Children and families in Missouri are facing a crisis. Child care and early education is unaffordable or unavailable for too many families, leaving children unprepared for school and parents unable to work.
Employers are struggling to find workers, a problem exacerbated by the lack of access to affordable child care.
High quality early education creates transformational impacts for children, supporting their academic, social, and success.
Connecting families with resources and screenings to support the health and development of babies and toddlers changes and saves lives, but many can’t access these critical services.
Early childhood programs don’t just help solve today’s problems – they change the trajectory of children’s and families’ lives and the future of our state. Missouri has an opportunity to be a national leader on the forefront of addressing this issue, saving the state and its taxpayers billions, while also setting its children and families up for success.
The Champion of Children Coalition brings together individuals and organizations to ensure families have access to the early childhood supports they need to be successful. Every child deserves a champion and we will work with parents, providers, schools, businesses, communities, and our elected officials so we can all be the champions our children deserve.
“There’s a huge gap between what we receive for care and what we provide. For our program, it amounts to $10,000 per child per year. An ideal system would not be attendance-based.”
Deidre Anderson
earlystART,
Kansas City
