Kansas Association Of Child Care Resource And Referral Agencies

Child care consumer education resources and referrals is funded by the kansas department for children and families (dcf) through child care development fund. The statewide network of child care resource and referral agencies work together to connect families across kansas to child care in their area. The child care aware of kansas resource center provides child care referrals and shares resources with families seeking care. In 2024, over 9,000 families were connected to child care options. Through this contract, child care aware of kansas maintains and manages a secure, web-based system to provide information and child care referrals, that consumer education resources are available for families, and that parent referral follow-up is in place. Real time data, by county, is available on demand for communities, partners, and others, on our website, www.ks.childcareaware.org. Annual child care supply demand reports are created using data collected from this project. Our community outreach and engagement (coe) team worked alongside over 96 communities to serve as a partner in building child care capacity. Through involvement with community-led coalitions, we were able to offer community needs assessments, and share data which helps communities align their child care capacity building goals to their unique needs.in 2024, the coe team developed focus workshops tailored to each coalition's need and current focus. These specific areas include: coalition structure, management, and sustainability bridging the gap between local businesses and child care continued capacity building: what's next? Creating more child care slots child care aware of kansas launched round two of the child care community partnership grants in september 2024. The application closed in october 2024, and offered funding opportunities based on the coalitions identified focus area for the year. Funding was provided to 28 community led coalitions.

Expanding access to child care, funding provided by patterson family foundation, is an innovative project that includes funding for the following:baby steps, an innovative program aimed at expanding access to care for infants and toddlers in rural communities with high birth rates and low child care supply. The project provides a financial incentive to family child care providers to serve additional infants within their child care license requirements and prioritizes high-quality care by connecting participating child care providers to kansas' infant toddler specialist network.the baby steps pilot project is currently serving 70 family child care programs, and providing access to care to 126 infants in 21 kansas counties that meet the following criteria: total population of less than 50,000 residents high social vulnerability index score from the centers for disease controland prevention the extent that desired capacity meets potential child care demand is low high number of children under age three per child care slot high birth rate per 1,000 populationin 2024, baby steps made payments to child care providers to help offset the loss of income kansas providers face.community capacity grantscommunity grants focused on locally driven work by child care coalitions that were looking to build child care capacity at a grass roots level. During this time the community outreach and engagement team worked with the coalitions to complete a needs assessment and begin discussions on focus as well as the coalition completing a communities in action workshop. Communities that fell within the top 20% of county social vulnerability index scores received priority funding. Funds could be used to support: implementation of child care capacity-building plans (excluding major renovations) travel staff time ongoing coalition-building expensesawards were made to 36 coalitions for their capacity building effortsshared services network hubchild care aware of kansas operates a shared services network hub within the a specific region of the state. The network hub operated by child care aware of kansas works in tandem with the other network hubs to offer services customized to their specific region. Over 1,800 contacts were made with child care providers within this specific area offering resources and information about shared services.

