KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. He pursued this story after Megan Huffman called the newsroom to express her frustration about the delayed childcare subsidy payments. Share your story idea with Tod.
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More than half of the childcare providers in Missouri are scrambling after the federal government paused payments to the state without warning.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or DESE, acknowledged Friday that its Office of Childhood had been unable to “draw down Child Care and Development Funds (CCDF) to pay providers” this week.
The Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Child Care, which is part of the federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services, did not send payments from the $5 billion nationwide program to states in early January as expected.
Normally, Missouri daycare providers who are contracted with the state of Missouri to provide care for parents who receive childcare subsidies — including Megan Huffman, who owns and operates Rising Sun Learning Center at West 103rd Street and State Line Road in Kansas City, Missouri —receive payments during the first week of the month.
“I'm currently owed a little over $49,000 from the state of Missouri,” Huffman said.
Huffman said Rising Sun, which also operates a location in Louisburg, cares for about 90 children at its KCMO location.
“Our bread and butter and (ages) zero to 5 (years old),” she said.
Huffman estimates that half of her families rely on subsidies to afford childcare.
“I'm a subsidy-contracted provider, which basically means that we sign up to help provide for kiddos that are in foster care in the custody of the state (of Missouri), as well as low-income families who have applied and are under certain income brackets,” Huffman said. “It mainly helps single moms and stuff like that be able to afford childcare so that they can go to work.”
Long before Huffman owned a daycare business, she was a foster care case worker.
“I’ve seen firsthand the struggle that foster parents go through to find quality childcare, particularly for kiddos who might have some additional behavioral needs and things,” Huffman said.
That’s why she was angry about the payment delays and reached out to KSHB 41 to bring attention to the issue.
Huffman said she was able to make payroll payments for her staff Friday, but KSHB 41 heard from other daycare providers who were forced to seek loans to pay employees. Others worried about how long they could remain open if subsidy payments continue to be delayed.
Huffman fears many subsidy-contracted providers may reconsider working with Missouri to provide care for those families.
“I know just from that call that I was on yesterday with the other 180 providers here in the state, there are many who are considering just not taking subsidies,” she said. “That really hurts Missouri’s foster families as well as our low-income families, because they already don’t have many options. A lot of providers have already jumped ship from subsidies, because of things like this.”
DESE said the payment delays impacted 1,743 childcare providers across the state, or roughly 53%.
“Childcare, while expensive, we don’t have high profit margins,” Huffman said. “No one in this business is getting rich. Parents talk about living paycheck to paycheck; we are, too. It’s just our paychecks are coming from different places.”
The CCDF funding, which provides childcare subsidies for foster-care families and low-income parents, became a political flashpoint after allegations of widespread fraud in other states, according to NBC News.
The Trump administration used the allegations of childcare fraud in Minnesota as pretext to withhold payments from three federal programs — the CCDF, which provides the day-care subsidies; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which provides cash assistance and job training to low-income parents; and Social Services Block Grant, which supports social-service programs — from five states with Democratic governors over additional vague claims of fraud.
Missouri education officials initially alerted childcare providers Monday about “the federal government’s plans to freeze child care payments across the nation,” in an email to providers.
DESE sent an update Tuesday, which said Missouri “has not yet received the expected child care funding” and added that “the funds were requested correctly but are past the expected arrival date.”
“OOC (Missouri’s Office of Childhood) believes the delay may be due to the holidays or scheduled maintenance of the Payment Management System, [sic] no confirmation or communication has been received from ACF at this time,” DESE said in an email Tuesday to providers.
By Wednesday, DESE officially informed providers that “child care payments for providers have been delayed,” reiterating its suspected reasons for the delay and lack of communication from federal partners.
DESE conducted an online meeting with roughly 180 childcare providers across the state Thursday, amid confusion and frustration regarding the late payments.
It wasn’t until Friday afternoon that DESE provided a more substantive update.
“Late Thursday, January 8, DESE-OOC received communication from the federal government requiring the department to submit detailed justification for pending child care payment requests in order to receive federal funding,” the Missouri education department said. “DESE-OOC submitted the required documentation Friday, January 9.”
Missouri childcare providers are owed approximately $25.7 million for services rendered in December.
Commissioner of Education Karla Eslinger defended the Trump administration’s decision.
“We understand the importance of verifying these dollars are spent appropriately, given recent events in other states,” she said in a statement from DESE.
Later in the statement, she added, “Our priority is to ensure Missouri families and children continue to have access to safe and quality child care. We continue to communicate and work alongside our federal partners to resolve the delay in payment as quickly as possible. We are grateful for our child care providers and the important work they do in caring for our young children.”
DESE did not, however, indicate when funds might be available.
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