Colorado Early Investment Model
Technical Manual
November, 2012
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Data Collection and Analysis Methodology
Key Terms
Tool Features and Navigation
Return on Investment Component
Program Data, Sources and Cost Estimation Methodology
Local Estimator
Appendix A: Funding and Enrollment Totals By Program
Appendix B: Costs Per Hour For Child Care
Contributors
The Colorado Early Childhood Investment Model could not have been completed without the generous help of many contributors. Thank you to Augenblick, Palaich and Associates, including the project team of Andrew Brodsky, Kathryn Rooney, and Nathan Roberson, and to Rich Harrison for programming the web tool. We received invaluable feedback from theInvestment Model AdvisoryCommittee, including Greg Anton, Robin Baker, Lindsay Dolce, Jodi Hardin, Suzie Helburn, Marie Hueston, Cary Kennedy, George Kennedy, Jennifer Landrum, Nancie Linville, Jennifer Stedron, Susan Steele, and Wendy Watson.
The following individuals were essential to data collection efforts: Eileen AuerBennett, ABCD; Sudy Opsahl, Colorado Department of Education; Beth Martin and Gina Robinson, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing; Leslie Bulicz; Ardith Ferguson, John Miles, Scott Raun, and Claudia Zundel, Colorado Department of Human Services; Becky Murray, Colorado Department of Local Affairs; Scott Bates, Patricia Daniluk, Heather Dubiel, Jo English, and Karen Trierweiler, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; Melissa Kelley, Colorado Parent and Child Foundation; Lori Goodwin Bowers and Nick Ortiz, Colorado Preschool Program; Lisa Merlino and Jodi Vongsakoun, Invest in Kids; Heather Tritten, Office of Lt. Governor Joseph A. Garcia; Stacy Buchanan, Phyllis Lucas, and Gladys Wilson, Qualistar; Megan Wilson, Reach Out and Read; Alyssa Lasseter, Tony Grampsas Youth Services Program.
The Early Childhood Leadership Commission Finance Committee, which provided thoughtful guidance for the project, included Brad Busse (co-chair), Elsa Holguin (co-chair), Greg Anton, Dave Ferrill, Pat Hamill, Jim Kerr, Fernando Martinez, Fernando Pineda-Reyes, Diane Price, Larry Wolk, Reggie Bicha, and Nancy Spence.
The Early Childhood Councils and their partners were crucial in helping pilot the local data collection, including Bobbie Watson and Steve Callender of Boulder, Emily Bustos and Jenna Davis of Denver, Tamara Volz of La Plata County and Sherri Valdez of the San Luis Valley.
Beta Testers included Bruce Atchison, Brad Busse, Emily Bustos, Jenna Davis, Kathryn Hammerbeck, Pamela Harris, Anna-Jo Haynes, Suzie Helburn, Elsa Holguin, Rene Horton, Marie Hueston, Jim Jonas, Joel Jones, Jennifer Landrum, Tara Manthey, Beth Martin, Stephanie Martin, Brenda McChesney, Lisa Merlino, Michelle Neal, Julie Pelegrin, Fernando Pineda-Reyes, Sue Renner, Gina Robinson, Patrick Sablich, Robert Thompson, Tamara Volz, Jodi Vongsakoun, Chris Watney, Bobbie Watson, Gerrit Westervelt, and Larry Wolk. Their detailed feedback was crucial to making the model complete and accurate.
Introduction
The Colorado Early Investment Model was commissioned by the Colorado Early Childhood Leadership Commission (ECLC) to analyze the state’s current investment in early childhood programs, and to provide a tool to estimate the unmet need for services for young children. The tool maps current state and federal funding for Colorado’s early childhood system across four sectors identified by the Early Childhood Colorado Framework: Early Learning, Family Support and Parent Education, Health, and Social Emotional and Mental Health. The model has two modules: the “Adjust Individual Programs” module calculates the changes in cost resulting from changes to enrollment and/or quality distribution for individual programs, and the “Build Your Own System” module calculates total cost to serve a cohort of young children with a variety of needs (e.g., health, family support). The model also calculates return on investment for programs where data was available. The tool was developed by Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates (APA) and builds upon a prior 2007 model developed by the Colorado Children’s Campaign.
Data Collection and Analysis Methodology
The first phase of model development involved creating a comprehensive data map in consultation with the ECLC’s Finance Committee and a group of early childhood stakeholders in the state. This data map identified the key federally- and state-funded programs that serve young children in the state.