1. Expenses $1,853,481 including grants of $668,094 revenue $1,964,417child care health consultant (cchc) network. Funding for this program began on 9-1-2020 and ended 6-30-2024. From january 1, 2022, to june 30, 2024, the child care health consultant (cchc) network awarded 1,297 grants to child care providers across kansas. This included 1,047 start-up stipends, and 250 health and safety grants. These grant opportunities supported new and existing programs in establishing or maintaining safe, high-quality environments for children.during the project period, the cchc network engaged 5,597 potentially new and licensed child care providers through non-consultation methods, resulting in a total of 25,405 engagements. Additionally, 260 providers participated in the new provider engagement and technical support (nets) initiative, accounting for 670 engagements, while 1,258 additional engagements included grants as a core activity.a total of 7,102 consultations were completed with 1,839 potentially new and licensed providers. Among them, 1,065 received more than one consultation, and 1,067 consultations were directly related to grant support. Notably, one program received 64 consultations over two years, from march 2022 to may 2024the highest number recorded within the network. This sustained, individualized support highlights the cchc network's commitment to meeting the diverse and evolving needs of kansas child care providers.2. Expenses $501,550 including grants of $474,029 revenue $502,792baby steps, preschool development grant, is an innovative pilot that seeks not only to offset the revenue lost by caring for infants and toddlers, but also to bring family child care providers' income up, due to loss of wages when the provider enrolls infants. Participating child care programs receive support from kansas' infant toddler specialist network and services aimed at improving the quality of care for young children, and increase the likelihood that a child care provider will accept one or more infants. The baby steps pilot project is currently serving 44 family child care programs, and providing access to care to 45 infants in 4 kansas counties within the kansas city metro area. In 2024, baby steps made payments to child care providers to help offset the loss of income kansas providers face.3. Expenses $217,406 including grants of $163,900 revenue $225,898dcf enrolled child care provider incentive payments (funded by american rescue plan act (arpa) of 2021 through kansas department for children and families) financial assistance to dcf enrolled child care providers based on the findings of the difference from current subsidy rates to the increased subsidy rates from the narrow cost analysis completed by prenatal to five fiscal strategies in july 2022. These funds are also intended to help offset the cost of enrolling with dcf as a provider who can accept child care assistance for newly enrolled providers. 85 providers received payments in 2024. 4. Expenses $42,713 including grants of $0 revenue $45,896accounting services for kansas parents as teachers association (kpata) on october 1, 2019, kaccrra entered into an agreement with kpata to provide accounting services.5. Expenses $213,127 including grants of $187,000 revenue $252,612arpa start young wage bonuses are offered in partnership with the family conservancy for child care providers in wyandotte county. The overall goal is to create a systemic approach to early childhood education that will improve the access and quality of child care, in wyandotte county and beyond. Bonuses are given out 4 times over 2-years to child care workers employed for at least one month to incentivize employee retention.6. Expenses $77,140 including grants of $0 revenue $87,096child care go team was initiated in 2022 in an agreement with university of kansas center for public partnerships and research. The child care go team consists of representatives from kansas department of health and environment, kansas state department of education, kansas state fire marshall, kansas department for children and families, child care providers coalition, kansas chamber of commerce, kansas children's cabinet, and more. This team collectively works together to address child care barriers and challenges across the state.7. Expenses $139,415 including grants of $0 revenue $150,363common measures assessments and coaching for child care environments in saline county through a partnership with saline county school readiness program.8. Expenses $106,375 including grants of $0 revenue $117,716disaster preparedness in partnership with child care aware of america. This work is to enhance community resilience through disaster preparedness, response, and recovery initiatives, leading to a disaster ready child care system.9. Expenses $130,569 including grants of $106,925 revenue $138,191grow ece offered in partnership with the family conservancy: this program provides salary supplements to eligible child care professionals in wyandotte county. Child care professionals must meet educational, experience, and/or length of service criteria to be eligible. 10. Expenses $6,060 including grants of $0 revenue $2,065pediatric first aid and cpr certifications - helping child care providers learn lifesaving skills and meet child care licensing requirements. During 2024, first aid/cpr trainings were held for child care providers statewide meeting the need of providing critical training for providers. 11. Expenses $154,485 including grants of $0 revenue $170,000best practices that blend innovation and evidence this grant, 2gen best practices accelerator community funding, surfaced the best practices that blend innovation and evidence building on existing programs and resources to codify what works for families and leads other practitioners and state and community system toreimagine their services and produce stronger child and family outcomes.12. Expenses $94,960 including grants of $0 revenue $106,720professional development and educational services: this initiative provides ongoing approval of ccr&r professional development, and guidance and support through the application process. Face-to-face learning: instructor-led training events, offered in various locations across the state, typically during evenings and weekend hours to meet the unique scheduling needs of child care providers. Delivery of kdhe-approved training, offered in partnership with kansas child care training opportunities, inc. (child care development grant funding (ccdf)): this training is to provide a positive, seamless experience for child care providers by delivery of kdhe-approved training. In 2024 our team of trainers offered 115 training opportunities across western kansas. Over the course of the year 1,340 educators registered for training and 1,056 educators completed training for a total of 2,112 kdhe approved hours awarded. Training was offered both in-person and online using zoom. Topics included initial health and safety training hours and well as ongoing professional development on nutrition and physical activity, social emotional, aces and early neurological development. In november child care aware of kansas partnered with kccto and kdhe to offer a super saturday for educators that were needing health and safety hours to meet updated licensing requirements and complete up to 8 kdhe approved hours. We were able to offer an in-person training opportunity for educators in ellis county while simultaneously hosting zoom training for educators in pratt and finney counties. A total of 608 hours were awarded to 88 educators. 13. Expenses $600 including grants of $600 revenue $600early childhood scholarships: educational scholarships to increase the education level of child care providers through continuing professional development and continuing education opportunities. 14. Kansas child: a quarterly magazine that provides a forum for the discussion of child care and early education topics and ideas. The magazine provokes thoughtful discussions within the field and helps those outside the field gain a better understanding of priorities and concerns in early childhood.the organization is involved in various other programs that help to enhance the quality of child care in kansas and beyond.