Jefferson City News

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is actively working to reduce the backlog in child care subsidy applications and provider payment reviews. This effort follows technical challenges encountered with the launch of the new Child Care Data System (CCDS) in December 2023. Since summer 2024, when additional staff were employed, the number of backlogged cases has steadily decreased. DESE plans to resolve all technical issues by the end of January 2025 to prevent future backlogs.

Commissioner of Education Karla Eslinger emphasized the importance of the subsidy program, stating, “DESE understands the important role the subsidy program plays in the child care industry and the value the program provides to Missouri’s workforce.” She assured that efforts will continue until all provider payments are thoroughly reviewed.

In 2024, DESE's Office of Childhood (OOC) disbursed $203,936,531 to providers for subsidy-eligible children, processed 39,006 family applications for subsidized child care, and managed 2,767 contracts for providers. Progress on addressing these issues is reported weekly on DESE's website.

The latest report indicates that family application and provider contract backlogs have been cleared. The OOC is now processing these within expected timeframes. Payments are being processed correctly following a fix to the payment calculator in summer 2024. Although there remains a backlog in payment resolution requests from earlier system issues, about 70% have been resolved or paid.

Pam Thomas, OOC Assistant Commissioner, noted significant progress: “The teams addressing the system issues and working the backlog have made great progress — the additional resources and strategies we put in place last year are working.” She acknowledged that while not all goals have been met yet, they are nearing completion and expressed gratitude to families and providers for their patience.

The CCDS allows families and providers near real-time access to manage child care subsidy information online. Currently, approximately 22,000 children and 2,000 providers participate in Missouri's child care subsidy program.