For each program, data on current funding, child enrollment, and costs per child were collected. When possible, these data were disaggregated into categories. Funding was disaggregated into source (federal, state, or other), and current enrollment was disaggregated into age and income brackets.
The Early Childhood Colorado Framework and the ECLC focus on young children, ages birth to eight years old. Therefore the age spans in the model are reported in 1-year bands, covering birth - eight. Programs define income eligibility by Federal Poverty Level (FPL), ranging from below 100% FLP to above 300% FPL. Further information about FPL is available in the key terms section below.
Collection of county-level data was piloted with the Early Childhood Councils of Boulder, Denver, La Plata and the San Luis Valley. Due to barriers of access and staffing resources, most county level programmatic data was not available.Limited county data was available from state sources, and currently no county specific data has been added to the model.
Enrollment Cost Methodology
In order to estimate the costs to expand coverage, the model uses the actual per-child costs provided by each program. When programs were not able to provide unit costs, we estimated them by dividing the total funding by the enrollment in the most recent year that both values were available. The per-child costs were multiplied by the projected change in enrollment in the program to yield an estimate of the change in cost needed to reach the user’s projections.
Quality Cost Methodology
Users have two options to estimate the costs to change enrollment in child care programs. The first option is to use actual per-child programmatic expenditures, and the second option is to use estimates of the true cost of quality, which were estimated for this project by Anne Mitchell, President, Early Childhood Policy Research. These costs are based on a range of quality cost drivers, including typical wages, qualifications, and facility costs, and vary by age, program enrollment status (part time or full time), and quality level. (Costs per child appear in Appendix B; further documentation on the quality cost methodology appears in the accompanying spreadsheet).
Key Terms
Domain: A filter applied to all programs within the Adjust Individual Programs module that allows the user to sort programs based on population served and services offered. For the model, domains closely match those established by the Early Childhood Colorado Framework. Programs may appear in multiple domains based on the services they provide.
Early Learning: Programs that provide full- or part-time care and education services to the age group defined.
Family Supports: Family Supports refers to programs, supports, and services in which providers work with families to promote education and development.
Home Visiting: This model includes only family supports provided through home visits. The model provides examples of low, medium and high intensity home visiting programs. The per-child costs for these programs are based on Bright Beginnings (low-intensity), HIPPY (medium intensity), and Nurse Family Partnership (high intensity). Home Visiting services are closely connected with family supports.
Federal Poverty Level: Programs that define income eligibility by Federal Poverty Level (FPL), ranging from below 100% FLP to above 300% FPL. In 2012, the FPL was $15,130 for a family of two and $23,050 for a family of four. Programs report FPL as a percentage rather than specific income and family size; therefore eligibility may go beyond the 2012 figures above.
Full Time Care: For one child care program, the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP), the model allows users to select the percentage of children in full-time care. The costs of quality full-time care are calculated based on 2000 hours per year (50 weeks x 40 hours/week).
Health and Mental Health: Programs that provide physical health, mental health and social/emotional health services to children and families.
Infrastructure: Programs that indirectly serve children and families by supporting early childhood professionals and service providers with the means to improve the quality and availability of services.
Participation Rates:Participation rates represent the percent of children enrolled in a given service separated by age.
Programs, Supports, and Services:State and federally funded initiatives which support children, families, providers and early childhood professionals with funding, developmental information, and resources to improve quality and child outcomes. These programs are optional for children and families, criteria for eligibility focuson at-risk populations.
Quality Distribution:Quality distribution refers to the four quality levels, represented as one to four stars in the Qualistar Colorado rating system. Stars are earned by rated child care centers meeting criteria around learning environments, family partnerships, training and education, teacher ratio and group size, and accreditation. Points awarded range from 10-17 points for a one star to 34-42 points for a four star center. For more information about quality ratings, see
System: System refers to the combination of programs, supports, and services which together comprise the network of resources available to Colorado young children and families. For the “Build Your Own System” module, users will select criteria and define populations of children within each of the domains of early childhood. Not all programs, supports, and services applicable to the early childhood system are contained within the model.
Tool Features and Navigation
Once logged in, users can enter the tool through either of two modules, the “Build Your Own System” module or the “Adjust Individual Programs” module.
Build Your OwnSystem Module
Users enter the “Build Your Own System” module from the introductory page, and can select a new or existing scenario. The “Build Your Own System” module of the tool allows users to select a cohort of children and make decisions about a pre-set list of programs and services for that cohort. As the user defines child participation in programs, the cost of each of these components appears in the table at the top of the page, along with a total system cost.
