Kids First wants to work with the Aspen City Council to determine how to increase financial support for families needing early childhood education and financial incentives for early childhood educators.
It would cost an additional $8 million for Kids First to fully fund five-day child care for 340 available spaces among providers in Pitkin County, Kids First Co-Manager of Operations Nancy Nichols told the city council during a work session. While fully funding child care costs in Pitkin County wouldn’t be feasible, Nichols said Kids First wants to find a way to increase its financial support for families.
“It would be great if there was free child care, but it’s just too big a nugget right now,” Nichols said. “Maybe it’s a dream, but let’s talk about where the middle is, let’s talk about how more families and families that need help are being helped with quality child care.”
Kids First awarded $550,700 in financial aid in 2025 to 30 families who qualified in May. Of the families that received aid, 17 of them will have more than half of their child care costs covered by Kids First funding.
Average child care costs in Aspen make up about 23% of the average monthly income in the area, Nichols said, or about $1,900 per month. It is higher than cities in Colorado with similar average median incomes, and significantly higher than what the federal government defines as affordable child care.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines affordable child care costs as no more than 7% of a family’s monthly income, Nichols said. In Aspen, the average cost of child care would be $827 if child care made up 10% of the average monthly income, or $579 if child care made up 7% of the average monthly income.
Mayor Rachel Richards said she wanted to see what funding would be needed to increase Kids First financial aid for more families to spend closer to 7% of their monthly income on child care costs.
Financial aid is awarded based on a family’s gross income.
Nichols and Kids First Co-Manager of Programs Megan Monaghan also said Kids First wanted the city council to consider continuing a wage enhancement program for early childhood educators that started in 2022. That program’s funding is scheduled to sunset in 2027.
The program pays full-time early childhood educators $300 per month and part-time educators $150 per month. When the program first started, educators were given $500 per month and $250 per month, respectively.
Ajax Cubs, Aspen Mountain Tots, the Early Learning Center and Preschool of the Arts at the Aspen Jewish Community Center are the only child care centers using the program. Pitkin County decided to decrease its funding for the program by 75% in 2025, 50% in 2026 and end its funding contribution in 2027, Monaghan said.
The child care centers have taken on the cost of the wage enhancements, and have increased tuition to support the extra expenses.
If the city were to continue funding the existing centers using the program at the current level of $300 for full-time educators, it would cost $165,000. If the program expanded to all 13 child care facilities in the county and increased again to $500, it would cost $590,000.
Monaghan said the program has helped with staff retention.
But many of the decisions about increasing funding will likely depend on the outcome of the Coalition of Early Childhood Education’s formation of a special tax district to support early childhood education.
CECE received approval from Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield counties to place a question on the counties’ ballots that would levy a 0.25% sales tax to go toward early childhood learning costs.
Monaghan said Kids First will plan to work with the tax district, if approved by voters, to align its funding goals, but it will take time for the district to determine its funding priorities as it elects directors, holds meetings and sets its own goals.
“Whatever their board decides to fund, we’re going to collaborate with them and make sure we’re not duplicating efforts,” she said.
Kids First also is in the middle of conducting a child care needs assessment to evaluate demand in Pitkin County, especially to determine the demand for a proposed childhood education center at Burlingame Ranch. The city council approved land-use entitlements for a 94-student early childhood education center at Burlingame last May.
If it is determined that another facility isn’t needed, Kids First recommends allocating that funding to other programs like housing for child care providers or expanding the wage enhancement program, Monaghan said.
