Colorado lawmakers grappling with a $1.2 billion budget shortfall have managed to find enough money to stave off deep cuts — at least for now — to a program that provides therapeutic care to young children with developmental delays and disabilities.
The legislature’s Joint Budget Committee is sponsoring a bill that, if approved, will transfer $2 million from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to help fund the Early Intervention Colorado program for the remainder of the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The program, part of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, is also set to receive $16.5 million from the state’s general fund to prevent cuts under the proposed budget for the next fiscal year. The 2025-26 budget cleared the state Senate last week and is now working its way through the House.
“Current early intervention services will continue unchanged as a result of the JBC’s action to identify additional funding for the program,” said Carolyn Romero, spokeswoman for the Department of Early Childhood.
“There will be no immediate impacts on early intervention services and CDEC remains focused on long-term sustainability while minimizing impacts on families and providers,” she said in a statement.
The Early Intervention program announced in February that it planned to make cuts because of a $4 million shortfall, including imposing a four-hour-a-month cap on services, such as physical and occupational therapy to children.
Currently, there’s no limit on the number of hours of service a child can receive. The proposed reduction in services was among a host of “emergency cost containment measures” the agency announced.
The Early Intervention program serves babies and children up to age 3 with developmental delays and disabilities. An average of 11,178 children receive services through the program each month.
Officials with the Department of Early Childhood have said the program is facing a shortfall because caseloads increased, stimulus funding is running out and fewer costs are being covered by Medicaid.
About $1 million of the $4 million shortfall goes to children on Medicaid who receive care, such as from dietitians, that can’t be billed to the federal program.
The agency’s decision to reduce services provided under the Early Intervention program caused uproar among families and providers and led the Joint Budget Committee to call an emergency hearing in February.
Members of the committee have repeatedly expressed frustration with the Department of Early Childhood regarding the funding debacle.
“The failures to communicate in this from the beginning have been significant,” said Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat, during a March 19 hearing.
Bridges, who chairs the committee, said during that hearing that he found out about the potential Early Intervention cuts from his child’s physical therapist — not the Department of Early Childhood.
At the March 19 hearing, a Joint Budget Committee staffer told members that the Early Intervention program needs more money for the 2025-26 fiscal year than the $3.5 million increase initially expected from the state’s general fund.
Rising caseloads coupled with both the $4 million shortfall and the loss of $6.4 million in federal money means the Early Intervention program needs about $16.5 million to prevent cuts during the 2025-26 fiscal year, the staff member told the committee.
“The Department of Early Childhood really missed the boat on this one,” Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, said during the hearing. “The fact that they came in and only asked for $3.5 million more of (the) general fund is extremely disappointing.”
She called the agency’s actions “totally irresponsible.”
“I’m just really ticked off that we left these families with these children in this type of situation and put them through all of the trauma and drama,” Kirkmeyer added.
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