ST. LOUIS — Mary Crockett-Smith did something this year she thinks she should never have to do. Missing payments over several months for multiple children who qualify for subsidized care, she borrowed from her own line of credit in order to pay the teachers at her early childhood centers.
“It’s a lack of respect,” she said. “It’s a lack of us coming together and working for the good of those in which we serve and those are the children of the state of Missouri.”
Crockett-Smith is one of approximately 1,800 child care providers who receive subsidies in Missouri, which help offset costs for families who aren’t able to pay the full amount for care. For many facilities, the payments are a lifeline and the deciding factor of whether they remain open or close.
The state contracted a vendor to “help review and clear” the backlog of payments at the start of this year. According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, most of the 1,800 providers who receive subsidies have requested a “payment resolution” for at least one subsidy-eligible child in their program. The department would not give a number, but two providers told PBS News that the backlog in payments reaches across the state.
Crockett-Smith said every month she’s missing payments for 12 to 15 children.
“If I was not supported by other means of income, I probably would not be doing what I’m doing, I couldn’t make payroll,” she said.
Child care subsidies in Missouri now fall under the Office of Childhood, which is relatively new. Gov. Mike Parson launched the office in 2021 to better organize the state’s early childhood system, which state officials told PBS News was previously fragmented.
The office kickstarted the new Child Care Data System (CCDS) in December, which it said would allow parents and providers a real-time way to access their subsidy information. With the new technology came a number of unforeseen challenges, the state said. To providers, this has felt like “utter chaos” and “mayhem.”
Lisa Scheer, who’s the director of Baden Christian Child Care Center in St. Louis, caught her missing payments early, reached out to the state and was able to get some of the missing dollars “ironed out.” Still, not every delayed payment was resolved, and she said the issue is so much larger than missed payments.
The amount of time parents have to wait to find out if they qualify for a subsidy holds the system up too.
“It’s taking 45 to 60 days to get that approved and then pushed over into a system so the providers can claim it,” Scheer said.
It’s an issue that leaves providers with two choices: Don’t get paid or turn a family away. The latter is not something many providers are willing to do.
Scheer recalled one mother who applied two months early in hopes of getting out in front of delays. She was accepted but has yet to show up in her subsidy system since February, meaning Scheer hasn’t been paid. The mother has three children.
“So do I tell this, mom, ‘No, you can’t work’? So what happens with these children? The oldest child is six. Do they stay at home?” she said.
These are the kinds of decisions providers face. Scheer said she and Crockett-Smith, among others, went to the governor’s office in July about the backlog. In preparation, they spoke with other early child care educators across the state to learn their stories but there is one that sticks with her the most.
Two early childhood education providers discuss the statewide subsidy barriers while on a July visit to Gov. Mike Parson’s office. Photo by Lisa Scheer
She learned that a fellow provider put a utility bill in their name and cut off the gas at their home.
“This was during the colder months so that they didn’t lose their service at their center. Literally, they turned off a service for themselves so that the center could have it,” Scheer said.
PBS News reached out to the Office of Childhood, which falls under the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, to better understand when the backlog would be solved. Previous statements the department gave to the media noted that the challenges would be solved by July.
In an emailed statement, the office said it “recently contracted with a state-qualified vendor to help review and clear the backlog of subsidy payment resolution requests in the Child Care Data System.” It also said that the team working on it would “be resolving all past payment issues within the next 90 days, and addressing any current payment reconciliation requests, if needed.”
The issue of barriers to child care have been an ongoing conversation in the heart of the country. In St. Louis, WEPOWER, a nonprofit that works to uplift historically oppressed communities, held town halls to better understand what residents were facing.
Paula-Breonne Vickers, director of early childhood power building, said parents in the city are desperate to find safe and affordable care.
“It’s heartbreaking because these are people that love their children, these are people that are calling in,” trying to get in touch with the state, Vickers said. “Someone said they called as soon as the phone lines opened, and they stayed on the phone until the phone lines closed, and then they try again the next day.”
For Cindy Lehnhoff, National Child Care Association director, these stories aren’t uncommon across the country.
“We’re definitely seeing the strain, in all parts of the country, some areas are not as heavily affected because the states themselves have put more funding out of their budgets into child care and early education,” she said.
Lehnhoff pointed to New Mexico, which made child care free for nearly everyone in 2022.
“Families must be at the center of our efforts around early child care,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the day she announced the new policy. The state’s actions “support a universal early childhood education and care system that increases access, maximizes parent choice, and supports early childhood professionals,” she added.
Not all states have done the same. Lehnhoff said this paints a picture of inequities.
The First Five Years Fund, an organization that works to ensure more families have access to affordable and quality child care programs, released new data in July that shows that while state investment and program quality can differ widely from state to state, more than 4.2 million children and families rely on federal and state early learning opportunities. This amounts to 18 percent of children ages 5 and under.
Though Lehnhoff said there are some slivers of bipartisan support, more work is needed.
“Most of the states are just waiting for the bottom to fall out, and I don’t know why we wait to be reactive because at this point, legislators have the information,” she said. “They just continue to ignore it.”
