Quality child care benefits everyone living and working in Kansas. Just like we invest in roads, utilities, and broadband to fuel our economy and provide a good quality of life for Kansas residents, we must also invest in a more effective early care and education system for our state.
In the short term, child care enables parents and guardians to pursue work, education, and other aspirations in order to support their families economically and live fulfilling lives. When everyone in the state has access to quality, consistent child care, employers can attract and retain a productive and loyal workforce.
In the long term, implementing new child care solutions will ensure that Kansas children grow up in environments that shape their healthy development and lay the foundation for future learning, well-being, and success throughout their lives.
5,044 child care slots have been lost in Kansas since 2017.
79% of Kansas counties have at least 10 children under three years old that are competing for every one child care space available.
32% decrease in child care programs offering non-traditional hours from 2017 – 2020.
38% of Kansas counties have only one slot for every 10 infants and toddlers.
15% have no slots for infants and toddlers.
87% of family child care providers work over 50 hours per week.
$20,650 was the average annual income of child care providers in Kansas, as of March 2020.
45% of family child care providers are over the age of 50.
Learn more, and view sources for these statistics, in our 2020 Child Care Supply Demand Report.
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.
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:
An Innovative Hub for Training and Professional Development in Kansas City By Jenny Brandt, Director of Early Care and Education, The Family Conservancy. Originally published
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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