Latest news with #OfficeofEarlyChildhood
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas bill seeks to enhance and expand childcare services
PITTSBURG, Kan. — A new Kansas bill has parents and childcare services relieved. On Thursday, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed House Bill 2045, a bill which plans to consolidate more than 20 childcare services and early childhood programs into the Office of Early Childhood. The bill will also create more childcare openings across the state. The Bill also focuses on increasing availability of childcare slots, allows fewer education requirements for some workers in a childcare facility and changes ratios of the number of adults to children. For one Pittsburg mom who just recently ended her search for the best childcare service after being on the wait list for 4 to 5 months later. She says it's good to know there are more options and it's less of a burden. 'It's really important they have somewhere that they can trust with their child as well. They go back to work because since it's so necessary for us to work these days, I just I feel like as a parent, it would be nice to have a place that they cannot worry about, have, like you said, like take that weight off of your shoulders while you go and work for them.' Jessica Aguilar, Pittsburg mom. 'This is just kind of making it official that they are concerned about childcare, lack of and wanting to keep those that are providing that care open.' Ann Elliott, Family Resource Center Executive Director. The office will officially open in mid-2026, with childcare licensing, childcare subsidy, home visitation programs and the Kansas Children's Cabinet and trust fund. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kansas governor signs legislation to expand child care access, create Office of Early Childhood
Gov. Laura Kelly greets 11-month-old Brynn, daughter of Sen. Tory Marie Blew, before speaking about the importance of creating the Office of Early Childhood. (Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Surrounded by the shouts and chatter of children playing, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday signed legislation consolidating the state's early childhood services under one department and supporting creation of more child care openings. 'When I ran for governor in 2018, I often said that, should I leave a legacy, I wanted to leave behind the most comprehensive early childhood system in the nation, so that our children, their families, our businesses and our communities could thrive,' Kelly told a crowd gathered at the Kansas Children's Discovery Center in Topeka. Kelly signed House Bill 2045, which creates the Office of Early Childhood, effectively consolidating more than 20 Kansas programs having to do with children, child care and other issues under one banner. In addition, the bill is expected to increase availability of much-needed child care slots, although critics have voiced concerns that it softened licensure requirements. The bill allows fewer education requirements for some workers in a child care facility and changes ratios of the number of adults to children. It also matches vaccination requirements to those currently in place for children attending school. Rep. Kirk Haskins, a Topeka Democrat, said he worked on the bill for three years and that the final product, while not without its costs, was effective and good. 'We do have a day care gap that we have to address,' he said. 'But we have to be careful to make sure we're not changing so much that it harms our children.' Kelly said some concerns raised about the bill were misguided because people didn't understand that much of the language included in HB 2045 was already in statute elsewhere. 'Some of the concerns, like the wording on certain provisions within that, those are things that were already in statute,' she said. 'They were just sort of put into the child care conversation, but were already existing. But I felt very comfortable that what we ended up with addressed a lot of concerns.' Kelly said objections to the vaccination language in HB 2045 was one of those misunderstood issues. 'That language already exists in state law, and we just put it into child care regulations,' she said. Sen. Tory Marie Blew, a Great Bend Republican, spoke to the crowd while holding her 11-month-old daughter, Brynn. She said she and her husband put their names on a child care wait list in 2020, and then it took them longer than expected to have a child. A spot didn't come open until just after their daughter was born in May 2024, she said. 'Many folks are not working because either they can't afford it or they don't have access to it,' Blew said. 'The thing about child care is it's an issue across every state. Hopefully more states will look to Kansas on what we're doing here.' Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, equated the legislation to a promise to Kansas families. 'By establishing the Kansas Office of Early Childhood, this bill takes a transformative step toward making child care in Kansas more accessible, more affordable and more effective,' she said. 'Kansas will now have a centralized, accountable agency with an executive director focused entirely on those early childhood services,' Sykes added. 'This means more coordination, less confusion and better results.' Kelly said it had been clear for some time that the current system in Kansas wasn't meeting the needs of providers, communities and businesses. This legislation ensures a stronger, more comprehensive and flexible system for providers, she said. 'We know the earliest years of childhood are crucial in determining the trajectory of one's entire life, including economic health and social outcomes,' Kelly said. 'A robust, flourishing early childhood system not only benefits our children, but it's also critical to our state's economic growth and well-being.'
