House Education Committee announces special hearing on DESE childcare payment delays

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee announced on Monday it will hold a special hearing to investigate the delays in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education childcare payments.

The hearing will take place on Sept. 10 at 2 p.m. in Hearing Room 3 at the State Capitol.

The committee said in a release this hearing will be held to investigate the cause and impacts of the delays in issuing the childcare payments.

This comes one day after the House Minority Caucus requested an emergency interim committee on what was described as a crisis by Missouri Democrats.

DESE said in a statement to ABC 17 News in July, that the issues were due to the department transitioning to a new data system last year and that issues were on track to be resolved by the end of July. As of Aug. 14, that date was moved to October.

In a media release announcing the special hearing Chairman Brad Pollitt (R-Sedalia) said he is committed to resolving the problem.

"For the past several weeks, I have been in communication regarding these concerns with DESE.  They understand the problem and have been working on solutions," Pollitt said in the statement. "This hearing will provide DESE an opportunity to report to the public and explain their remediation efforts."