child care

Child care is expensive for families, yet it doesn't bring in enough money for providers to grow or pay workers high wages. Kansas is at a crossroads.

Few addiction treatment centers in Kansas let children come to treatment. That makes it harder for parents to get help.

Thirty-two groups sent a letter to Texas lawmakers on Monday urging them to increase state funding for child care. The state has lost more than a fourth of its child care programs since 2020.

Child care center owners and business leaders are urging budget writers at the state Capitol to consider spending more than $2 billion for early education and childcare services. If not, they’ll continue to lose employees to industries that are able to pay higher wages.

The child care gap across the country is more than 30%, meaning the need for quality child care far outweighs the supply — and it's worse in rural areas.

Kansas has one proposal to expand capacity for toddlers, but child care providers worry that too many small children supervised by too few adults could threaten safety.

In Texas, where the hourly minimum wage is $7.25, a student who has children would need to work as much as 64 hours per week to afford college and child care expenses, according to a new report.

Facilities closed down during the pandemic. Those that survived are now struggling to find workers.

Although child care providers have mostly reopened, 8% have closed permanently since the start of the pandemic — and 57% of Texas counties still qualify as child care deserts.

The deadline to apply for the Texas Workforce Commission’s one-year child care subsidy program for those in the service industry is Wednesday.