-304. Transition Plan - Contents

  The transition working group, working with the consultant and with the advice of the transition advisory group, shall develop a transition plan for the coordination and administration of early childhood programs and services by the new department and the existing departments, including, to the extent necessary, the transition of existing services and programs to the new department and alignment of programs and services in the new department with programs and services that remain in other departments. At a minimum, the transition plan must address the following items, including recommendations for legislative, regulatory, and budgetary changes related to the following items:   The governance and structure of the new department, including recommendations regarding a state board of early childhood;    Mission and vision statements and guiding values and principles, consistent with the goals stated in section 26.5-1-102, as it takes effect July 1, 2022, for the coordination and administration of early childhood programs and services by the new department, the existing departments, and local agencies;    The fiscal structure for the new department and the services provided and programs administered by the new department, including the necessary administrative and operational infrastructure;    Aligning and combining funding sources for early childhood services and programs to support the goals specified in section 26.5-1-102, as it takes effect July 1, 2022, taking into consideration the manner in which local communities, counties, and school districts have previously successfully supported streamlined and improved access to early childhood programs and services;    The timeline for completing key transition activities for the new department, including moving services and programs from the existing departments to the new department, and consideration of a phased transition approach, which may include consideration of transitioning or aligning certain programs and services at later dates, to ensure ongoing alignment of early childhood programs and services with other programs and services that extend beyond early childhood to the functions of other state agencies;    The technology required to achieve the goal specified in section 26.5-1-102 (1)(g), as it takes effect July 1, 2022, to support parents and other caregivers in identifying local, appropriate, and available early childhood program and service options, and to support the unification of existing child care eligibility and payment systems;    Strategies to support:   Elimination of the duplicative oversight and regulation of early childhood care and learning programs and other relevant early childhood programs, which promotes administrative efficiency;    Continuing efforts to align the increasingly unified early childhood system with the elementary and secondary public education system, especially kindergarten and grades one through three and the early literacy initiatives implemented at these levels, including strategies to reduce bureaucracy and ensure alignment with programs that are not unified under the new department;    Continuing efforts to align the early childhood system with the child welfare system and child maltreatment prevention initiatives, including efforts to ensure alignment with prevention services under the federal “Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018”, as defined in section 26-5-101 (4.5);    Program and service alignment among the new department and the existing departments, including entering into memoranda of understanding and shared initiatives that achieve alignment across programs and services;    Alignment with multi-generation strategies used by the new department and the existing departments to support child and parent outcomes that improve overall family well-being;    Coordination and collaboration with state agencies that oversee or operate programs that are not moved to the new department to maximize the effectiveness of the new department's early childhood services and programs;    Robust stakeholder involvement in developing and implementing early childhood policies, which must include involvement of parents in developing policies and program decisions that affect them and their children; and    Education and training regarding how to identify and address child and family trauma and support a trauma-informed approach to early childhood; and       Early childhood data system strategies to inform planning, leverage resource allocations, maximize children's access to programs, and support data-driven decision-making.        History. Source: L. 2021: Entire part added,(HB 21-1304) ch. 307, p. 1841, § 1, effective June 23.