Missouri’s backlog of payments to child care providers has put some child care centers in St. Louis and families that depend on those subsidies in a financial bind.
The state covers part of the costs for low-income families. Officials with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education attribute the delay in delivering subsidies to a new system that handles payments. Education officials said that between January and May, many providers only received partial payments.
At a Missouri Board of Education meeting last week, state officials said that while they’ve reduced the number of pending applications, the department is still weeks behind.
They said it could take up to six weeks to catch up with the backlog of subsidy applications for providers and families.
Missouri started using the Missouri Child Care Data System in December which processes subsidies for providers and families. But child care operators have complained that the new system’s backlog in subsidy payments is putting undue burdens on centers still awaiting payments.
“I would say that the state probably owes us about $20,000 to $25,000 in back subsidies, whether it's for children who are authorized who we did not get paid for, or children who we got paid for but didn't get the correct amount, or children who we were told to be backdated and were not,” said Felicia Cook, executive director of Kids World North in north St. Louis County.
Cook said the center has had to alter its budget, cutting field trips and extra supplies. She hasn’t been able to give her workers a pay raise and has had to cut two extra worker positions.
“We definitely had to use our line of credit in order to make ends meet and then reimburse the line of credit,” Cook said.
The department still needs to review about 400 applications for payment from child care providers and more than 1,500 from families. State education officials said they receive about 140 applications a day but aim to cut the backlog of applications from providers by half and pending applications from families by more than two-thirds in the next month.
State education officials said the department has made progress in reviewing the applications by hiring temporary workers and doubling the team that handles family applications.
The number of family applications pending review are similar to the numbers prior to the launch of the system, Missouri Office of Childhood Assistant Commissioner Pam Thomas said.
“We will continue to use the additional help until we meet our goal, which is working cases we have received within the past week,” she said.
Thomas said that the current payments to providers are being calculated correctly.
The backlog is the latest hurdle child care directors say they’ve had to deal with over the past couple of years.
Cook said she’s started to see some of the payments to her child care center come in. But she said the backlog of payments left families that can’t afford to pay to put their kids in child care with few options.
“I don't know who can afford to be off work for three months in order to get quality care or to receive the subsidies to help pay for care," Cook said.
