© 2025 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Kansas City is under a winter storm warning. Check here for weather-related delays and closings.

Missouri's Childcare Drought

Carlos Moreno/KCUR 89.3
The pandemic has only added to the strain parents face in finding childcare.

Like most of the country, Missouri’s childcare system is a patchwork of private and public facilities that are often prohibitively expensive.

Childcare in America is in crisis .

In Missouri and Kansas it was already crumbling.

Robin Phillips of Childcare Aware of Missouri says, "COVID pulled back the curtain on all the fragmentation in the childcare system."

According to Phillips about 85% of the programs that were open prior to the pandemic have come back.

Two problems she sees are that those facilities are operating at only a 50 to 65 percent accommodation rate and the significant workforce shortage.

Phillips believes the underlying issue is that childcare is looked at as an occupation and not valued as a profession. This despite the fact that the most significant brain development happens to a child by age five.

As the world tries to bounce back from the pandemic, people are going back to work and to do that they need proper care for their children.

Phillips observes, "This isn't a low-income family's challenge but a working family's challenge."

Stay Connected
When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.
Chris Young is an Assistant Producer for KCUR’s Up To Date. Contact him at chrisy@kcur.org.
As an assistant producer on Up To Date, my goal is to amplify voices of people who serve as pioneers in their respective fields while shedding light on issues that affect underserved communities. I produce daily conversations to uplift and inspire the people of the Kansas City area to make the world a better place. You can reach me at reginalddavid@kcur.org.
KCUR prides ourselves on bringing local journalism to the public without a paywall — ever.

Our reporting will always be free for you to read. But it's not free to produce.

As a nonprofit, we rely on your donations to keep operating and trying new things. If you value our work, consider becoming a member.