Since FY 2017-18, Colorado’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) administers a $0.50M annual fund for program evaluation and implementation grants, which provides competitive funding to support program implementation and/or evaluations. The $0.50M annual fund is 2.5% of the Office’s total discretionary fund. Through this grant, the Governor’s Office has invested approximately $3.7M in grants to support evidence-based policy.

H.B. 22-1295 created the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) and established the new universal preschool program (UPK). The bill appropriated $10.31M, $0.15M, and $0.45M for evaluations of early intervention needs throughout the state, the newly established state agency, UPK respectively. The $11.41M this bill appropriated for evidence building made up 14% of the state agency’s total discretionary funding for SFY 2022-23.

The Colorado Department of Labor & Employment (CDLE) Office of Labor Market Information (LMI) conducts a majority of the data collection and evidence building throughout the state agency. The Office receives $3.6M annually to collect and analyze information about labor market trends throughout Colorado. In addition to other evidence building activities CDLE spends 6% of its total discretionary funding of $66.5M on evaluation.