Governor says reforms will help meet workforce child care needs

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on Sept. 9 announced its plans to revise the state’s child care licensing rules following an executive order from Gov. Mike Kehoe.

Kehoe’s order, issued in January, directed DESE to conduct the review with a twofold goal:

• To cut burdensome, duplicative or outdated rules by at least 10% without compromising the health and safety of children.
• To make licensing more practical and accessible to expand the availability of licensed child care and reduce reliance on unlicensed care.

The report states, “DESE is well underway with conducting the most comprehensive child care rule review in Missouri’s history.”

Input for the report came from 14 statewide listening sessions and a solicitation of additional written comments, DESE states.

The report found that more than 10% of rules – 177 in number – for family homes, group homes and centers are outdated, duplicative or unnecessary.

It also found that more than half of the rules are the same across licensed family homes, group homes and centers. As a result, DESE plans to combine the rules into a booklet outlining requirements that apply to all care settings while highlighting those that apply only to specific provider types, the report states. A separate set of rules is planned for school-age programs, which operate differently, it adds.

Kehoe’s executive order also called for improving the readability and usability of child care licensing regulations.

‘Step forward’
At a Sept. 12 appearance in Springfield, Kehoe was asked by Springfield Business Journal if the planned reforms will move the needle in solving workforce child care needs.

“We think it’s definitely going to help,” he said. “As you know, workforce and child care is a complex problem, but this is a big piece of that puzzle.”

He added that the initiative will continue to rely on input and feedback from business leaders and others.

“We’re excited about working with local providers as well as community and employers to make sure this model works well with them,” he said.

A focus on child care represents a through line for Kehoe from his campaign for governor to the DESE report.

During a Springfield debate with the other three governor hopefuls in September 2024, he called the child care crisis a nonpartisan issue.

“This is not a Democrat or a Republican issue; this is a Missouri issue,” Kehoe said at the time. “We have $1.4 billion – with a B – of labor sitting at home annually in the state of Missouri because those working folks want to go to work and can’t get child care.”

In the debate, Kehoe highlighted in-house child care options provided by businesses, including one at CoxHealth in Springfield.

“We have to give options to businesses that want to build child care centers within their business,” he said.

In his interview this month, Kehoe stressed that the report is just an early step in the reform process.

“We’re just getting started,” he said. “I don’t want this to be the end; I want it to be the beginning.”

Consistent need
The need for affordable and meaningful child care options is an enduring red flag within the local Community Focus Report since the first one was released in 2004. The 2024 report – the most recent for the community initiative – identified a lack of philanthropic funding for early childhood care and a shortage of child care options for children from infancy to age 6.

The issue is framed as a problem in economic and workforce development as well as a challenge for low-income families.

The Community Focus Reported highlighted a dearth of child care slots, noting that only 59% of children ages 0-2 who need care are being served, with a 20% shortage for ages 4-5.

The problem is a barrier for members of the workforce, the report states.

“Access to affordable, high-quality child care affects parents’ abilities to work, creating stress barriers for families and resulting in children not being kindergarten ready,” it notes.

Amanda Coleman, vice president of early childhood and family development for Community Partnership of the Ozarks, said the workforce subcommittee of CPO’s Early Childhood Collaborative were meeting to discuss the DESE report recommendations.

She added that representatives of the Springfield area participated in many of the listening sessions hosted by DESE, including one held at Ozarks Technical Community College.

“The room was quite full,” she said. “It was great to see that a lot of child care providers and owners were interested in sharing their thoughts and opinions.”

In SBJ reporting in March, the subcommittee was reported to be planning a child care exchange that would launch in August and would allow for the equal sharing of child care costs among the state of Missouri, employers and families meeting certain income requirements – set at 300% of the poverty level at the time of reporting.

Coleman said that target date had been adjusted with the announcement of the Missouri Child Care Works program by Kids Win Missouri and Child Care Aware of Missouri. That program will begin in the fall, and Kids Win’s website states families will typically save up to 75% of child care costs through the program. Applications for funding are now open through Kids Win.

Coleman said the subcommittee plans to discuss what the eligibility criteria will be within Greene County.