Boone County Public Safety Childcare Center on track for 2026 opening

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Construction for Boone County Public Safety Childcare Center is on schedule to be completed in July 2026.

The center cost $5 million, with the county providing half and the state providing the other half.

The Boone County Commission held a meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss the current status of the project. Officials said they hope the center will be fully operational by August or September, weather permitting.

“That would be our goal, is to have it fully outfitted by that point," Boone County Commissioner Kip Kendrick. "But we've got to we have to have a cooperative weather winter weather this year,”

The 10,000-square-foot facility is designed to serve up to 96 children at a time. The building will have two levels, a main level and a lower level aligned with the basement. The lower level will not be fully outfitted initially, as construction will begin on the main level first. All rooms are being built for infant care. During the meeting, Director Amy Hayse said the upper level will be designated for children two years old and under.

Kendrick said the center will open with a smaller number of children and gradually expand.

“So we may start as small as anywhere from 15-to-20 kids,” Kendrick said. “But we’ve built the facility in such a way that we can grow into it over time.”

The daycare will be located on Boone County’s Public Safety Campus, within walking distance of the sheriff’s office and jail administration. Construction on the facility began approximately three weeks ago. Once open, the center will operate anywhere from 5 a.m.-9 p.m., seven days a week, serving children from 6 weeks old through school age.

According to Kendrick, the schedule is expected to provide sufficient childcare coverage for staff without requiring a full 24-hour operation. While 24-hour service could be considered in the long term if needed, similar facilities mostly hospitals offering comparable services, said it’s rarely necessary. Operating 16 to 18 hours a day usually meets the needs of teams that work around the clock, such as a Joint Communication Center or a Sheriff’s Office.

“So make sure we cover both first and second shift and then be open seven days a week. That's our goal and so intention of being open, you know, pretty much 365 days a year, maybe a day or two that we have to close down for other purposes,” Kendrick said.

During the meeting, commissioners also discussed potential partnerships with local colleges to help provide volunteers. Officials could not provide an exact number of staff members they plan to hire but said the center will not need to hire its full staff right away, as the number of enrolled children is expected to remain below 40 in the early months.

However, they do anticipate it might be difficult to find staff for those hours that they have planned.

"Preparing for those extended hours and seven days a week, that's going to create some staffing issues, staffing challenges," Kendrick said. "So we'll work work through those."

Tuition fees have not yet been set, but officials plan to offer a subsidized rate to keep costs below the market. They said tuition rates will be finalized and available to the public by the second or third quarter of 2026.

Of the $5 million allocated for the project, officials said they don’t know exactly how much has been spent, but so far, expenditures have been minimal.

“I don’t want to throw out a number, but we have certainly paid some of the invoices on the engineering side. Some of those invoices are probably starting to come in for excavation,” he said.

Commissioners also noted that several safety details still need to be finalized, including utilities and the materials used on the playground.