The State of Colorado

How to Make Child Care Benefits Work Statewide

When you’re managing benefits for 80,000+ employees spread across an entire state, simple solutions often work best. The State of Colorado partnered with KinderCare Learning Companies™ to offer one simple child care solution that meets the needs of a diverse and distributed workforce.

The Client

As Colorado’s largest employer outside of tech, the state workforce spans 22 agencies ranging from rural corrections facilities to VA hospitals and university campuses.

The Opportunity

Child care has become a business-critical need, not a perk. Leadership recognized they needed a solution that would work equally well for a hospital worker in Colorado Springs and a judicial employee in Grand Junction. It also had to avoid creating a paperwork headache for HR teams already stretched thin.

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KinderCare at Work On-Site Centers

Back-Up Care

Tuition Benefits

Priority Waitlist

Dedicated Space

Champ Camp

Champions Before- and After-School Care

The Solution

The State of Colorado implemented a tuition benefit through KinderCare, a 10% discount on child care costs for all employees. Employees with younger children receive the discount at any KinderCare® Learning Center, while parents with school-age children can use the benefit for Champions® before- and after-school programs. This straightforward benefit leveraged KinderCare’s statewide network to deliver consistent programming across locations, providing the same quality experience whether employees were in Denver or a small mountain town.

For me, it was a no-brainer—KinderCare is a fabulous organization. My twins used to attend a KinderCare, and now I’m a big advocate for a place I personally know. I feel this is a safe place for children with quality programming.
- Terry, State of Colorado analyst

A personal connection mattered, but so did the practical considerations that appealed to state leadership. The benefit was easy for employees to understand and use, requiring minimal administrative overhead.

The Results

Thirteen years later, the partnership continues to deliver value. In 2024 alone, families saved nearly $200,000 through the program, with strong employee participation across the state. The benefit has become a real differentiator in recruitment—something the state highlights in job postings to attract top talent.

But the impact extends beyond the numbers. Improved employee satisfaction, stronger retention, and positive feedback reinforce the state’s decision to maintain the partnership year after year.

For Colorado, child care benefits are not just about supporting families. They are about maintaining a workforce that can serve the entire state effectively. Sometimes the best solutions are the ones that work quietly in the background, making life a little easier for everyone involved.

Learn how other employers support their working families.

Daimler Trucks

Learn how Daimler Trucks provides support to its local and national workforce by bundling multiple child care solutions.

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Thomas Jefferson University

See how TJU used KinderCare’s Needs Assessment Survey to determine the most essential child care benefits for its workforce: a child care center right on site.

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Walgreens

Discover how Walgreens empowers over 240,000 employees across nearly 9,000 locations with Tuition Benefit.

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