As private equity invests in child care, Colorado lawmakers seek guardrails
Last July, families at a Highlands Ranch child care center received startling news: The center was temporarily closing following a visit from the county health department.
The center’s owners failed to submit required construction plans to the Douglas County health department and get construction permits from the county’s building division.
A state child care licensing inspector also found several safety violations related to the construction: emergency exits were blocked by tools and debris, and paint and construction materials were accessible to children.
The renovation was the result of an ownership change: In early July, a national chain called The Nest Schools purchased the center from a small local company. The chain has six child care centers in Colorado — all of which opened after Detroit-based private equity firm Rockbridge Growth Equity invested in the company in 2022.
Some early childhood experts have recently sounded the alarm about the growing footprint of private equity in the child care space. They worry that such investment firms are primarily motivated by outsized profits, not providing quality experiences for young children.
Colorado lawmakers condemn Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons — with all Republicans rejecting resolution
The Colorado legislature on Friday officially condemned the pardons issued by President Donald Trump to people convicted for their actions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — but its resolution passed over the universal objections of the Republican minority.
All 12 Republicans in the Senate and all 22 in the House voted against the amendment. House Republicans turned their backs in protest as the resolution was being read on the House floor Friday and then filibustered the resolution for the next several hours. The Senate approved the resolution earlier this month.
Democrats, who occupy nearly two-thirds of the seats in the state legislature, universally supported the condemnation. (One Democratic representative voted no accidentally, then signed on as a co-sponsor of the resolution to signal her support.)
“We need to stand up and protect the rule of law and our democratic norms. That is critical,” said Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat.
Lawmakers push reforms for Colorado forensic science in wake of CBI lab scandal
Colorado lawmakers hope a scandal like the one that rocked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation last year — when officials discovered a DNA scientist had been manipulating testing for years — doesn’t happen again.
But if it does, they want to force the agency — and all crime laboratories in Colorado — to be more transparent about the wrongdoing, with proactive, prompt notifications to prosecutors, defendants and victims about the potential errors.
Four bipartisan Colorado lawmakers on Wednesday proposed the reforms in direct response to the CBI’s DNA scandal, and in response to the way the agency has handled the fallout since Yvonne “Missy” Woods’ misconduct was discovered in late 2023, bill sponsors said during a news conference Thursday.
Colorado lawmakers again target nonnative grasses to save water — this time, at apartment complexes
Colorado lawmakers are once again pursuing a new law that would save water by limiting the installation of nonnative ornamental turf as drought and climate change sap water supplies.
But some critics question whether the state is taking on turf too aggressively.
House Bill 1113 would ban the use of artificial grass and nonnative turf — like Kentucky bluegrass — for decorative purposes in new apartment and condo complexes after Jan. 1. It would also require local governments to set new rules by 2028 that could limit the use of turf for all residential properties.
The bill passed Thursday out of the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee on a 9-3 vote, despite pushback from local governments and even some water conservation advocates.
Colorado construction defects battle returns as one bill aims to ensure homes are “built right in the first place”
State lawmakers will again juggle a pair of competing bills aimed at boosting protections for homebuyers or spurring more condo construction — while trying to avert the impasses that killed the parallel efforts last year.
The two measures aren’t explicitly at odds, but their competing aims could put them on a collision course.
House Bill 1272, introduced in the legislature this week, looks to restrict when homeowners can sue over shoddy construction by offering less-expensive avenues to address problems. It would lead to lower risks for builders and their insurers, proponents argue, making it a safer economic bet to build condos.
But sponsors this year added a new twist to the bill: Builders would have to provide a warranty and check other boxes to reap all the protections from it.
Lawmakers give CBI longer to spend $3 million to address rape kit backlog — with new oversight
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation will have another year to spend $3 million earmarked for the processing of sexual assault forensic exams after lawmakers set more transparency measures for how it works through the backlog of more than 1,400 kits.
Sexual assault victims are now facing wait times of more than 500 days for their exams, commonly called rape kits, to be processed. The money remains from a part of $7.4 million that was initially set aside to retest DNA samples affected by the scandal involving lab analyst Yvonne “Missy” Woods, and it was set to expire June 30, at the end of the state’s fiscal year.
Members of the legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee explicitly approved the use of the money to work through the rape kit back log. But earlier this month, they balked at giving the agency more time, and free rein, to spend the money.
Colorado Senate passes gun control and labor union bills, sending Democratic priority measures to House
The Colorado Senate passed a bill to limit the sale of certain semiautomatic weapons Tuesday, plus another Democratic priority measure that would make it easier for organized workers to negotiate a key provision of their union contracts.
The union bill — Senate Bill 5 — passed on a 22-12 party-line vote and was greeted by cheers in the balcony overlooking the chamber. The gun bill — Senate Bill 3 — passed on a 19-15 vote in the early afternoon, with three Democrats voting no.
The two measures now head to the House, where both already have sufficient support to clear the chamber and head for Gov. Jared Polis’ desk.
But Polis has viewed both measures skeptically and has sought changes to moderate them.
Price-gouging, housing bills get hearings as gun and labor bills reach halfway point this week in the Colorado legislature
After a busy end to last week, the Colorado legislature is back today for another jam-packed — if holiday-shortened — week of lawmaking.
The Senate began with final votes on two Democratic priority — and contentious — bills: Senate Bill 3, which would limit the sale of semiautomatic weapons that accept detachable magazines; and Senate Bill 5, which would eliminate a provision of state law that requires unions pass a second election before organized workers can negotiate dues and fees in their contracts.
Both measures passed initial Senate votes by this afternoon, after lengthy debates and — in the case of the gun bill — negotiations that introduced a loophole into the policy. They each received a final, recorded vote in the Senate before they will cross over to the House.
Colorado senator resigns seat days before decision on ethics investigation — amid new claim of faked letter
Embattled Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis has resigned from the Colorado Senate, just days before an ethics committee was set to decide whether to pursue a formal investigation into her treatment of aides.
The resignation came shortly before a Tuesday ethics committee hearing where Ed DeCecco, director of the legislature’s Office of Legislative Legal Services, said she apparently faked a letter of support from a former aide.
Jaquez Lewis, a Longmont Democrat, posted the announcement on her official Facebook page about 5:45 a.m. Tuesday after notifying the top Senate leader Monday night. The resignation was effective immediately.
Colorado program that helps “the most vulnerable families” with child care faces freezes amid rising costs
Low-income child care assistance in every Colorado county could soon face a near-complete freeze in new enrollment or, at best, a waitlist as state and local funding fails to keep up with new mandates, state budget documents show.
The Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, or CCCAP, helps low-income families afford child care so that parents can work or go to school. But recent state and federal changes, coupled with stimulus money drying up and tight budgets all around, has put it in dire straits.
State officials project that roughly 22% fewer families will be able to access the program without a sudden injection of cash, according to a budget brief by nonpartisan legislative staff. About 29,000 children receive day care through the program annually.
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