The Health Fund recently supported two bills that will strengthen the early childhood system and make child care more accessible for Kansas families.
SB 513 — Child Care Assistance Program
This bill strengthens Kansas’ Child Care Assistance Program through direct-to-provider payments. The Child Care Assistance Program is the state’s most reliable way to improve access to to child care. However, administrative challenges create barriers for providers to participate. Only 40% of the state’s providers currently participate in the program. Child care providers often site administrative burdens and difficulties collecting payments as major deterrents. Without provider participation, it makes it harder for families to participate. And, only 7.4% of potentially eligible children receive child care subsidy.
By paying providers directly, it would encourage more participation, and therefore more access to affordable child care for Kansas families.
View the testimony we submitted in support of this bill here.
We also created a brief about this issue, which you can access here or by clicking the file below.
SB 521 — Employer Child Care Tax Credit
This bill modernizes Kansas’ employer child care tax credit to make it more accessible, more effective and more responsive to the needs of Kansas families and employers. Access to reliable, affordable child care is essential for the health and well-being of children and families, and it’s critical to maintaining a strong workforce and economy.
The current Child Day Care Assistance Tax Credit has the potential to encourage employer investment in child care solutions, but it is significantly underutilized. Although employers routinely identify child care as a major barrier to hiring and retention, only a small number take advantage of the credit because the statute is overly complex, narrowly tailored and difficult to navigate.
SB 521 addresses these challenges by modernizing and expanding the employer child care tax credit to make it simpler, more generous and far more useful.
View the testimony we submitted in support of this bill here.
We also created a brief about this issue, which you can access here or by clicking the file below.
