Missouri education department still behind on child care subsidy payments

MOBERLY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is still behind on payments to child care providers after previously saying issues would be resolved by the end of July.

The state is responsible for payments to child care providers that accept children on state subsidies.

Last month, Play N' Learn Daycare owner Naomi Hess told ABC 17 News that she hadn't received any payments from the state for six months, causing her not to take a personal paycheck.

Since then, Hess said she has received a payment for the month of March but is still owed February, April, May, June and July. Those five months amount to around $6,500 she said she's owed by the state.

"They keep giving us excuses. 'Oh, we're fixing it, we're fixing it.' How? We're not seeing the money, we're not seeing the changes," Hess said. "You're making promises that you can't keep."

Due to the delayed payments, Hess said she has had to tell another parent in the past month that she cannot except state assistance. That parent is now paying Hess' full rate at $175 a week to keep their child enrolled as opposed to $65 a week after state assistance.

"I just feel torn apart and I feel so bad for my parents that I could offer that assistance and make it a little bit easier on them, but because of the state not paying, I can't do it," Hess said. "I feel helpless."

If she doesn't receive payment by the state in the next month, Hess said she's ready to stop accepting state assistance altogether.

"I've done everything that I could do, and now it's to the point where I'm like, 'Okay, I don't have a choice in this,'" Hess said. "I'm going to have to pull back if I have any chance of making this business stay afloat."

A DESE spokesperson had previously said in a statement that the issues were due to the department transitioning to a new data system in December and that issues were on track to be resolved by the end of July.

Now, the department is working to get issues resolved by the end of October.

A DESE spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday that the department has contracted with a "state-qualified vendor" to help solve the backlog of issues in the next 75 days.

"While there are some system issues that continue to be worked on, DESE’s Office of Childhood (OOC) is processing subsidy payments on a daily basis and providers are getting paid. If payment is not being made currently, 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.  

"DESE recently contracted with a state-qualified vendor to help review and clear the backlog of subsidy payment corrections in the Child Care Data System (CCDS). The payment correction process is a mechanism that child care providers use to request payment that could not be made in the system (e.g., due to system issues, authorization, etc.) or to request a review of their payment data. Requests related to payments between January and May 2024 will be addressed by this contracted team. There are approximately 1,800 child care providers who received subsidy payments during this time and most have requested a payment resolution for at least one subsidy-eligible child in their program. This team will be resolving all past payment issues within the next 75 days, and addressing any current payment reconciliation requests, if needed."

Advocacy group Kids Win Missouri has met with DESE in the past month, and the organization's deputy director Casey Hanson said she is hopeful the extra staff and effort being put in by DESE will help solve the problem in the expected timeframe.

"In order to have a strong system that serves all families, it's really critical that we have a strong subsidy program," Hanson said.

After issues are resolved, Hanson said it will then be important for DESE to evaluate if this new data system works and if the state has the capacity to manage it going forward.