Nicci Rexroat, owner of A Place To Grow pre-kindergarten center, has worked in child care for 19 years, and she’s beginning to believe most of Missouri has become a child care desert. “You know, I have families calling me every day looking for spots, and we’re full in Jefferson City until August of 2027,” Rexroat said. Rexroat...
Hundreds of child care providers, parents and child advocates rallied in the Missouri Capitol Wednesday, a day after the House signed off on $51.5 million in cuts to the state’s child care subsidy program. The proposed budget, which needs another roll call vote in the House before heading to the Senate, would also derail plans for the...
More than 750 child advocates from across Missouri gathered at the State Capitol on Tuesday for Child Advocacy Day, urging lawmakers to reject a proposed $51 million cut to child care funding. Organized by Kids Win Missouri, the event brought together advocates, providers, and families who warned that the proposed reduction could have significant impacts on vulnerable...
KSHB 41 News reporter Braden Bates covers parts of Jackson County, Missouri, including Lee's Summit. Send Braden a story idea by e-mail. A budget proposal in the Missouri legislature would cut the childcare subsidy program by $51 million. The proposed cuts have some local families and child care providers are on edge as the bill passed through the...
Greene County employers can now sign up to be a part of a new childcare pilot program through Community Partnership of the Ozarks. CPO seeks to help find childcare solutions to both support working families and strengthen the workforce in the region. Dubbed Child Care Works, the new pilot program splits childcare costs between the employee, employer...
For Scarlett Loomas of Sikeston, the logistics of obtaining day care for her children were half the battle. She would drive southeast for 30 minutes each morning to East Prairie in Mississippi County to drop her kids off at child care. Then she would drive another 40 minutes farther south to work in Portageville in New...
Missouri Child Care Works is highlighted as an advanced “Tri-Share 2.0” National model in a new report from the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, From Pilot to Policy: Lessons Learned from Five Tri-Share Models. The report examines shared-cost child care initiatives in five states and evaluates how pilot programs can be structured for long-term policy adoption....
JEFFERSON CITY, MO — Missouri Child Care Works, a statewide child care cost-sharing initiative collaboratively administered by Kids Win Missouri and Child Care Aware of Missouri, has been featured in a new policy report from the Buffett Early Childhood Institute titled From Pilot to Policy: Lessons Learned from Five Tri-Share Models. The report highlights innovative Tri-Share...
A new pilot program in Missouri seeks to make it easier for parents to afford childcare—by getting not only the state but employers to help pay for it. Child Care Works, which launched in November, is a new cost-sharing model enabled by a $2.5 million allocation in the state’s current fiscal year budget. Backers hope that...
Jefferson City, Mo. — Child care advocates across Missouri applaud Governor Mike Kehoe for reaffirming support for early care and education in today’s State of the State address and in his FY2027 “Foundation for Growth” budget proposal. “Governor Kehoe’s 2027 budget proposal shows a strong understanding of how essential child care is for Missouri’s workforce, employers,...