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Kelly signs bill to consolidate Kansas childhood programs
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Governor Laura Kelly has signed a bill that will consolidate nearly 20 state programs for young children into a new office. On Thursday, Kelly signed House Bill 2045 into law. Under the bill, existing programs will be merged into the Office of Early Childhood, which will open in mid-2026. The office will work with child care licensing, child care subsidies, home visitation programs and the Kansas Children's Cabinet and Trust Fund. 'House Bill 2045 is a win for businesses, early childhood providers, and most importantly, Kansas children and families,' Governor Laura Kelly said. 'Now, our early childhood system will no longer be bogged down by inefficiencies and bureaucratic red tape. Through collaboration with the Legislature, this bill will streamline access to high-quality early childhood services and make Kansas the premier place to raise a family while ensuring the highest standards for child well-being and safety.' HB2045 gained bipartisan support in the House and Senate. The bill passed the House 99-23 and passed the Senate 30-10. 61st year for biggest car part swap meet in Kansas According to a press release from the Office of the Governor, the Office of Early Childhood will be staffed by current state employees who will be retrained. A director will be appointed and a transition team will oversee the consolidation of programs. 'Kansas has a very urgent need for more, affordable child care and this legislation hits directly at bottlenecks in the system that, quite frankly, suppress availability and drive up cost,' said Speaker of the House of Representatives Dan Hawkins. 'These are real solutions that will immediately increase slots by reducing overly burdensome regulations, streamlining support services for providers and families, and addressing underserved and rural shortages by increasing flexibility for home-based providers. I especially want to thank House Commerce Chair Sean Tarwater, Vice Chair Adam Turk, and Representative Laura Williams for their tireless work to solve these issues without growing government in the process.' For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Lamont promotes $300 million plan for free preschool
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WTNH) — Gov. Ned Lamont hit the road on Wednesday, visiting New Britain to promote a $300 million plan he says will deliver free preschool for many of the state's working and middle class families. 'We've got to make sure we take the lead here in the state of Connecticut,' Lamont said in remarks delivered at a preschool center on the campus of Central Connecticut State University. Advocates, parents push for increased protections after Muslim twin sisters were assaulted at Waterbury middle school The governor's plan will make preschool free for families earning less than $100,000 per year. The head of the state's Office of Early Childhood said the funds will take aim at the key factors driving up costs and limiting space in Connecticut's childcare centers. The funding proposal comes as the state still struggles to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on the childcare industry and the possibility of cuts from Washington D.C. 'This is an emergency,' Beth Bye, the head of the Office of Early Childhood, said. In order to become law, the governor's plan will first have to win approval in the state legislature – where it has been met with strong criticism from Republicans and polite skepticism from some Democrats. Republicans have been particularly critical of the mechanism Lamont intends to use to fund his proposal. They say the use of an off-budget endowment fund seeded with $300 million from the state's surplus is intended to circumvent the system of budget controls called 'fiscal guardrails' that govern spending done within the budget. 'He's using preschool students as a guise to create a slush fund,' State Sen. Steve Harding, the minority leader of the State Senate, said. That criticism echoes similar charges levelled by Republicans against Lamont last week, when he approved the creation of an additional off-budget account to spend more than $40 million on special education and nonprofit groups. Off-budget accounts, Republicans argue, circumvent controls meant to rein in state spending. While Harding objects to the mechanism of the spending, he also reiterated that his caucus supports finding money within the budget to fund preschool programs – perhaps by redirecting funds that would be otherwise used to raise the salaries of the state's unionized workforce. 'Let's prioritize that in-budget, within the confines of the budget, and not use slush funds,' Harding said of funding for preschool programs. In addition to criticism from Republicans, the governor is also facing calls from many within his own party to loosen the state's system of budget controls, often called fiscal guardrails, to spend more on a host of social services – not just preschool. As he arrived at the preschool press conference in New Britain, Lamont was greeted by a small crowd of CCSU students and staff urging him to increase state spending on higher education. Their calls are echoed my progressive members of the state legislature. 'We do have to create more flexibility in these fiscal guardrails to make sure that we're responding to how people are struggling,' State Rep. Kate Farrar, a leading voice in the push to loosen the state's purse strings, said. Farrar and her Democratic colleagues in the state House have introduced a childcare plan of their own. Farrar said that plan calls for more initial spending than the governor's plan, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of borrowing to fund long-term upgrades to childcare facilities. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
