HB 2045 had bipartisan support. Gov. Laura Kelly said it helped codify some major legislative policies.
Sen. Tory Marie Blew, a Great Bend Republican, signed up for a child care waiting list in 2020. Blew wasn’t even pregnant at the time. But she knew how hard it was to find child care.
Four years later, the child care spot finally came open. Thankfully for Blew, it took her longer to have a child than she suspected. But not every family can linger four years on a waitlist.
“Many folks are not working because either they can’t afford it or they don’t have access to it,” Blew said in April at a ceremonial bill signing. “The thing about child care is it’s an issue across every state.”
Blew said a recently passed law will help families like hers. The law, championed by Gov. Laura Kelly, promised to expand access to early childhood programs, make it easier to start child care businesses and reduce costs for families.
Not everybody agrees, though. Some providers say the law does little to help their business and just strips away critical regulations that keep children safe.
The Beacon spoke with multiple providers to see how the new law would affect them.
An in-home business
The new law promises a simpler path toward starting a child care business.
The bill “is a win for businesses,” Kelly said before signing it. “Now, our early childhood system will no longer be bogged down by inefficiencies and bureaucratic red tape.”
The law accomplishes that by creating the Office of Early Childhood, which is a single, centralized office for child care. Currently, new providers have to work with multiple state agencies — in addition to county staff — to start their business.
Previously, providers looking for startup grants needed to talk with the Kansas Children’s Cabinet. They also had to work with the Kansas Department for Children and Families to sign up for a child care subsidy before heading over to the Kansas Department of Health for certain permits.
Now, prospective child care providers only need to talk with one state agency. The law also cuts the licensure fee so it’s cheaper to get started.
Most child care providers who spoke with The Beacon applauded the new state-level department, but that doesn’t mean it would help everyone.
Jessica Topper, who started her in-home child care center near El Dorado in 2023, said the new law wasn’t necessary.
Getting her house up to code was the longest part of starting her business. That meant installing carbon dioxide detectors, locks for cabinets, baby gates and trash can lids. Then came the delays associated with background checks and fingerprinting, another part of the licensing process.
Some mandatory classes only happened monthly, which can delay the start date.
Topper said the start-up process wasn’t too difficult to work with.
“Everything makes sense,” she said. “It’s for the safety of the kids. You don’t want somebody … with drug possessions or sexual assault watching kids.”
An Olathe in-home provider
Angie Carnes, president of the Child Care Provider Coalition of Kansas, also has negative views about the legislation. Carnes runs her business alone out of her Olathe home. There is nothing in the bill that will help her cut prices.
The child care business is tricky. The average hourly pay is $15.41, or about $32,000 a year. That’s below the federal poverty line for a family of four. Providers also aren’t offered retirement plans or health insurance. Carnes gets her health insurance through her husband’s plan.
“I can’t afford to lower my prices,” she said. “My cost of business is not going down. My food prices, my insurance, my interest went up.”
Providers can’t always raise prices because not every family can afford them — child care costs more than a mortgage for some families.
Carnes said the state can help businesses by offering self-employment tax cuts or other reductions.
State officials said a new state agency that reduces red tape will help businesses grow.
The governor’s office also has a track record of child care investment. In 2022, Kelly allocated $53 million to give child care workers bonuses. The state even offered grants to help providers fix up their businesses, like installing a new fence if the current one is broken.
A 2024 tax cut extended $18 million in tax credits for working families, which should give parents more room in their budgets, the governor’s office said.
Other items still need legislative approval. There was a bill to pilot a health insurance program for child care providers, but that proposal didn’t advance in the Republican-controlled statehouse.
A Lawrence-based child care center
Kelly took office in 2019, and since then the state has added about 7,700 child care spots. Kelly said she wants child care to be her legacy.
“My administration,” Kelly said after the bill passed, “with the support of the Legislature and federal funds that came in during the pandemic, we’ve invested over $500 million to support early childhood educators and increase access to reliable, affordable programs and services.”
She said there’s no doubt that the new bill will expand programs, reduce costs and help create a comprehensive child care system.
Teresa Prost, owner of the Lawrence Child Development Center, said there are certainly regulatory burdens.
Prost said it’s hard to keep teachers, due in part to so many requirements they face on the job. It’s hard to keep teachers interested in the job when they could go work for Amazon, make more money and face fewer requirements, Prost said.
Changing certain regulations is a touchy subject, though.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment proposed 37 regulatory changes in June 2024. It changed child-to-staff ratios and allowed providers to take more infants. Adjusting ratios does directly increase child care spots available, cut down on waitlists and help providers make more — though it doesn’t guarantee prices drop.
Prost said those regulatory changes aren’t always great. More children in the same-sized rooms is not good. She said her struggles include more frequent fire marshal inspections and regulators who “don’t know nothing about regulations.”
The new statewide office can’t change fire marshal policies.
Unlicensed child care
The providers who spoke with The Beacon all called for more tax breaks or direct financial support to child care providers to ease the burden. And there was general concern for what they called an increase in unlicensed care.
The new law increases how many kids and how many hours an unlicensed provider can watch children. Before, an unlicensed provider could watch two children for a maximum of 20 hours a week combined. Now, that same provider can watch four kids for up to 35 hours each.
That’s not enough for unlicensed providers to sustain their business, state officials said. Kansas still has stricter requirements than other states, but Topper said she can’t support that change.
She started her business in 2023. She jumped through all sorts of hoops to get started because it was best for the children. Now, certain providers can skip those steps. No background checks, no CPR training — nothing.
“I feel like it is unsafe and a slap in the face to us licensed providers,” Topper said.