Go to denvergov.org for information on how to contact Denver Human Services.

CCAP: Contact Denver Human Services at 720-944-KIDS (5437), or go to denvergov.org for Denver County Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) eligibility information, applications and other resources.

Denver Preschool Program: All City and County of Denver residents with a child in their final year of preschool before Kindergarten quality for tuition support through the Denver Preschool Program. Find out how to enroll your child at dpp.org.

To find child care options in your community, contact our partners at Mile High United Way’s Child Care Options at 877-338-CARE (2273), by email at 211.ChildCareOptions@UnitedWayDenver.org or by live chat Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Bilingual specialists are available to match you with the best resources near you.

Go to the Colorado Office of Early Childhood for information on how to obtain your license.

Find out how at the Colorado Office of Early Childhood. You will notice that one path to becoming qualified is to achieve a certain level in the new Early Childhood Credential (see chart here). You can apply for the Early Childhood Credential in the Professional Development Information System.

A family child care home is required to be licensed when care is provided to two or more unrelated children at any one time. Find out how to begin the application process at the Colorado Office of Early Childhood.

We offer the pre-licensing training that is required for new family child care home providers. Contact us at helpdesk@denverearlychildhood.org for information about upcoming trainings.

Register in ecConnect. If classes are full, you can still sign up, but you will be placed on the waitlist. The waitlist is pretty long, but if you do not get a spot in the current round of trainings, you will automatically be on the mailing list for the next round of EQIT or PPA classes. We usually offer three EQ classes in the fall and three in the spring, as well as one PPA class in the fall and one in the spring. Sometimes additional EQIT or PPA classes will be available.

Alternatively, for EQ you can contact another Early Childhood Council near you to see if they have any openings. You can find a list of EQIT contacts in other counties at the Colorado Department of Education.

For PPA trainings, you can find other offerings around the state at the Pyramid Plus Center website.

The EQIT training meets the same state licensing requirements as ECE111 (Infant and Toddler Theory). The PPA training meets the same state licensing requirements as ECE103 (Guidance Strategies) as laid out by the Colorado Department of Human Services. To view the full licensing requirements for Early Childhood Teacher and/or Director qualifications, visit the Colorado Office of Early Childhood child care providers page.

EQIT and PPA do not count for college credit, so these classes will not help you earn your college degree in early childhood. If you have taken EQIT recently and would like to convert it to college credit, contact Sherry Peterson at Red Rocks Community College at shepet@lakewood.org to see when the next cohort is available. If you have taken PPA recently and would like to convert it to college credit, contact the Pyramid Plus Center at pyramidplus@ucdenver.edu to see if an option is currently available.

There are several financial resources available to you if you would like help paying for your college coursework in Early Childhood Education (ECE).

If you work at a child care center or school, ask your director if they have any quality improvement funds that can help pay for your coursework. Even if you don’t currently work in early childhood, you can find scholarship information here: Teach Scholarship or 25 Scholarships for Early Childhood Education Students.