Child Care Aware of Kansas gathers and disseminates data, research, and best practices from experts in the field so that parents, providers, and decision-makers are equipped with ideas and solutions for high-quality early care and education.
All families deserve equitable and consistent access to high-quality early care and learning opportunities. Unfortunately, child care availability varies widely across Kansas.
Our comprehensive point in time data, organized by county, is meant to assist local communities — including families, employers, and other community leaders — as they work to address critical child care shortages.
Select your county below to retrieve information about the status of child care supply and demand in your area. You’ll also find information about the different types of child care available, rates for part-time and full-time care, census data, and more. The best part: The numbers are up-to-date from the moment you click.
The 2021 Child Care Supply Demand Report, “Know Better, Do Better: Lessons in Recovery from COVID-19,” discusses efforts to rebound from the economic and physical impacts of the pandemic on child care. This report reveals the changes providers and families have made due to COVID-19 and the key role of child care in a health crisis.
The overall supply demand rate for the state of Kansas in 2021 was 49%
49% of programs reported they temporarily close when someone in their program tests positive for COVID-19
21 counties reported having no openings for infants and toddlers in 2021
7.5% of programs reported speaking a secondary language other than English
60 counties don’t have any programs with evening, weekend, or overnight hours
Undercompensated, Overworked Providers
87% of family child care providers work over 50 hours per week.
$23,440 was the average annual income of child care providers in Kansas, as of May 2021.
45% of family child care providers are over the age of 50.
Learn more, and view sources for these statistics, in our 2021 Child Care Supply Demand Report.
Every day, our state pays for the lack of quality child care for Kansas kids. The steepest costs, often overlooked, adversely impact the state’s long-term economic success. Without quality early care and education, many children won’t develop the strong social-emotional foundation that facilitates lifelong learning, well-being, and success. Children and adults can struggle to live healthy lives, resulting in:
Building a quality early care and education system is more cost-effective than trying to address and pay for the challenges caused by our current patchwork system.
Fortunately, thanks to innovative pilot projects and long-term academic studies, we know what quality early care and education looks like. Expanding these opportunities across the state can drive our economy in the short term by enabling more parents to seek employment and work without disruption — improving families’ financial stability, reducing turnover, and increasing productivity for Kansas businesses, as well as attracting and retaining more workers for our communities.
By listening to families explain their unique needs, expanding effective programs, and collaborating across communities and industries to design new solutions, we can build a successful system that sets up our state — and our children — for a healthy and productive future.
For more than a century, Kansas has worked to build an exemplary K-12 education system that provides foundational learning and wraparound support for all children and their families. However, we don’t have a comparable system for children during their most critical period of development — from birth to age 5. Instead, families with young children face multiple challenges when looking for quality, affordable child care that meets their needs, including:
Although this problem may seem intimidating at first glance, promising solutions are already in the works. Kansas residents, organizations, and local communities have already designed and implemented early care and education programs that resolve many of the challenges and produce significant improvements for young children and their families.
Some of the ideas and solutions that Kansans are exploring include:
By learning more about child care in Kansas and working alongside us, you can have a significant impact with less effort and fewer resources than you might expect. Let us be your guide as you learn what’s possible and begin to take small, actionable steps.
Local CCR&R Agencies
We partner with a network of Child Care Resource & Referral agencies that operate regionally to ensure that high-quality early care and education is available to Kansas families and children. Your local agency can help connect you with local information, programs, and resources.
In order to inform stakeholders and decision-makers, we publish a yearly report on the state of child care in Kansas — including key data on child care capacity across the state, the types of providers available, and counties experiencing critical needs.
The 2020 Child Care Supply Demand Report – Challenges of Child Care in a Pandemic explores child care in Kansas, and and they have been overwhelmingly affected by the COVID-19 virus. This report showcases how families and communities responded to the pandemic.
2020 Child Care Supply Demand Report
2019 Child Care Supply Demand Report
The 2023 Annual Report highlights our achievements and milestones from the past year. As an organization committed to supporting and enhancing the early childhood education workforce in Kansas, we remain dedicated to our mission of ensuring that every child has access to high-quality child care and early education.
Despite the challenges of the past year, we continued to provide vital services and support to families, child care providers, and communities across the state. Through our free referral service, professional development opportunities, and community partnerships, we were able to reach even more families and caregivers, and make a positive impact on the lives of children in Kansas.
In this report, you’ll find a detailed account of our initiatives and accomplishments from the past year, as well as a glimpse of our vision for the future. We are proud of the work we’ve done, and grateful to our supporters and partners who make it all possible.
Let us know what you need, and we’ll do our best to send you the most recent information available.
Sign up below to receive information, ideas, case studies, and more on early care and education in Kansas.
Originally published in the Winter 2023 issue of Kansas Child Magazine. The Child Care Gap Quality, accessible, affordable child care contributes to the prosperity of Kansas
Kansas Child magazine is intended to provide a forum for the discussion of child care and early education issues and ideas.
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