Press Release

To mark National Foster Care Month and encourage more Coloradans to become foster parents, the Colorado Department of Human Services celebrated five foster families during a luncheon at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on Saturday.

The Colorado Department of Human Services is pleased to announce Colorado is among the first in the nation to gain federal approval for a 2021-22 Child Care Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer program.

Michelle Barnes, executive director of CDHS, and Cliff Moers, director of the Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind, released the following statement on the film “CODA,” which brought home Academy Awards for best picture, best supporting actor, and best adapted screenplay on Sunday.

The Polis administration today announced the Community Innovation and Resilience for Care and Learning Equity (CIRCLE) Grants, a community-focused grant program to save families money on child care, strengthen the child care talent pipeline, and help every Colorado child thrive.

The Colorado Department of Human Services reports that calls to the Colorado Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline, 844-CO-4-Kids (844-264-5437), approached pre-pandemic volumes in 2021 after a significant drop in 2020.

Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera and the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) held a press conference earlier today alongside other partners to announce the introduction of HB22-1278. The bill assigns specific duties to the Behavioral Health Administration (BHA), ensuring Coloradans can access behavioral health care regardless of where they live in the state or their ability to pay. The BHA will establish a people-first system that is accountable, equitable and transparent.

The Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) announced a new Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Support Line to connect parents and caregivers of children under age 6 with the mental health resources they need.

The Behavioral Health Administration (BHA), a new state entity to lead, promote and administer the state’s behavioral health priorities beginning July 1, announced the names of five individuals selected to participate in the College for Behavioral Health Leadership’s Equity-Grounded Leadership Fellow Program pilot this spring. The program’s goal is to empower and equip leaders to take bold action to unravel systemic racism and create equitable behavioral health systems in their communities. The five individuals will join a broader cohort of cross-sector leaders from across the country who will spend the next six months providing feedback in real time to refine and co-create this groundbreaking program.

The Colorado Department of Human Services is pleased to announce that it will continue to issue the federal Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) benefits for the 2021-22 school year.

CDHS has launched the Colorado Rural Interpreter Skills Enhancement (RISE) Project, which recruits and trains American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters to work in rural areas that often have little to no access to quality interpreting services.