child care

Many lawmakers are bringing back ideas for another year as bill filing opens ahead of the session that begins on Jan. 8.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is weeks behind in paying subsidies for child care centers and families. Centers already were facing financial issues.

Missouri child care providers began complaining that they were missing months of payments from the state and were close to shuttering. But the state won't meet its goal to clear the backlog by the end of October.

Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Democratic House Leader Crystal Quade are facing off to be Missouri’s next governor, along with third-party candidates Bill Slantz and Paul Lehmann. Here’s where they stand on the major issues in Missouri, including abortion rights, tax cuts, child care and guns.

The backlog, which has left daycare providers on the brink of closure, was originally supposed to be resolved by the end of July. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has largely blamed a contracted vendor.

If the amendment had passed, Missouri legislators could have introduced laws exempting child care providers from paying property taxes.

On Tuesday, Aug. 6, Missouri voters will decide on Amendment 1, which grants the legislature power to exempt childcare facilities from property taxes.

The federal subsidy can provide hundreds of dollars a month to help pay for the costs of child care. But only 12% of eligible Kansas families received the benefits — in part because many people still don't know it exists.

On August 6, Amendment 1 will ask Missourians to amend the state constitution to allow the General Assembly to pass a property tax exemption for child care providers.

Some Missouri day care centers have been forced to shutter as state subsidy payments remain backlogged due to glitches in a new system.

A state report found that 20 children under 5 died of fentanyl or in combination with other substances. It found that Children's Division investigators, who are tasked with following up on claims of abuse and neglect, “lacked essential procedures, missed warning signs and left vulnerable children at risk.”

In Missouri, a child must be born before a divorce can be finalized, and advocates fear this can keep people in domestic violence situations from being able to leave their abusers. Representative Ashley Aune of Kansas City introduced a bill earlier this February that would undo the statute.