Paying for child care in Kansas: Why only 7% of kids get subsidies now | Opinion
If you’ve heard mention of child care subsidies recently, it might be because New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani plan to roll out universal child care, helping working families across New York State take care of their kids.
Or maybe you’ve heard that Missouri child care centers have finally started getting a chunk of subsidy change — $25.7 million — from the federal government, which was paused due to an accusation of fraud at a Minneapolis day care.
That’s not a problem for Kansas. The bigger — and surprising — problem is that only 7.4% of potentially eligible children are served, and fewer than half of licensed child care providers accept the subsidies.
Let’s back up for a moment. That’s a double problem. If you do qualify and apply, you might have a hard time finding a provider to take care of your kids.
If you wonder why this is happening, and I did, Kansas families and child care providers say it’s because the system is so convoluted and hard to use. Members from the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund and others want to do something about it.
Child care study show red tape
I’m all for subsidies that give families the opportunities to keep working while keeping their children cared for. But like everything else, child care is expensive.
In Kansas, full-time infant child care costs an average of $1,256 a month. In the Kansas City area, it’s nearly double, at about $2,367. But in Kansas, even though families’ income eligibility has increased, something strange is happening. A very small percentage of families are taking the subsidies. Why?
Funded by United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, researchers at Kansas State University published a report that found several issues at play, including the fact that the child care subsidy program is administered by the Kansas Department for Children and Families or DCF.
While this might not be a primary issue, Kansas State professor Jennifer Francois said child care administrators thought there was a perception of DCF as an agency that removes children from families. “They felt this might be a barrier for (child care center) participation and for family participation in the program.”
Francois also said that families that did want to use the subsidies found barriers to the program. “They called it ‘frustrating’ and ‘difficult,’” she said. “They described their interaction with subsidy staff as ‘mixed.’ ” Families talked about challenges in finding child care programs that accepted the assistance.
The research — “Transforming Kansas’ Childcare Assistance program: A Strategic Framework for Improvement” —found trust and stigma responses “centered around families feeling shame and embarrassment, and that discouraged them from applying,” Francois said.
On the other side, child care providers also found communication surrounding the program confusing, and they had trouble getting payments from families, who receive the subsidies through their EBT cards.
Who is eligible?
You might think that all people who use child care subsidies have incomes around the federal poverty level. You’d be wrong.
In Kansas, family eligibility expansion has raised the income level of a qualifying family of four to more than $90,000. In Missouri in 2025, that was only $48,225 for a family of four.
On paper, it’s a great deal, but the report shows that a lack of knowledge about the program, the frustration of applying and the long wait times are pushbacks to success.
Under federal guidelines, children are generally eligible for child care subsidy if they:
- Are younger than age 13.
- Live with a parent or guardian who is working or in an approved education or training program.
- Have a family income at or below 85% of the state median income.
- Have family assets below $1 million.
The report notes that Kansas’ child participation rates lag behind both the national average (9.5%) and in the region. “In 2020, Oklahoma (12.9%) and Missouri (9.6%) served a higher proportion of potentially eligible children (based on federal income guidelines), while Kansas’ participation was comparable to Colorado (7.1%) and Nebraska (6.9%). (The Center for Law and Social Policy) estimates that roughly 31.9% of Kansas children under age 13 (roughly 158,973 children out of nearly 500,000) were potentially eligible for child care subsidy.”
Even those already using the funds find drawbacks. Rachelle Copeland, director of Kid Zone Learning Center in Kansas City, Kansas, said she found the findings to be “eye-opening” and that she is pleased DCF is trying to make changes.
The majority of Copeland’s families (as many as 80% ) are on subsidy. “So, DCF is a big part of my everyday work here at Kid Zone. I am excited about the exploring the option of making the process easier because for some families it is very frustrating for them to try to get enrolled. And if they have to go on the phone it’s a long wait period, or if they have to go in person they’re having to get there super early to get in line to get their application responded too. So, first and foremost, trying to simplify that application will be very helpful for us as directors.”
Single parent problems
The increased household income allowance is helpful, but doesn’t help single parents with another parent living outside the home. They have a whole other set of barriers not addressed, said Crystal Henry, the Start Young manager at Futures First (formerly known as The Family Conservancy).
These parents “have a really difficult time accessing this in Kansas because they’re required to have a child support order in place through the state to be compliant. So essentially what we have seen is this increase in income has allowed two-parent families to access this more. And my belief is that a very big reason why we have such underutilization of eligible families is because of single parents’ barriers. Because of the child support enforcement.”
Henry, a single parent herself, said when the applicant acknowledges there is another parent, “Kansas actually sends them legal documents to complete to go after them for child support. And if they don’t complete those legal documents in the time allotted, then they’re considered out of compliance for this application to get child care assistance. But a lot of parents don’t even want to do that because it would really mess up the situation that they have. You know, they can keep the peace through other ways that don’t include this legal child support document.”
While Henry believes DCF has good intentions, “the problem is it’s not working. They believe if they force people to do this, then the family will get both the child support payments and child care subsidy. But it’s basically kicking off many single parents.”
Potential solutions for DCF
The report offers seven recommendations to improve family access to child care subsidies and another nine recommendations to improve child care provider participation in subsidies. You can find the full report at healthfund.org under News. I believe many of the ideas — including making the application and documents less confusing and easier to submit — will succeed with collaboration and hard work. Others will take legislative action, and that takes time and its own kinds of effort.
If nothing else, the stakeholders involved — from DCF to child care providers —– got to see, perhaps, how the sausage is made.
Patty Peschel, executive director of the Kansas Child Care Training Opportunities, and a member of the Child Care Subsidy Steering Committee, said she was impressed by both the challenges and the possibilities.
“This process reinforced for me just how critical it is that we continuously reexamine systems through both numbers and lived experiences. I see the identified challenges not as failures but as opportunities … to reach more families.”
This story was originally published January 17, 2026 at 5:08 AM with the headline "Paying for child care in Kansas: Why only 7% of kids get subsidies now | Opinion."
