A backlog of payments due to child care providers is 70% clear after a year-long struggle with the state’s new software, Missouri Education Commissioner Karla Eslinger told lawmakers Tuesday morning.
The Missouri Senate Education Committee questioned Eslinger about everything from school accreditation to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Standing out among the interrogation was an update on the child care subsidy administered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“I want to lift up a ‘hallelujah’ that the calculator in the system is fixed. So that is a huge, huge lift,” Eslinger told the committee. “It’s something that I was not able to say for probably four or five months that I sat in this chair.”
The department changed its software vendor in December of 2023, and both providers and families enrolling in the program began noticing issues tracking and receiving payment. Some child care centers closed and others turned away families using the subsidy program during months of missed payments.
State Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democrat from Kansas City, said day cares in her area have contacted her about missed payments.
One provider told her, “I’m taking out mortgages. I’m literally doing everything to keep this facility afloat. These kids need this,” she said, adding that the facility later closed.
Eslinger said the department has spent “over $200 million sending out support to those providers.”
There is a remaining “25% or so” of the backlog in payments that has still yet to be resolved, with some issues reaching back a year.
Everyone should be paid up by the end of February, she predicted. Kari Monsees, commissioner of financial and administrative services, nodded in agreement.
Eslinger added that the system of paying on attendance is not working, saying she hopes to shift to paying providers based on enrollment in the future.
Gov. Mike Kehoe, in his State of the State speech Tuesday afternoon, said the state will begin paying child care providers by enrollment numbers in fiscal year 2026.
“My administration is committed to timely payments for the child care providers who partner with the state to provide care,” he said. “We know delays in payments from the state have made it difficult for providers to even stay open.”
A proposal to expandWhile Eslinger spoke to the Senate Education Committee, a House committee heard a proposal to create tax credit programs to expand and fund child care.
Rep. Brenda Shields. R-St. Joseph, speaks during debate in the Missouri House during the 2021 legislative session (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications).The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Brenda Shields of St. Joseph, said the legislation would support the workforce. Around 60% of Missouri businesses reported that child care was a barrier in recruiting new employees, she told committee members.
One of the proposed programs would give taxpayers a 75% tax credit for donations made to child care providers. Another incentivizes businesses to provide or help fund child care, and the last would give a 30% tax credit on improvements providers make and refund withholding tax.
Shield said 94 of Missouri’s 114 counties qualify as child care deserts, meaning there is one day care slot for every three children under the age of five.
“Child care is as important of infrastructure as roads and bridges and everything else that we talk about,” she said.
The Senate committee also asked Eslinger about St. Louis Public Schools, which has been under fire as its administration regroups after the investigation and ousting of its former superintendent.
The district’s interim superintendent and school board president stepped up to answer questions as well Tuesday, saying they have instituted a new reading program among other changes.
“There is a program that has been introduced that totally has changed the narrative on the way that our teachers, families and parents are learning and teaching our children how to read,” Toni Cousins, SLPS school board president said. And “that has shown growth in our reading.”
The district also reported it has begun preparing for a new transportation contract next year, opening up the proposal process in November and hearing presentations from bussing companies this month.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.
