Child Care Funding Cut in Appropriations Bill

The House Committee on Appropriations released its Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations bill last week. This bill includes roughly 90% of the early care and education funding for Missouri and Kansas. Here’s what’s currently in the bill:

• The plan would maintain current funding levels for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the program that provides most of the child care funding to Kansas and Missouri.
• The bill includes a 6.25% ($750,000,000) reduction in Head Start and Early Head Start funding.
• The bill cuts funding for The Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five, which has enabled Missouri and Kansas to conduct needs assessments, strategic planning, family engagement activities, quality improvements, workforce compensation, and other enhancements to service delivery.

As pandemic-related funding for child care is set to expire and programs continue to face unprecedented challenges, especially in recruiting and retaining quality staff, these cuts will have serious consequences.

Will you contact your representatives to let them know that the proposed cuts will hurt children, families, and communities?