In 2013 The Women's Foundation of Colorado produced a comprehensive research report entitled The Status of Women & Girls in Colorado. Throughout the research phase for that report, many questions and concerns about child care access and affordability were raised. In particular, single mothers were found to be struggling with the price of child care. As a direct result, The Women's Foundation of Colorado provided a grant to Qualistar Colorado to investigate and address the barriers to affordable child care. Qualistar Colorado has produced this brief with that generous funding. Additional effort on this project has been provided by the Colorado Children's Campaign. This brief is the first in a series to be produced in conjunction with this project. (author abstract)