The Kansas Legislature has a child care solution. We urge Governor Kelly to sign it | Opinion

Finding safe, affordable child care has become a major challenge facing Kansas families, children, businesses and the workforce. Kansas employers continue to struggle to find qualified workers, and the child care crisis is a big factor.

According to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit referral agency Child Care Aware of Kansas, we need approximately 85,000 additional child care slots to meet current demand.

Unfortunately, over the past decade, Kansas regulators have placed some of the strictest regulations in the nation on our providers. Hundreds of providers have exited the market, eliminating thousands of spots for children.

Parents are forced to search outside of the regulated market for less-formal child care arrangements, which was surely not the goal when Kansas passed legislation in 2010 creating our current licensed system.

My wife and I have experienced the child care crisis firsthand. After we adopted our second son, we called nearly a dozen care providers seeking placement. Wait lists were one year or longer.

We are happily expecting to welcome our third child into the world later this year, and we are once again on a wait list for care.

I hear stories like mine all the time from my constituents. This crisis affects all demographics: no matter the race, age, income level, hometown or political persuasion, our friends and neighbors are impacted by the child care crisis.

One of my colleagues from a more rural area has been on a wait list for child care more than two years, and she’s not yet pregnant.

Stories like these are why we worked collaboratively this session with fellow legislators, child care providers, and working parents to craft legislation — House Bill 2344 — that brings solutions to the table.

This bill reasonably relaxes staffing ratio and indoor/outdoor space requirements to allow current child care providers to serve additional children, creating the opportunity for providers to earn more revenue per staff member and pay their workers more. These changes are permissive, so if a provider likes their current ratios, they can keep them.

Also:

• H.B. 2344 adjusts education requirements for program directors to allow a greater pool of candidates. Current regulations keep highly educated individuals out of our child care workforce.
• The bill reduces child care licensing fees to $0, encouraging more providers to enter or stay in the market.
• H.B. 2344 would allow for flexibility by ensuring that the regulatory agency can offer waivers and pilot programs to respond to special situations and increase innovation.

While we invited state agencies and special interest groups to contribute to the conversation and help us find solutions, they protected the regulatory status quo and responded with, “No, just wait.”

But working Kansas families and child care providers can’t afford to wait on a complicated grant program, or a federal bailout or another task force report.

It’s time to face the child care crisis and tackle it. It’s time for us to create solutions, not just interim committee reports.

It’s time to address this workforce challenge and help get Kansas parents back to work.

I urge Gov. Laura Kelly to sign H.B. 2344 and bring solutions to Kansans in need.