Missouri childcare providers struggle after new online system switch over

MISSOURI (KBSI) – Many childcare care providers in Missouri are struggling to stay open after a system wide subsidy reimbursement delay.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education switched online systems that allow providers and parents to report childcare information to the state in January 2024 .

Roughly 23,000 children in Missouri are on the childcare subsidy program. 

Children in the Missouri foster system also utilize the childcare subsidy program. Losing providers could have a detrimental impact on not only low-income families but the foster care system as well. 

Providers say when they call to get answers their met with long hold times and a long waiting process. 

Krista Stafford, a daycare owner in Dexter voices just one of her many concerns since the Missouri’s Education Department changed online systems in January. Providers in the area say the new online system isn’t accurate both parents and providers have experienced system wide issues that has caused a childcare subsidy reimbursement delay, leaving childcare providers and parents wondering what to do next. 

“One of the biggest issues is not receiving our payments or them being extremely delayed currently we have three students we haven’t received payment for since December of 2023,” says Stafford.

Stafford is just one of many struggling to keep their doors open. Stafford says although she isn’t planning on closing anytime soon, she knows several who have. 

“Several of my fellow childcare providers in Dexter were actually pulling out of the subsidy program because they couldn’t afford to keep going,” she said. 

If providers stop participating in the state childcare subsidy program it would make it harder for low income and foster families to find childcare.

“A big concern for me is our foster system, ya know what our foster families are going to do with their foster children,” said Stafford. 

FOX23 News was told once you do get through to someone you’re asked to fill out a ticket request online and then wait for weeks on a response. Leaving both providers and parents with a lot of unanswered questions. 

We called the number listed on the Missouri Department of Education’s website.

Mallory McGowin, chief communications officer at DESE sent the follower reponse to FOX23 News on March 13.

The new Child Care Data System (CCDS) allows families and providers to have a web-based, near real-time system to enter and view their information for child care subsidy. DESE’s Office of Childhood (OOC) launched the CCDS in December 2023, and there have been a number of unforeseen challenges during the transition, which involves loading family and provider data from the existing, outdated state systems into the new CCDS. The OOC is working hard to mitigate these issues and sincerely apologizes to the child care providers and families affected.

OOC and its vendors have been focused on addressing the systemwide issues related to provider payments to ensure child care providers can receive accurate subsidy payments as quickly as possible. Payments are now being processed daily for attendance claims and corrections submitted by providers.

While there are a few systemwide issues left to resolve, if a child care provider has attendance claims that have not been processed yet, is most likely because the provider is not yet authorized to provide child care for the family or the provider and/or family account is missing information, which is preventing the payment from being processed. OOC staff are also working to process payment corrections from recent months. Most of those issues will require manual fixes by OOC and vendor staff; this work is underway but will take longer to complete.

OOC continues to communicate with families who need child care assistance to address their account issues and would appreciate media partners sharing this information with viewers/readers as well. There are two primary issues with family accounts in the CCDS:

• Families who had a subsidy account before the CCDS transition in December 2023 must connect their information to their new CCDS account. Families can learn more here.

• Once approved for subsidy, families must select or change their child care provider in their CCDS account. That ensures the child care provider receives subsidy for the correct children. Families can learn more here.