The methodology behind the “Build Your Own System” module is described below:
Step 1: Select a Cohort
In this step, users define a group of children in the cohort based on age or income characteristics. For the “Build Your Own System” users may define the cohort based on the family income level of the child (defined by percentage of federal poverty level), and by age in one year increments from birth through five. (Cohorts cannot be defined for children older than 5 because several components of the system, including early learning, are not applicable to children over 5.
The population of children in Colorado within each age and income category is based on 2009 population estimates by the Missouri Census Data Center. Based on these criteria, the model will generate the total number of children within the cohort as defined by the user.
Step 2: Early Care and Education
The “Early Care and Education” domain of the “Build Your Own System” module allows users to define participation in child care,one part of the larger domain. Users define participation rates between 0 and 100 percent for each age group in early learning. These participation rates are applied to the total size of the cohort determined in the previous step.Next, users determine the distribution of children across each of the four quality levels, entering a percentage in each box. The percentages should equal 100%. Finally, users define the percentage of children in their system that will be in full-time child care.
Cost-of-quality analyses conducted by Anne Mitchell allow users to adjust the percentage of children in programs at each of four quality levels. These quality levels, detailed in the above methodology, are based on the requirements associated with each of the four Qualistar rating levels (Colorado’s current quality rating system).Users can also adjust the percentage of children in full-time or part time care. Full-time care is defined as 2000 hours per year (40 hours/week x 50 weeks); part-time care is defined as 875 hours per year (17.5 hours per week x 50 weeks)
Step 3: Home Visiting
The “Home Visiting and Family Support” domain in the “Build Your Own System” module allows users to define participation in home visiting programs, one part of the larger domain. Users first enter the percentage of the cohort participating in home visiting, and then enter the proportion of all participants in low, medium, or high intensity programs. The totals of these percentages should equal 100%. The intensity level refers to the frequency of visits and areas of impact. For example, low intensity programs such as Bright Beginnings provide individual visits and resources to new parents, while more intensive programs such as Nurse-Family Partnership include a series of home visits beginning no later than week 28 of pregnancy and continuing throughout pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life.
Cost per child for low intensity is $65, based on the cost of Colorado Bright Beginnings. Cost per child for medium intensity is $1357, based on the cost of HIPPY. Cost per child for high-intensity home visiting is based on a figure of $5000 for Nurse Family Partnership.
Step 3: Health
The “Health” domain in the “Build Your Own System” module allows users to define participation in public health insurance, one part of the larger domain. Users select the percentage of children participating in Medicaid and Child Health Plan Plus programs. Medicaid enrollment categories includedAid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), foster care, Baby Care/Kids Care (BCKC), and Social Security Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The costs per child are different across each of these Medicaid programs and are $1,333 for AFDC, $5,857 for foster care; $2,634 for BCKC; $19,209 for SSI; and $1,292 for CHP+.
Step 4: Mental Health
The “Mental Health” domain in the “Build Your Own System” module allows users to define participation in consultation, treatment, and specialist services. The user selects the number of children enrolled in each service.
Costs for consultation, treatment, and specialists are based on estimates from the Department of Behavioral Health at the Colorado Department of Human Services. Per-child cost estimates are $1,524 for consultation, $3,047 for treatment, and $2,696 for specialists.
Step 5: Infrastructure
The “Infrastructure” field in the “Build Your Own System” module allows users to add a set funding amount for supports to the early childhood system which do not provide direct services to children; these supports are incorporated within the domains of the Framework. Users select a fixed percentage of all other costs that is applied to costs for the other components of the entire system, including early care and education, home visiting and family supports, health, and mental health. By default, this infrastructure multiplier is set at 10%.
Adjust Individual ProgramsModule
Users enter the “Adjust Individual Programs”module on the introductory page and can select between creating a new scenario or opening an existing scenario.This page displays current funding for the system, change in costs, and total costs, and allows users to enter the window for a particular program. Current funding figures represent the total amount of state and federal funding across the entire system for the most recent year data were available, as well as selected local and private funding. If the scenario is new, changes in costs will be $0 by default.Note thatthe “Adjust Individual Programs” module only contains a portion of all programs, supports, and services in the early childhood system.
Filter Programs
The program list can be filtered based on a set of program descriptor tags. These tags are grouped into three categories – age served, income eligibility served, and system domain. Selecting tags will filter the program list to reflect only those programs that are associated with the checked tags. Note that checking or unchecking tags does not change the total funding or enrollment listed in the table on the filter page; it only changes the list of programs displayed. Additionally, programs may appear in multiple domains based on the types of services they provide.