Mid-Missouri daycare center feels the impacts of delayed child care subsidy payments

MOBERLY, Mo. (KMIZ)

One daycare owner in Moberly loves her job so much that she has been working without a personal paycheck for months now, due to delayed payments by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Naomi Hess, owner and director of Play N' Learn Daycare, accepts children on state subsidy, but hasn't received any payments from the state for six months now.

"I haven't taken a personal paycheck since I opened the doors because of state subsidy," Hess said. "That would have been what I should have been taking home every month or so."

DESE transitioned to a new data system in December. A DESE spokesperson said in a statement there have been a "number of unforeseen challenges during the transition."

Hess is one of many Missouri child care providers that hasn't received accurate, or timely, payments from the state since the transition. She estimates the state owes her between $8,000-$9,000.

She said she submits her paperwork once a month, but hasn't been receiving payments.

"All I keep getting is excuses," Hess said.

A DESE spokesperson said about 60% of the payment requests being submitted by child care providers are due to technical issues.

Due to the delayed payments, Hess has had to limit how many children she can enroll.

"A lot of my parents have been understanding, but it's also caused them to second-guess whether or not they can afford to put their child in child care," Hess said.

Hess said she can have up to six or more children on state assistance, but currently only has two. She is taking them on a case-by-case basis and recently had to tell a parent they would have to pay the full rate for their child to stay enrolled.

She said if the delay in payments continue, she will likely have to stop taking children on state assistance altogether.

Deputy Director of Kids Win Missouri Casey Hanson said her organization has heard of child care providers closing their doors due the lack of payments. The organization is looking for ways to help provide relief to those affected.

"We have heard of closures," Hanson said. "We have heard of people turning families away, which in our mind is worst-case scenario. We want every child in the state to be able to access high-quality child care that meets the needs of their family."

Hess just opened her daycare's doors in September and wants to continue being one of those providers to be able to help families in the Moberly community.

"I'm hoping I won't have to get to that point where I can't afford to keep working, because this has been a dream of mine," Hess said.

Meanwhile, DESE said all payment issues are on track to be fixed by the end of this month. The department's statement said the department is not considering moving to another vendor for the data system, but is instead working to resolve the ongoing issues.

Hess said she has still been able to pay her bills, but it stings not being able to take home a personal paycheck. She wants to buy more things for her daycare and take on more employees, but is unable to do so due to her tight budget.

"We don't get the leniency to take a break from our bills due to not getting paid from the state, so why should they get a break from paying us?" Hess said. "There should be repercussions for that."

DESE's full statement is copied below:

The new Child Care Data System (CCDS) allows families and providers to have a web-based, near real-time system to enter and view their information for child care subsidy. DESE’s Office of Childhood (OOC) launched the CCDS in December 2023, and there have been a number of unforeseen challenges during the transition, which involves loading family and provider data from the existing state systems into the new CCDS. The OOC is working hard to mitigate these issues and sincerely apologizes to the child care providers and families affected.

OOC and its vendors have been focused on addressing the systemwide issues related to provider payments to ensure child care providers can receive accurate subsidy payments as quickly as possible. About 60 percent of the subsidy payment resolution requests (PRRs) being submitted by child care providers are due to technical issues.

While there are a few systemwide issues left to address, the remaining payment issues are on track to be resolved by the vendor before the end of the month (July 2024). To be clear, amid these systemwide issues that continue to be worked on, payments are being processed daily and providers are getting paid, though some are not full payment due to technical issues.

If a child care provider has attendance claims that have not been processed yet, it is most likely because the provider is not yet authorized to provide child care for the family or the provider and/or family account is missing information, which is preventing the payment from being processed. OOC staff are also working to process payment corrections from recent months. Most of those issues will require manual fixes by OOC and vendor staff; this work is underway but will take longer to complete.

Regarding your questions about the vendor, we are not considering moving to another vendor at this time. DESE OOC staff continue to work closely with the vendor to meet this month’s goals and resolve these ongoing issues.

OOC continues to communicate with families who need child care assistance to address their account issues and would appreciate media partners sharing this information with viewers/readers as well. There are two primary issues with family accounts in the CCDS:

• Families who had a subsidy account before the CCDS transition in December 2023 must connect their information to their new CCDS account. Families can learn more here.
• Once approved for subsidy, families must select or change their child care provider in their CCDS account. That ensures the child care provider receives subsidy for the correct children. Families can learn more here.